ISEA, Great Lakes Coastal Trails Conference, and Dutch Makeba

Let's play catch up since we haven't updated the blog in ages! Back in May, we were invited back up to Traverse City, MI, to present for the Inland Seas Education Association Seminar Series. We had stopped by this wonderful place a few months back and loved that we were able to visit again to share our Lake Michigan adventure! ISEA is a non profit devoted to educating students about the Great Lakes through a variety of hand's on and on-water programming. We had a fun time presenting to a group that is so passionate about our Great Lakes.

While we were up north, we of course had to climb Sleeping Bear Dunes again!

What a view! I could sit up here forever.

 

Later on in May we attended the Great Lakes Coastal Trail 2014 Conference in Saugatuck, MI. The purpose of the conference was to further the progress of the creation of a Lake Michigan Water Trail. We were honored and excited to be part of the "Circumnavigators" panel alongside Tom Heineman and Stephen Brede.

Tom and Stephen, presenting their Lake Michigan circumnavigation experiences.

The whole gang! We were sad that Jenn Gibbons wasn't able to join our panel on this day.

After that we went WWOOF-ing in The Netherlands. We had an amazing experience wandering in Friesland, traveling all around the country, and getting our feet wet working at a unique bed and breakfast called Het Kleine Paradijs (a tiny piece of paradise in Dutch; it truly was). Here we are with our great hosts, Willem and Jaqueline.

And guess what? The Netherlands also has giant cottonwood trees.

They must have used one to carve this "Dutch Makeba!" I think a trip in this vessel would be even crazier than the one we took in normal Makeba.