I had forgotten to tell you all about the delightful, amazing WINERIES up here on the Mission Peninsula in Traverse City!   Our fav is Brys Estate Winery (did I tell you about that?) they are the ones who grow all (or 90%) of their grapes right here on the peninsula.  They are the authentic choice of the locals, and now....the nationals.  I will tell you why, but it is a secret.  Charles Shaw of Trader Joe's fame, and a Chicago visitor to the area, is VERY interested in Brys Winery producing a new swish high-end wine for a new direction of his winery activities.   We delighted in a tour of the winery and a sampling of their wines....exquisite.  So, my blog has not ended! 

I had lunch at the very amazing Cafe Muse in Royal Oak (I highly recommend!) with friends from South High today, where I worked for 25 years until I retired in June of this year.  Half of my teacher friends had followed our lighthouse blog, which was delightful to hear.  The other half had not....but all were were curious....thinking we were CRAZY to do this, but then in the next breath asked us how and why did we get into this?  I told them that in March of this year (it is now December) we answered a classified ad in our local paper (The Grosse Pointe News) advertising "Lighthouse Keepers Wanted".  Funny thing was....I don't subscribe to the paper, and picked it up at Rite Aid on impulse.  At home I just turned to that section (I never read the classifieds) and it was like a tractor beam to my brain.  Hmmmmm....what could possibly be more intriguing than that (I thought).  So, I kept waking Jack up in the night....elbowing him saying, "I think we could DO this!".....then the next night...."Why not??? We could do this!"    I clipped the ad and taped it to the refrigerator where it would stare at us every time we opened it, which is often,fortunately.   Still working at the time...it became one of the several factors to force my hand into the decision of retirement.  BUT...I must say, you don't have to be retired to be a Lighthouse Keeper.  Absolutely not.  Some do it for a weekend...others for a week, a couple from Texas do it for the entire month of August (I don't blame them -- I'd want to "exit stage right" from Texas in August too.)   The rest is history....Jack agreed it would be an adventure, we applied using the surprisingly lengthy online application, acquired our three letters of recommendation, wrote a "why I want to be a Lighthouse Keeper" letter from each of us, supplied confidential info for voluntary police checks...and waited for the "tap" to serve.  It came about four months later in a phone call from Sonja, the Lighthouse Manager via a telephone interview.  On a speaker phone we answered her questions enthusiastically....and were IN.  We selected what available dates remained (December) and booked into 2013.   What I did not know is the elite group we had agreed to join....a group of plucky, fun people with a sense of adventure and spirit.   We are still deliberating on WHEN our next weeks will be.....I may do a stint with a crazy (but dependable) girlfriend during the busy time (June/July) and reserve the quieter time (Dec/Jan) to do it again with Jack.  That's more his speed!  Any takers out there for the summer?  Let me know!