Saugatuck, MI

Over the long 4th of July weekend I went with my family + Hilarie, minus Laura :-( , to Saugatuck Michigan where we got to enjoy the harbor and the beach on Lake Michigan.  The weather was absolutely beautiful.  There was no rain, great temperatures, a nice breeze.  While the water was too cold to swim in (unless you're crazy), it was still warm and relaxing on the beach.  Many, many walks were taken and we got to discover a lot of cool little things like bugs and frogs who were also hanging out on the beach.  Our favorite though were the birds.  Some were shy and flew away if you got within 50 feet, others however were more relaxed and let us get within 20 feet...this turned into a fun game.  I got some pictures of them that you'll see in the post.  Another highlight from the trip were the fireworks over the harbor that were launched from a barge.  Graciously, two ladies on their boat allowed us to sit at the end of their private dock to take pictures of the fireworks.  I have never gotten to photograph fireworks over water from this good of a spot.  If you remember last year, photos came from Chicago at Navy Pier.  While those too were over lake Michigan, we were too far off and there was too much between us and the launching area to get shots like we got this past weekend.  Since the night was very still (very little wind at all), I was thinking the fireworks might give me a mirror image over the water.  Turns out the water wasn't as still as I thought, however it made for really cool pictures that you'll see below, as the colors scribble together and make the picture really cool.  Hope you all enjoy!!This work by JD Maloney is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.