Top 10 Things of the Summer: #4 Leelanau

Since I am teaching an AP class this semester, I had the privilege of attending a week-long AP institute in Glen Arbor, Mich., on the Leelanau Peninsula. This trip was a two-fold treat: first because the class I took for 7 hours a day provided some of the most insightful methods and inspiring pedagogy I have ever encountered in an education course. It was refreshing after the many stresses and disappointments resulting from my first two years of teaching. The instructor is herself an AP teacher, and to me, she was the epitome of everything right with education these days. I hope to find myself emulating her in both attitude and practice.

The second perk of this week in Michigan was the opportunity to explore the glorious location. I had no idea that northern Michigan was so beautiful. The Leelanau School, which hosted the conference, has acres of campus next to a beautiful blue bay of Lake Michigan. The rest of the lakeshore in the area is primarily Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, so some major sand dunes had been preserved to provide some great hiking opportunities.

On my second day of class, I made a point to walk the majority of the shoreline around the bay, which took me slightly more than three hours--and I was booking it! (Keep in mind this is all barefoot on sand, too!)

A few photos from my walk:











































On the third day, a group of other teachers from the class took a hike to the top of Pyramid Point--one of the tallest dunes on the peninsula and one of the best views of the lake.


































A final note about Leelanau: in Glen Arbor, I ate at a tiny diner called Art's Tavern. Great food, great atmosphere--a perfect spot for a late-night snack while on summer vacation in a beach town. If you ever pass through Glen Arbor, this is the place to eat!

Top 10 Things of the Summer: #5 Eric Clapton Concert

Clapton is incredible, a rock music god. I saw Clapton in concert for the first time this summer at Verizon Wireless Center in Noblesville, IN, with my friends Matt and Corrie and some members of Corrie's family. Verizon is such a great venue for a concert because what can beat listening to live music while lying on the grass under the stars? Clapton was a man of few words, letting the music speak for itself. He walked out onto the stage, burst into a few songs I'd never heard before getting to "Hoochie Coochie Man" and "Outside Woman Blues." Most of the first set featured his band and Clapton on electric. The second set was the highlight of the show for me because Clapton took up an acoustic and sat on a chair in the middle of the stage while the band took a break. Here we were treated to what the man could really do as he launched into "Motherless Child" and "Running on Faith," two of my all-time favorite songs.

Running on Faith:


We could see ominous clouds in the distance even before the show started, but during the acoustic set, we saw lightning striking, and pretty soon it was surrounding us. We danced in the rain to "Wonderful Tonight" and a kick-butt version of "Layla" in an all-out downpour. They ended up cutting the show short, so we missed out on "Cocaine" and "Crossroads," which would surely have been Clapton's encore.

It took us at least 20 minutes to make our way back to the car. The storm was beating down full-force during the entire time, and we were shoulder-to-shoulder with people all trying to cross the bridge to the parking lot. I'm usually freaked out by storms, but for some reason this one felt awesome instead of frightening, although considering that we later found out that tornadoes touched down within 5 miles of where we were, I probably should have been more frightened than I was, but it felt more like a thrilling end to an incredible evening.