What a day/what a month

This month in my area the sun has been practically non-existant. As of Saturday, we'd had less than eight hours of sunshine for the entire month of December. That puts us on track for the cloudiest month ever around here. So, when the sun peeked out this afternoon, I decided I had to take advantage of it. Although I have a heap of dirty laundry that needs tending, I hopped in my Jeep and took off for a short road trip. I ended up at my favorite beach, about a half-hour drive away. The temperature reading was 40 degrees F, but the wind was gusting up to 40 MPH, so it was bone chilling cold outside. I did manage to snap a couple of pictures to share.

This is the Grand Haven pier and light house. There were some people out on the pier today, but the wind was cutting through my wool coat, so I decided not to venture any closer.

This is a view of Lake Michigan. If you look closely, you can see the water behind the snowbank. I would guess that about a week ago, you would not have been able to see the sand at all. We had a thaw over the weekend that melted most of the 17"of snow that they had on Christmas Day.

Here is an action shot of my hat as it was blown off my head. (It's the black blob at upper left of the pic.) The wind carried it quite a ways, and I thought it was long gone. I had no intention of being the silly fat lady running after her hat on a windy winter day. This photo was taken at Grand Haven State Park. The yellow lines on the road are actually campsites. They are really close together and the park is usually full during camping season. The campground is closed for the winter.

See that dark spot on the sand? That is my hat. It came to a temporary stop just to tease me. I did actually end up getting my hat back when it got blown up against one of the electric boxes. But my hair was a complete disaster by then. Oh well. On the bright side, I spotted this on my trip back towards home.

Can you believe that?! Naturally I stopped and filled up. I would have thought I would never see gas priced that low again. It was $1.56 a gallon back at home. Today was a twofer! Sunshine and low gas prices. Woohoo!