No pickles, please: Woohoo (ish) for 32.

I'm supposed to be "working," but it's my birthday, so I can blow it off for a few minutes if I dang well want, right? I would obviously prefer to be spending the day at the beach (I am in St. Joe for a few days), but the weather disagrees. The good news is that I anticipated that and spent a few hours at Warren Dunes yesterday. I love watching all the pooches swim (even though it makes me miss my own SO much) and scoot around on the sand. A giant bull mastiff (named Sumo, ha!) and a giant chocolate lab plopped down into the water right in front of and were NOT going any further, so I got to watch them all afternoon. The water is also SO warm, so if you were at all considering a trip to Lake Michigan, this is the summer to do it.

In the evening, Brad and I rediscovered a little cafe in town, an offshoot of a bigger Italian restaurant in the area (we got lunch there several years ago). I could live on sandwiches, and they offer a few lunch and dinner specials, so there's a good variety (including a knock-off muffaletta AND a veggie muffaletta). Brad went with the three-cheese ravioli, which he liked (it had fresh basil on it!), and I decided on the open-faced Italian tuna melt, which was delicious. It had artichokes in it! Yum. It also came with a little side cup of Greek pasta. Double yum. It's one of the few quick in and out places downtown (that is not Jimmy Johns), which sometimes you just want. We had a nice little meal sitting at the bar that faces the street. They also have Mexican coke in a bottle! When we got home, we walked down to our beach and watched the amazing fire red sunset... as well as the hundreds of mini fish hopping around for food. Hilarious!

I started today with a trip to the Wednesday farmer's market, which is really just three or four booths, but they cover the basics. For breakfast, I opted for a homemade blueberry muffin for $1 and a free apricot (when I tried to buy just one, the nice lady just gave it to me -- I'll have to remember to buy something from her in the future). I sat on my favorite bench swing overlooking the bluff and the lake and scarfed them down.

I don't know if it's the tail end of the season, or if it's just how they grew this year, but I'm super disappointed in the apricots I've had. I still enjoyed eating my free apricot, but it had next to no flavor (as did the others I've had this summer). Meanwhile, the blueberry muffin was super tasty and free of the over-sugar, sticky mess commercial blueberry muffins usually are. It was the perfect breakfast, with one of my favorite views in town.