If you followed my post from last week, you’ll remember that I was able to reconnect with a friend I went to high school with and drove down to Shelby Township in the Metro Detroit Area in Michigan to do some super-fun family photos. On that same day, I also met up with another blast-from-the-past friend.
When I graduated high school, I moved down to the Macomb Area, and lived with my (at the time) boyfriend there while I was working as a lifeguard on Selfridge Air National Guard Base. I worked as a lifeguard at their pool there for two summers, and they even kept me on staff throughout the winter time working in the fitness center and gymnasium, since most of their staff went away to college, and I didn’t.
I met Lisa while guarding at the Top 4 Pool at Selfridge. Those years working on base were easily, some of my most fun days. We passed our rainy days playing countless hours of board games, and watching DVDs in a crappy lifeguard stand, and got to sun bathe by the pool, surrounded by army guys. I made some pretty amazing friendships during those summers, and even spent a good section of my fall in between those times traveling to visit my new-found friends at their college. Lisa went to Central Michigan University, and met her football-playing husband there. Flash forward a few years and marriage later, and they also had a couple of kids as well.
Her daughter Olivia is a few months older than my daughter Vivien, so it was fun to finally meet Liv and her little bro Charlie. Olivia was so perfect for her photo session, and we got to explore the Stony Creek Metropark in Macomb and find some pretty spots, and hang out for the evening. Charlie was very serious and wanted to keep me at an arm’s distance, but Lisa was super easygoing and fun to chat and “compare notes” with.
I’ve been loving exploring Michigan through a photographer’s eye, rather than just as a teenager who hardly looks at the world around them. Especially during the summer months, I seriously think that no place in the world compares to Eastern Michigan along Lake Huron, and the surrounding Blue Water Area. It’s stunning!
