Breathing Lake Michigan — Ludington to Traverse City

View of Lake Michigan from the dune outlook at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore in Michigan. Photo by Barbara Newhall. Barbara Falconer Newhall travels up and down Michigan's lower peninsula, visiting friends and family and putting on book events for "Wrestling with God." — This 10,000-year-old dune at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore near Traverse City rises about 600 feet above Lake Michigan. A sign discourages visitors from doing what this man is doing — descending the hillside. Climbing back up takes even the fittest of climbers a couple of hours. Notice the curved horizon. The lake is big, 100 miles across, and it seems my camera’s wide lens captured the Earth’s curve — or did it distort an otherwise flat horizon? Photo by Barbara Newhall.

By Barbara Falconer Newhall

The best thing about going on a road trip all by yourself is — you can brake for a photo op any time you want.

I invited my husband along on my 12-day sojourn to my home state of Michigan, but Jon was closing in on the final grafs of the final chapter of his thriller novel, and he was eager to stay home and get the job done.

Barbara Falconer Newhall travels up and down Michigan's lower peninsula, visiting friends and family and putting on book events for "Wrestling with God." — Photo by Barbara Newhall

And so, a GPS was my only company as I drove my rental car up and down and across Michigan’s lower peninsula. It was wonderful.

Being on my own meant I could linger over cups of coffee and conversation with cousins and friends.

It also meant that I could ignore my GPS and exit the freeway any time I wanted. I could brake for windmills, corn fields, cumulus clouds, and, of course, the prettiest lake in the world — Lake Michigan.

I could breathe the air coming in off the lake.

Never seen Lake Michigan? Never walked its sandy beaches or breathed its watery breezes? Put it on your bucket list. You’re in for a treat.

Here are a few of the Lake Michigan photos I grabbed along the way with my trusty point-and-shoot.