Romance Weekly Blog Hop - Travel Time

Thank you for hopping over after visiting with Dani Jace. While you were there, I hope you checked out her Books tab. Besides an upcoming release this summer, Hot as Blazes is still available on Amazon.

When the Heat Gets Started . . .
JoAnn Mercer was on the verge of surfer stardom when her career took a nosedive thanks to a backstabbing ex. Now she’s back home in the Outer Banks of North Carolina, staying clear of men, desperately in need of a job. Joining the local firefighting squad seems like the perfect solution, until she realizes one of her coworkers is an old crush.
It Will Never Stop . . . 
Ray Andrews never runs away from a fight. He served his country in Iraq, and he’s battled more fires than he can count. But what he can’t fight is the desire burning between him and JoAnn Mercer. He’s wanted Jo for as long as he can remember, but a promise made years ago has kept them apart. Finally free of obligations, Ray is ready to prove he’s the only man for Jo. But after the trauma of her past, can he convince her to love again?

Dani writes steamy romance, and Hot as Blazes is a testament to that fact. :D

This week's question is from A.S. Fenichel, and Ascension is available through Kensington.

The Demon Hunters, #1

When demons threaten London, Lady Belinda answers the call.

Thriller romance!

The question this week involves travel, and Andrea asks:

It's cold in most places. What's you're favorite vacation spot? This can be someplace you've been or someplace you dream of going. If you have a book with a terrific vacation spot, work it in, too.

I dream of being on a lone, tropical island somewhere in the Pacific: grass hut, umbrella drink, bending palms, ukulele or kettle drums heard in the distance, and gently lapping ocean waves near my feet . . . the whole, cliche nine yards of it.

Although last year turned out to be worse, being this cold and this snowed-under in February is asking a lot of a native Michigander like me.

Regardless, though. My favorite vacation spot remains Michigan.

I'll take you on a brief tour of the Upper Peninsula (God's Country for those of you not in the know)

Whitefish Point - home of the infamous Edmund Fitzgerald incident. It's lighthouse museum filled with all things nautical, and one of the many places in Michigan where you can actually climb up to the top of the lighthouse and look out over Lake Superior.

Why? Its breathtaking beauty, the serenity of the place, and like most areas along the shores of that largest body of water: the stones. My daughter and I spend hours slowly combing the shoreline searching for all kinds of pretty, unusual, and flat stones for her art and my personal delight.

Relaxation at its best, calmest, and prettiest.

Whitefish Point Lighthouse

Moving further west, I introduce you to the Keewenau Peninsula, or Copper Harbor.

Scandinavian heritage abounds here, but aside from wanting to get back to my humble roots, the place is simply gorgeous. It is also the highest point in the entire state. The last stop before entering Lake Superior and heading on up into Canada.

The inland streams, the dense forest that erupts with brilliant violence every fall, the waterfalls, and that coppery-red water are all why I love this place so much.

Keewenau Peninsula

Then there is the nightlife, complete with interesting animal noises, bonfires, and the best fire of them all: the northern lights.

The ultimate reason for traveling this far, though, is to take the trip up Porcupine Mountain, where the most incredible sight awaits you once you reach the top.

Lake of the Clouds

Finally, the place I tend to book a cottage at most often is Manistique. The large, inland lake of the same name is a great place to relax, unwind, fish, trail hike, and just get lost inside your own mind without any of the modern trappings to destroy that mood.

Taquamenon Falls is close by, as is Kichitikipi (Big) Spring. A cable raft that is propelled by human hands slowly glides you across the deep, greenish-blue waters of the icy spring, and while you're leaning over the wooden sides to gaze at all of the huge trout and bubbling water, the tour guide tells the legend of Kichitikipi.

Kitch-iti-kipi was a young chieftain of the area. He told his girlfriend that he loved her far more than the other maidens dancing near his birchbark wigwam.

She claimed she wanted to put him through a test of love and demanded, "Prove it!"

The test of his devotion was that he must set sail in his canoe on this spring lake deep in the conifer swamp. She would then leap from an overhanging branch in an act of faith. He was to catch her from his canoe proving his love.

He then took his fragile canoe onto the icy waters of the lake looking for her. Eventually his canoe tipped over in the endeavor. He drowned in the attempt to satisfy the vanity of his love for this Indian maid.

It turned out she was back at her village with other Indian maidens laughing her head off about his silly quest. The spring was then named in his memory.

Taquamenon Falls (lower)

I hope you enjoyed my brief tour of Michigan's Upper Peninsula as much as I enjoy traveling up there every summer and fall.

As always, thank you for visiting with me and taking the time to read my response. 

Let's hop on over and visit with Jeana E. Mann and read about her favorite vacation spot.

Be sure and click on the Books tab while you're there and learn more about book 1 of her felony romance series, Intoxicated.