Marina Lights

Today started, and almost ended, as an ordinary day. We got up and went to work, came home and had dinner, made a trip to see my parents, sister, and great grandma, and then came back home just in time for a walk before it got too dark.

As different as the two towns are, I find more to love about each every day. Tonight we decided to go for a walk, and I wanted to watch the carferry leave on its nightly journey to Wisconsin. Where our favorite spot to watch it leave is, there's a walk loop. I always make it a little longer that it actually is, but it's all right along the water and absolutely gorgeous. First, I start out in the marina playground, go past the marina, and start the actual loop. It takes you to a narrow path with boulders and a railing on one side and boulders, yard and condos on the other. The water is right next to you on one side, and on it's other side is the end of a peninsula through the harbor. The carferry passes right through there.. and its so close you can see the expressions on passengers' faces. As you keep walking, you can either go straight to a small breakwall or turn to continue the loop through a boat launch, and pass a fish cleaning station. You go up  a few blocks, and then are back to the marina. It doesn't take too long, and since I felt like being by the water, we took the narrow way that we had come from back to where we started. The sky was blue and grey with white puffs added here and there, and you could see the green gleam of the lighthouse, the faint lights of the carferry, and the silhouette of a sailboat outlined on the horizon. Upon noticing the sailboat, we decided to sit atop a few of the boulders and wait for it so we could watch it come into the harbor. It was steadily getting darker, and as I looked around I couldn't believe I had never witnessed the sight before. On one side you could see the lake, lighthouse, boats, and channel coming into the harbor, and on the other you could see the marina, the playground, the carferry docks, an the channel that leads to a few smaller marinas further inland. Everything was lit up. Lights glowed orange and yellow, dotted by a few white ones, and reflected off the dark glassy water like the sun does at high noon. I sat there with Caleb and Honey on a boulder, in a spot that was scarcely lit, and felt tiny amid all the lights. Everything gleamed around me, and the sky seemed to fade darker and darker shades of blue and grey. I felt so small, and everything looked so gorgeous.

After getting home and logging onto to Facebook to fill myself in on the latest happenings, I saw a friends pictures of East Michigan sunsets, and had memory after memory flow in. My mom loves sunsets, storms, and everything like them. If there was a gorgeous sunset or storm, we'd always go to the highest point of town, by the police station, and park to the side of the road on top of the hill. And just sit. It reminded me of those times. I saw a picture of a sunset over a cornfield and one from a woodline, and I thought of the countless times I'd witnessed sunsets just like them while out for a bike ride. I love sunsets over the lake, but I sure do miss sunsets over cornfields and woodlines. They bring back so many amazing memories.

That said, tonight has been filled with more memories, new and old. I have been blessed beyond measure with my experiences, all the while living in two small towns.. and I wouldn't change those experiences. Those marina lights in the dark made my day a little brighter, and brought back some great memories. It makes me all the more eager to visit my hometown this weekend for a family reunion.