“Summerset,” Book 4 in the Harbor Secret Series, set in Northern Michigan’s very own Harbor Springs, is now available in audiobook format! Now you can listen as you drive, exercise, paint, clean, or do yard work! This is historical fiction and romance based on the true, unsolved murder of the Robison family in Good Hart.
All four books, “The Tunnels,” “Devil’s Elbow,” “Leviathan,” and “Summerset” are all available in paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats. All are based on true pieces of Harbor Springs’ history and can be found on Amazon.
Number 168 on my goal list was to see humpback whales vertically lunge feeding. What is lunge feeding, you ask? Sounds like what I would do at a dessert buffet. Lunge feeding is a behavior in which a whale moves forward at a high speed and takes in a large amount of both food (usually krill or bait fish) and water. This causes its ventral pleats to expand 162% in girth and 38% in length. The whale then closes its mouth and forces the water out through its baleen, which is made of keratin, like our fingernails and hair. The plates of baleen hang from the top of the whale’s mouth in lieu of teeth. The food gets caught in the baleen before the whale uses its large tongue to remove and swallow it.
Humpbacks are most often seen vertically lunge feeding in Alaska, but it has also been reported in Monterey, California, which is a much closer drive for me.
In March of 2021, my friend and I ventured to Monterey, hoping to spot not only orcas but some vertical lunge feeding. Unfortunately, the only thing vertical was me tossing my cookies over the side of the boat as we motored through eight-foot waves that made me feel like I was on the last trip of the S.S. Minnow. Fortunately, we did learn that lunge feeding was most often seen in June, July, and August in Monterey. And so, this July, armed with a prescription motion sickness patch, we ventured back to Monterey in search of not only lunge feeding but maybe the elusive orcas.
The neat thing about this road trip is that there are all kinds of darling towns to stop at along the way. The most notable stops are Harmony with its population of 18, Solvang with its Danish-style architecture, Cayucos with its Brown Butter Cookie Company, scenic Santa Barbara, and Moro Bay with its famous Moro Rock and a harbor that has adorable sea otters floating on their backs. Just north of the castle named San Simeon, there is an elephant seal rookery that never fails to entertain. Not only are there also roadside fresh produce stands that turn the trip into a visit to the farmers’ market; but the California coastline is a destination in and of itself that, having been to both, I can say rivals the Amalfi Coast. Don’t get me wrong, the Amalfi Coast is still a notch above the Cali coastline, but it’s a small notch.
Although it was a gray day, which is bad for photography, we quickly noticed that there was no shortage of humpback whales, porpoising sea lions, and sea birds feeding in the harbor. We stopped next to two whales that were feeding on bait fish, along with sea lions, and watched them for most of our trip. Yes, they were fluking (showing their tails when they would dive), and, yes, they were relatively close to the boat, but this was not something new to me and not something I would declare to be worth the six-hour drive. That is until one of the humpbacks mugged our boat!
When a friendly whale is curious and comes over to check you out, it’s referred to as a mugging. This humpback whale swam under our boat, poking its head up on the other side. Then it just sat there with its head out of the water, checking us out! It would dip back down for a second and then come up to look at us again! This went on for probably ten to fifteen minutes before it rolled over in the water and rubbed its belly on our boat! When I held my phone camera over the exhaling whale, we could not only smell its breath (not so good smelling); but, as the exhaled air mixed with water droplets that shot into our faces, the naturalist on the boat yelled, “You’ve been snotted by a whale!” We were snotted quite a few times in one of the most amazing encounters of my life.
After about 45 minutes, the captain took us to some other nearby humpbacks and, well, well, that’s when the show went to the next level! The three whales would take a series of short breaths as they blew bubbles that encircled the bait fish into one spot. When it was time, the whales would dive deep, letting us know they were doing so by fluking. Things became eerily still while they were down as we looked around, trying to predict where they would surface.
The first thing to break the silence was the sound of thousands of tiny fish rising to the surface in one small spot before beginning to jump out of the water in an effort to escape their fate. Like something from a sci-fi movie, the huge, open mouths of three humpback whales rose straight up from below, breaking through the school of corralled, jumping fish. Their propulsion sometimes moved half their bodies into the air as they closed their mouths before sinking back into the ocean, only to repeat the process over and over until satiated.
This is one of the most astounding things I have witnessed, and I’m delighted to say that I witnessed it multiple times. When they rose from the water, their ventral pleats were expanded with water and fish, and it more than doubled their width, so they looked like giants from outer space. Once, they even emerged from the water with open mouths right next to the boat as tears of joy filled my eyes and I hugged my friend.
The following day, we chartered a private boat and, although we saw quite a few whales, we didn’t see lunge feeding but did see one breach out of the water once. Sadly, that evening, we found half the carcass of a long-deceased whale on the beach.
Day 3 of our adventure took us to two lunge feeding whales that we watched for about an hour.
