Let heaven celebrate! Let the earth rejoice!
    Let the sea and everything in it roar!
     Let the countryside and everything in it celebrate!
    Then all the trees of the forest too
        will shout out joyfully. – Psalm 96:11-12

The main point of this trip – other than simply being with our wonderful grandchildren – has been to land at this AirBnb I reserved in Northern Michigan, on a lake in the woods, not too far from Interlochen.

Rebekah and I love exploring new territory, and this is our first time here in this part of Michigan. The house – and I will quote our grandson David here – is “surprisingly nice.”

The kids confessed to anticipating a seedy, dusty, dilapidated destination. Why, I have no idea, because we have a pretty good track record when it comes to the places we have stayed together over the years!

The house is accessed via a fairly rough dirt road. It is manageable, especially for our Subarus, but the owners were clear we should take the longer route and approach from the west, which we did. But later, coming back from the grocery store, the GPS mapping program re-routed us to the “unrecommended” end of the track.

“I can handle this,” I thought, ploughing ahead down a steep incline and into some dense woods. But then, around a half mile in, we came across a washed out and waterlogged section neither I nor the Subaru felt it would be a great idea to navigate. In consequence we had to reverse back up the narrow track, no room to turn around, for the best part of a half mile.

We made it – eventually. Then I created a really great meat-sauce to go with our spaghetti for dinner before we settled in for what should be a fun six days and nights in a seriously great location. Stay tuned for more from our “Adventures Deep in the North Woods.”

This is a beautiful world, full with goodness and with light, and we are grateful to be here.

“Let heaven celebrate! Let the Earth rejoice!” – DEREK