Turtle Treasures

We headed to Erie on Saturday morning for my annual birthday weekend.  It was sunny but very cold and windy.  We headed straight to Presque Isle and checked things out.  The west end of the bay was ice covered, but we soon realized that the rest of it for the most part was thawed and waves were rolling with the high winds.  You could see the lake frozen as far as the eye could see down the North Shore.  Some winters the ice dunes are so high you can’t see over them, but this year they are smaller and formed at the shore line and beyond out into the lake.  It is a something to see with the sun blazing off all the ice.

John and I bundled up a bit, not near enough and took a walk to look around and search for a treasure or two.  We found a few tiny pieces right away, just enough to get you going.  But it was way too cold, with the wind chill they said it was 9 degrees out!  Brrrrrrrrrrrrr it was cold!

We headed over to the city side and checked another place for treasures and then we went to the Home and Garden show at the Bayfront Convention Center.  It was fun! I was glad to see how things are laid out at a show, especially considering I’d like to vendor at the 2009 Sea Glass Festival there in October.

Sunday we headed to Presque Isle Gallery Coffeehouse to drop off some “Turtle Treasures” and check the inventory there.  And then it was a bit warmer for beach combing by the ice dunes, but not much.  It was wild!  We never have found beach glass much in the winter before, so every little piece we found was a hoot!  Usually the beach is so frozen over and actually it’s best if it is that way.  If the dunes form on the shoreline and beach, they then protect the beach from erosion by wind and waves.  But this year again the beach, for the most part is exposed to all the winter’s  winds, and soon coming spring time waves!

All in all we came home with a nice little pile of treasures but we are anxious as always to get back up there in a m0nth when we open up “camp’ and hunt for more!  I hope we are beach combing then in a bit warmer weather too!

John and I are headed to Erie tomorrow and I just can hardly wait.  I always get a trip up in the Winter for my birthday in February.  We didn’t make it last year as we had to make a trip to Georgia for a funeral, so I am doubly anxious to get up there.  I love the lake even when it is all icey and cold, ice dunes everywhere all covered with blown sand.  I love to see the ice fishermen and their little huts and the crazy guys that wind surf on the bay! I usually still find a treasure or two.  I mean it just isn’t the time to go looking for beach glass, but treasures come in all kinds of beachy things for me.  Emmmmm!   I just can’t wait!

If you seemed a bit blue in the morning or just grumpy when I was a kid, my Mom would comment that ” You must have gotten out of the WRONG side of the bed.”  Today feels a bit like one of those days, when you wish you could just get back in bed and then get out the other side and twa-la things would feel so much better.

I haven’t felt physically up to par the last couple of days and so mostly I think that is my problem.  It is funny though that we are sort of used to being able to hit the reset button in doing so many things.  God has made a way for us to do that too and I’m am so thankful, when the Good Book says that “His mercies are new every morning.”  Ahh!  Today is a day I’m so thankful, eternally thankful for that!

I’m so excited the 2009 North American Sea Glass Festival is going to be in Erie this year!  It will be October 17th-18th at the Bay front Convention Center.  The Convention Center is beautiful and the prefect place for the Festival!  John and I got to check it out on our trip to Erie in December.  You can see the Bi-Centennial tower at Dobin’s landing and the new Bayfront Sheraton and the passageway to the marina as you look out toward the right.  Then you can look across the bay and see my dear Presque Isle and Perry’s Monument and the beautiful waters of Lake Erie. Having all the Sea/Beach Glass vendors set up in those halls overlooking all that will just be wonderful!  I want to be a part of it all.  I want to take my Turtle Treasures and meet you there!

I just love Lake Erie and my dear Presque Isle.  I love the water and the wind and the pebbles and sand and the beautiful sunsets! For me and I know for many it is a healing place to be and a place of peace, a place to worship and believe again that life is good and God cares about us.  But then too it’s about the beach glass!  Just touching some of my dwindling stash today was so much fun!  It’s just a JOY to see all the colors and the frosty patina and the shapes and sizes.  I just love the glass, just absolutely love it!

It’s so much fun when your team wins!  Last night the Steelers made it hard on our nerves to say the least.  For me though the best part was getting to have family time with the kids and grand kids.  We missed Sam who is never a big sports fan and our Abigail who is on a nursing mission trip to the Dominican Republic.   I know people all over the country and perhaps the world got together to watch these big men put on padding, helmets and uniforms and try to move a funny shaped ball up and down the field toward the goal line.  I think the best part for everyone was the blessing of having family and friends.   I’m thankful I didn’t have to watch the game alone!

Wow!  What crazy weather!  The snow is OK, but this rain and ice, YUCK!   I always think it looks so pretty on the trees.  It makes me feel like a princess in some wonderful fairyland.  Do you suppose that is what heaven will be like only a googol times better, with the King, our Lord and a wonderland so beautiful to behold! The reality is that this ice storm  is just awful on the roads and sidewalks and it’s so dangerous too.  It’s a good thing school got cancelled, very good.  I’m staying in and praying that everyone who has to go out stays safe! You stay safe too wherever you are!

They say the snow is on it’s way and we could get another 6 or more inches!  It’s a good day to just stay put and thank the Lord for a warm and cozy home!  The “quiet” part isn’t a factor of the weather as much as a statement that the one child I have now is asleep and the rest of them….2, 3, 4, and 5 will be here soon enough to fill my day with cracker crumbs, giggles and fights over toys and what Disney movie we can watch today!  Child 6 and 7 won’t get here until almost time for their parents to start picking them up, but it is such fun to get those first moments off the bus and hear the “NEWS” of the day,  I feel so blessed at those priceless times!