Day 4 of our adventure was whale watching in Santa Barbara. I didn’t think we could top what we’d seen in Monterey, but I was pleasantly surprised when we saw a humpback whale out near Santa Rosa Island breach out of the water over 17 times in an hour! After 17, we lost count because it just kept going and going and going. Breaching their body out of the water, into the air, and then slamming back into the ocean takes an enormous amount of energy, so to see it repeated so many times is very unusual!
As if the breaching weren’t enough, this humpback whale would roll and wave at us with its pectoral fin. Sometimes, it would slap its pectoral fin on the surface of the water multiple times.
As our boat finally headed back to enchanting Santa Barbara, our humpback continued to roll on its side and wave good-bye to us. Holding up my hand to wave back, I knew that weekend had been one of the most amazing marine mammal encounters of my life as not only had I witnessed out-of-this-world behavior, but I had looked into the eye of a whale. How many people can say that? Needless to say, I have successfully checked off #168 on my list, and my life is better because of it.
I’ll post some pics here as well as part of the mugging video and the waving video on my Facebook author page. May you all experience wildlife in its natural environment, and may it choose to witness you in your natural environment.
“Summerset,” the fourth book in the Harbor Secret Series, is now available in paperback and ebook on Amazon. The link is below. By next week, the audiobook should be available on Audible.
Summerset, the fourth book in the Harbor Secret Series, is now available on Amazon!
Harbor Springs, the epitome of purity, innocence, and safety, forever lost that image when, in 1968, a family was brutally murdered in their summer home. To this day, the Sheriff’s Office classifies this as a cold case, and the Prosecutor refuses to close the file. Nearly every year-round resident has a different theory as to who committed the crime that has been featured on TV shows, web sites, podcasts, YouTube, and in numerous books. Now, upon the fiftieth anniversary of the unsolved mystery, Kylie, Jason, and Cupcake set out to discover the truth.
Inspired by a true story.
“Summerset” is now available in an e-book format on Amazon! I’m hoping the hard copy will also be available this week. Below is the link.
Today, December 17, 2020, through Sunday, December 20, 2020, I’m giving away a free download of Nine Days In Greece. Merry early Christmas!
When a workaholic attorney travels to Greece for vacation, she meets a handsome, much-younger man on the plane to Crete. When he shows interest and she feels a spark, she wonders if he could ever be more than a vacation fling.
Today marks two years since I left everything I knew that worked and took a jump, trying to attain something better. Fortunately, it worked. Looking back, I remember that last day in my Michigan home well.
Two years ago today, I was awake around 4 a.m., hoping to get on the road by 7 a.m. Why such an early rise? Because I had to finish a deposition transcript for the job I’d taken the day before. Work, work, work, that was my life in Michigan. That was all I’d known for 28 years and, well, it “worked.” Plus, if I wanted to get ahead, I had to work a little harder than everyone else, right?
I was exhausted and overwhelmed as I sat in my second-floor office finishing the transcript for an attorney who had no idea that I’d worked the better part of the night to get his transcript to him. I remember the warm, comforting glow of lights in the large, 1922 English manor as well as the scent of a pumpkin-spice candle that wafted up the stairs from my large kitchen. By 7:00 a.m., I knew that my friend who was making the trip with me to the New World of California had arrived, helped herself to some coffee, and was patiently waiting for me to e-mail out my transcript before beginning the drive. Since I was always overwhelmed and juggling multiple jobs and projects at one time, I marveled at her patience, but the juggler didn’t have time to tell her that.
Shortly after seven a.m., I finished my transcript, prepared the bill for it, scanned the exhibits, and e-mailed it to the attorney who was probably still snuggled in bed with visions of sugarplums dancing in his head.
Next up was to pack my clothes. No, I hadn’t yet packed to move to the other side of the country because I was busy working…and preparing my house to be left in top condition to be shown by a realtor…and figuring out how to hook a 5×8 trailer up to my little SUV…and figuring out how to cram everything I’d need for a few months (until my house sold) into that little trailer…and running a court reporting business…and operating a videoconference room…and filling cookie orders…and selling things I no longer needed online…and caring for my dogs…and finding time to exercise…and shoveling my driveway and sidewalks sometimes five times a day. So don’t judge me for not having time to pack any clothes for my new life. Every minute of my day was accounted for and had been for the last 28 years.
I’m so thankful for my friend who didn’t complain about me wasting her time as she patiently sipped coffee and waited for me to finish the transcript. I’m so thankful she walked up to the chilly third floor and helped me pack my clothes. I’m so thankful that she helped me squeeze everything into the little SUV and trailer. I’m so thankful she was there for me, period.
Next, I stepped into the dark morning to walk my dogs in Michigan for the final time. It was pitch black, bitterly cold, and icy. The walk was short. As we crossed the street of sheer ice, Nestle slipped and fell on the ice, his four legs splaying out and rendering him helpless. Wearing my Yak Tracks for traction, I walked back and lifted him, hoping to Heaven he had not torn any muscles or seriously injured himself. Nestle dug his nails into the ice and carefully followed me across the street with Daisy by his side.
