Union Pier! After Storm! Major Damage!

Saturday morning I rode with relatives to Union Pier, in southern Michigan and an hour from Chicago. I was having a quick overnight visit with my gal pal, Nance K. We started the table way back when the Ferry Building reopened in San Francisco.

About an about into the drive Nance had just arrived to her cottage and she called to say that the major storm that struck Chicago Friday night hit Union Pier. Power was out and trees down. She had loaded up on ice and that was a very smart thing to do.

When we entered the resort community there we huge trees down and many of them had crashed into homes. Nance was lucky. The three cottages around hers all had trees crash into them. I have posted pictures.

It was 85 degrees and muggy after the storm so we made a bee line to the beach which is private and only for the association and their guests. The mosquito's were vicious as we walked to the beach. The beach was spectacular and the sand was a creamy white and Lake Michigan was so blue and the temperature of the water was SO swimmable! Unbelievable so early in the summer. I had not been in the Lake in 13 years and it felt great. I looked just like the sea lions back home in San Francisco!

Nance and I swam and sunned for a couple hours. We could see the John Hancock Building and the Sears Tower in Chicago from the beach. We headed back to the cottage so Nance could get in a nap and I could take Quincy and Nance's Elsie for a good dog walk.

With the power being out until Tuesday, it was a good thing I had brought nibblers that I made earlier in the week. We nibbled on my homemade tapenade and a Greek roasted red pepper feta spread. Nance always has the best wines!

Dinner was made by candlelight! I had clipped fresh herbs from my garden in the morning so I made a tomato salad with kalamatas and a chiffonade of basil and oregano drizzled with olive oil and Nigel's dried lemon sea salt. I grilled a whole chicken "beer can" style. In the can I put garlic, lemon juice, wine, etc. and put the chicken over the can. This makes the best chicken ever! I grilled a bunch of asparagus and tossed it with some of the nasturtium butter I made for Nance. We had a Sebastiani Zinfandel and that made dinner just perfect.

As we we cleaning up, a light came on by the grille. I yelled to Nance in the kitchen that the power was on. She turned on a light and it worked for a second. Then we hear these explosions and cracking and the sky is lit up like there was fireworks. Transformers were popping along the road. Nance called 911 and they came within 2 minutes. Apparently, a huge tree limb that did not fall during the storm fell out of a tree and hit multiple transformers and started an electrical fire. I took a few pictures of the damage.

We both took off early Sunday morning, me to northern Michigan and Nance back to Chicago. All and all it was a fun trip.

FYI: I took a picture of myself on the beach. In that position you can really see the damaged collarbone!