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**Monkeyfister** · **Monkeyfister** CENSORED User ID: 82845 04-27-2012 12:48 AM **Posts: 3,535**

One of my favorite places in the world is Sleeping Bear Dunes in Northern Michigan, overlooking Lake Michigan.

There is this one part, where you walk several miles across endless large dunes. Comes a point where all you can see is dunes... Then, all of a sudden, you get to the end, and suddenly, you are 1200 feet above Lake Michigan on a cliff. All you see, wall to wall is the Lake. Behind you... only dunes. Above... only sky 180 x 360.

All at once, I feel ginormously huge, and utterly insignificant. My Soul and Spirit want to just leap out into that beautiful expanse. At night, when the Northern Lights are out... OMG... no drug needed.

When I look out into the night sky-- on those dunes, or on a ship when I was in the Navy-- I am always pleasantly overwhelmed and awed by the scale of it all.

First time I ever truly saw the night sky in all it's non-light polluted glory was my first Mid-Watch on a Navy Ship in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea. We were at "Darken Ship" for the night-- only red lights (and required green navigation lights) allowed visible. Just darkness all around, save for the glow of our effervescent wake, and so many stars that it was difficult to find even the Dippers, Orion, and Cassiopaea.

I never imagined there were that many stars to see. The Dunes get light pollution from Traverse City, and a few smaller coastal towns nearby... This just blew me away. I used to volunteer for Deck Mid-Watches after that. We were on 3-Section Duty anyway, meaning every third night, I had to stand duty-- running printing presses, or standing a watch in the beautiful Mediterranean Sea. Given the opportunity, I took a shift with the stars and planets.

**Lydia** · **Lydia** Powered by cheese User ID: 89965 04-27-2012 01:15 AM **Posts: 851**

Cool poost Curr. I have always hoped that I would leave things better than I found them and if I can't leave a mark, then what the hell, I'll leave a stain!

**Gibbie** · **Gibbie** ^D ^D ^D whoa User ID: 49076 04-27-2012 01:18 AM **Posts: 7,187**

awesome thread!