Visa update, delays, and northern Michigan

Good news: we received notification that our residency visas were approved, so we immediately overnighted our passports to NYC.

Bad news: the process is nebulous (at best…) and the visa processing agency will not give us an estimate for when we will receive them, nor the current location of our passports (between their office and the Portuguese consulate). So….we have changed our date of departure to August 20.

Travels Up North

We decided not to focus on the delay as a negative thing, but rather as an opportunity to visit with family and travel to northern Michigan before our departure. First up was the lovely lake house of Lukus’ mother’s cousin on Grand Lake near Alpena (thanks, J!).

The next day, we drove across a VERY misty Mackinac Bridge to our destination, Munising, in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.

This was the first time in two years we had been able to attend what has become an annual family reunion of sorts on the shores of Lake Superior (25 people in total!). Highlights included beautiful sunsets across the Munising Bay from our motel, swimming and lounging at Miner’s Beach, pontooning along Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, and hiking near Beaver Lake.

Returning to the Lower Peninsula, we visited family friends on Platte Lake, near Empire, on the shores of Lake Michigan. A highlight for both of us was the lovely little fire right on the sandy beach.

Lastly, we visited Raymond’s uncle in Charlevoix, Michigan and had a wonderful time catching up and showing photos of our house on Ilha Terceira. As for Charlevoix – what a darling downtown! It was nice to see a robust tourist presence and we enjoyed window shopping among the quaint shops.