Returning to the house, I gave it a once-over, making sure the door was closed to the third floor that I chose to leave unheated while I was gone. I walked through the bedrooms, the office that I’d spent most of the last 15 years in, the massive living room, the sunroom where I’d written seven books, and the kitchen that I’d designed and spent so much time in preparing food from my garden, filling orders for my cookie business, and baking myself into oblivion as Hallmark movies played on the large-screen TV. Turning, I checked the thermostat to be sure it was set at 60 degrees – a temperature that would keep the pipes from freezing and the 1922 plaster from cracking. I prayed a silent prayer that the power wouldn’t go out. Finally, I stepped into the kitchen that I so loved one last time and blew out the pumpkin-spice candle that glowed on my new stove. This was it. It was never a good idea to stay too long at the fair.
After I locked the back breezeway door and then closed the garage door, my friend and I loaded my two senior dogs into my car, hooked up the 5×8 trailer that contained the bare essentials I would need to get by in the New World until my house sold, and slowly pulled onto the road of ice and away from everything I knew that worked in my life.
Today marks two years since that last day living in Michigan. I would have written an entry at the one-year mark but, as many of you know, I was laying in a hospital exactly one year later and fighting for my life. So here we are at two years, and, at this time of year when we need to remember what we are thankful for, I can’t help but look back and reflect.
The last two years have been a roller coaster of ups and downs. My life has changed so much and, thankfully, for the better. Don’t think there haven’t been tough times, because I’ve definitely had my share of them. For instance, it took me 1.5 years to sell my house. My heart was completely demolished by the loss of my beloved dogs to the point that I don’t know if I’ll ever recover, and then there’s the whole fighting for my life in the hospital thing. I have faced difficult criticism and found and lost friends. Injuries abound, and some days I struggle not to quit everything and move back to Michigan and crawl into a hole with a bottle of wine.
Fortunately, with the bad comes the good. Maybe not in the hard blows that the bad comes in, but good did come, so I’m going to try to focus on that. For instance, I’ve found I like things that I never thought I would, and I’ve found that the thought of going backwards in life is something that really bothers me.
As I hiked nearly 14 miles on Thanksgiving yesterday, a distance that I now consider comfortable, I remembered how very different my Thanksgivings were in Michigan. I remembered how the women would be in the kitchen doing the “women’s work” while the men sat in the living room watching football and talking about how many deer they’d killed. Remembering that as I climbed over rocks and up a mountain yesterday, I looked at the blue sky above me, gulped in a breath of fresh air, and was deeply thankful for how my holiday had changed.
Other things I’m thankful for would be my friends, both new and old. I’m thankful I can go running at 5:30 a.m. and not worry about ice. I’m thankful for my screenplay award. I’m thankful for the articles I’ve had published this year. I’m thankful for my health and doctors.
I’m thankful for my favorite whales, Twitch and Flicka. I’m thankful I’ve seen Patches, the leucistic dolphin. I’m thankful for my skills as a naturalist, and I’m thankful for the opportunities to share my passion with others.
Instead of working seven days a week, I work five days a week (less if there’s a county holiday), and my schedule now revolves around my free-time activities instead of my work schedule. I’m thankful that my free-time activities are pretty much all outdoors in California versus the baking and writing indoors that I did in Michigan.
I’ve always loved old houses because they have a story behind them; but, for the first time in my adult life, I’m not living in an old house. Everything is brand-new and high-end. I’ve never had that before and, I’ve got to say, not only am I thankful for it, but I’m totally digging it.
Being in a place that I actually chose to live in and doing the things that I want to do, when I want to do them, has been a complete turnaround from the life I once knew. I now realize that all the baking I did in Michigan was just a way to take out my frustrations because I was too afraid to take the jump I needed to take to get to the life I wanted.
So, looking back on the past two years, wow, what a roller coaster ride! Ups and downs for sure, but, no matter what the ride, I’m so much happier than I was in Michigan, where I’d lived a life that someone else had chosen for me.
In his book Jump, Steve Harvey says, “God would not have put the dream in your heart if he didn’t mean for you to achieve it.” It took a long time for me to have the confidence to follow the dream in my heart, but I’m so thankful I did! My work life is better, and my social life is MUCH better. For someone who, in high school, never thought she would amount to more than a housewife, my life has turned out nothing like I’d expected it to…it’s much more exciting than I ever could have imagined in high school.
I’m attaching the link to Steve Harvey’s kinda famous Jump video in case you’re looking for a little encouragement or inspiration, and I would highly recommend his book Jump. It’s available in hard copy and audiobook formats. May you all have the courage to listen to your heart and jump this Thanksgiving.
The holidays are upon us, and what better time to read a holiday story? In The Other Christmas List, a grandmother struggling to connect with her grandson tells him the story about how finding her childhood Christmas list led her from a Christmas tragedy to an old city in Europe and rediscovering the magic of Christmas. Available on Amazon. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B082ZBX162