Walking the beach

Last week, late in the afternoon, Petey and I decided to drive to the lake shore.

This is a public beach directly west of Allegan.  It's called Pier Cove.  It is the tiniest public beach around.  It feels like it's about 6 feet wide.  Not really but not much more - it's an itty, bitty one.

 The coolest thing about Pier Cove is this creek.  When I was a kid we used to come here and spend hours playing in this creek.  At least I hope it was me and I'm not, yet again, stealing some other kid's memory.

 You were waiting for the "foot in the water" picture, weren't you?  Didn't want to disappoint.

 Someone needs to do a little cabana repair, don't you think?

 This stone has several names:  Lightning stone, Lucky stone and Spirit stone.  Or Petrified poop stone.  That last one is mine. hehe

 Driftwood.

 After walking the beach for hours and hours - ok, we were there for about 45 minutes - we were hungry.  We dusted the sand from our tootsies and headed to Douglas for some pizza!!!

I have no idea how we have missed eating at Back Alley Pizza.  You'd think Petey's pizza radar would have taken us there a long time ago.

 Two tiny tables inside and three outside. We had a bit of a wait for an empty one so I headed across the street to the lovely park for some pics.

 What a gorgeous day.  The flowers were cooperating to the max!

This is the main drag in Douglas.  I love, love, love Saugatuck and that's where most people hang out but you really need to check out Douglas.  I always say it's like the little brother to Saugatuck without the T-shirts and fudge.  Very quaint.  Lovely shops and outstanding eateries.

 Finally the pie arrived and, oh my, it was tasty.  After looking at it, I'll bet you're wondering why you don't see anything but cheese on this bad boy.  As Petey always tells me, "Real Sicilians eat cheese pizza."  I'm not at all sure about that but now that I think of it, I never saw any of his relatives order anything but cheese on their pizzas.  This one was perfect.  The crust was crunchy all the way through - just the way we like it.


We're coming up on the most beautiful time at the lake shore as far as I'm concerned.  Strolling the beach in September (and swimming if you're into it) can be incredibly peaceful and warm.  The sunsets are TDF.


We here in south west Michigan consider ourselves lucky indeed.  Our lake shore is less than an hour away.  When I think of all the people who cram their kids and all their beach paraphernalia into the station wagon and drive two hours or more for some beach time, all I can think is "it's gotta suck to be you."