Sunset at Black River Harbor, Michigan, Upper Peninsula.
Near Cadillac, the exact geographic center of Michigan and the top of the highest point in the Lower Peninsula.
Pleasant Lake, 44 degrees 22 minutes 30 seconds by 85 degrees 28 minutes 58 seconds, the "center" of Michigan's complicated shape, near Cadillac.
Bottle House in Kaleva, Michigan. In 1903, 32-year-old Makinen emigrated to Kaleva area from his native Finland. About 20 years later, he founded the Northwestern Bottling Works, a soft drink company that he and his sons operated for more than 20 years. A frugal man, Makinen constructed a new storehouse out of the damaged bottles. He made exterior walls by layering the bottles on their sides, bottoms out, in beds of mortar. Inside, he plastered over the tops. The dead air trapped inside the bottles proved to be excellent insulation. Over the ensuing winters, Northwestern soft drinks were kept in the unique building without freezing and bursting. When Makinen left the business in 1941 at the age of 70, he decided to build his retirement home in the same manner.
More than 60,000 surplus bottles were assembled into a nine-room dwelling. Most bottles came from Makinen's company. Interspersed are a few liquor, beer, and medicine bottles and even some glass insulators. Dark green and brown bottles form a base border plus triangle designs in the walls and half triangles under the windows.
And under the front porch windows, an assortment of colors and kinds of bottles spells out "Happy Home."
At the discovery of the 10th planet, I saw a poster of the planets at a gas station near Michigan's west coast. It turned out to be a lecture on the Master Designer.
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