Where've I been?  Home.  The upper peninsula of Michigan, well she's a crafty one.  She welcomed us with sleet and a balmy 29 degrees as we pulled into my mother's parking lot.  The chill throughout the week reminded me of mornings spent with just lake Michigan and a cup of coffee, marching band with fresh frost on the grass.  It felt odd, like forgetting the words to your favorite song.

Her colors were changing, a whole season ahead of us.  I spent a lot of time behind the lens, capturing the UP I once knew so well.  She was foreign, with her wind howling and her wildlife greeting me at every milepost.  I visited an island I once knew as a child, the beach I caught my first fish at.   I witnessed a couple say their vows under a cherry tree in an apple orchard; the only wedding I've been to that nearly matched my own.  One of my favorite moments was spent at a two hundred year old cemetery with my sister and our other halves, somehow calmed by graves that have seen far more than any of us.  

Looking back, I am grateful for my trip.  There were lessons learned regarding many of my family members; arguments lost and hugs that may be the last.  But mother UP does not judge or envy, she simply cools the air and conjures up nostalgia I didn't know I had.  

She will always be home.