A Full Day in Southwest Michigan

So after a full day here in Southwest Michigan, here's what I've found.



This is the view from our driveway. In the distance, that's Lake Michigan, not the skyline. It is approximately a 1/2 mile walk to the beach, and also about a 1 mile walk to the downtown area of South Haven. Pretty sweet.





This is the view from said beach. Should be interesting when the cold weather shows up starting sometime in October/November, but it should be very nice in the meantime.








This, apparently, will be my arch nemesis at some point. For those that are not familiar (which I was not when I got here), this is a snow stick. It's main uses are: 1) to mark where the fire hydrant is for snow plows, and 2) to tell you how high the snow is currently. Guess I'll find out how well it works at some point.





Other observations from today:

1. We really are in a very sparsely populated area. We went to Target this morning around 11, and the place felt deserted. Granted, I am used to the mass insanity that is any retail store in the Bay Area, but even still it seemed odd.
2. Super Walmart is growing on me. Again, granted that I would not ever go back into the one in Mountain View because it is so busy, but out here, the place is huge and wide open, clean, and not very busy.
3. I'm not sure it would matter if it was growing on me, since there are really only 2 places I can get groceries here in South Haven: Super Walmart, and the Village Market Food Center. I will have to check out the latter at some point, but the prices at Super Walmart are so much cheaper it shocked me.
4. Today was one of the few times in recent months that I have been able to just sit and relax on a weekend day. I had forgotten how nice it was.
5. Being on Eastern Standard time is a bit of a change. I have lived my whole life in Pacific Standard, and as such you take for granted certain things. Like being able to watch football on Sunday at 10 am, 1 pm, and 5:30 pm. Not out East. It's at 1 pm, 4 pm, and 8:30 pm here. I found myself during the 1/4 pm game wondering why I was hungry, as I thought it was too early. Except it wasn't. It was already approaching dinner time.
6. It was nice being able to run errands in the morning, and get back in time to watch the games right after lunch.
   
7. I am going to have to get used to seeing "weather", as in real weather. That picture above was taken this afternoon around 2 pm, and by 7:30 it was raining. Not too heavily, but enough to wet the ground for sure.

Tomorrow will be my first day in Michigan working from home, and my wife's first day at her new hospital. Should be interesting, since it is a much smaller hospital than she's worked in previously.