July 4th in Harbor Springs, MI
It has been a long, unusual 16 months.
We have experienced many changes at Heather Lane Pottery in these months, such as a new retail location, a new studio and a new website. These changes have been hard but positive. We've been adjusting to and celebrating each of these milestones with gratitude and wonder at God's great providence.
The one element that we have been missing and hoping to re-engage in are art shows. In the past we participated in potentially 8-12 shows a year. We haven't had a show since March 2020.
This July 4th we attended our first show since the shut-downs began. We have been participating in the Annual Harbor Springs Art Show held at Zorn Park for over 20 years, so we were ecstatic to be back for the 45th Harbor Springs Art show this year.
We arrived a day ahead of time to prep and enjoy the area before our very busy schedule began.
July 3rd was a cloudless, beautiful summer day. We could just feel the excitement and energy in the air as we drove through downtown. The homes and businesses were decorated with flags and patriotic swag. Tourists and residents were out shopping and mingling.
Downtown Harbor Springs, July 3, 2021.
A tradition of Susan's is to treat the Heather Lane Pottery Crew to a boat tour around Harbor Springs Point. We had a reservation for late afternoon with Stafford's Pointer Boat Tours.
(Waiting for our tour to begin, from left: Liz, Cortney, Marybeth, Susan and Phil.)
The tour includes a mix of local stories, history and entertaining banter from the captain and crew while simultaneously unveiling stunning views of the bay and Lake Michigan.
Views from Josephine Ford Park in Harbor Springs, MI.
July 4th in Harbor Springs is usually very warm and bustling with excitement and celebrations.
The art show lasts only one day. As a vendor our day starts at 4:30am (okay, let's be honest it starts that early for Phil who goes to reserve a parking space close to where we need to unload) and ends at 7:30pm. We set up in the cool of the morning, by 9am we are meeting with customers and old friends as we finish up the last details before the show officially begins. We work all day, through the 5K race and local parade. We take breaks only to cool off by the ice cold spring in Zorn Park and to take turns getting ice cream from Harbor Ice Cream Soup and Sandwiches Shop. This year felt like old times: hot, busy, and fun. We were so glad to be back.
After a great day of meeting with new customers and old friends we packed up as quickly as possible (extra thanks to Wendy, who owns Periwinkles and came up to join us for the day.) We wanted to enjoy a relaxing dinner but also be ready for 4th of July fireworks displays so we moved fast and set a new record time for packing up, which included Cortney driving the Penske truck over curbs and sidewalks like a pro.
Wendy and Marybeth headed down to the beach to save seats for the firework displays from Harbor Springs and Petoskey that can be seen simultaneously from Petoskey State Park beach.
(from left: Susan, Wendy, Liz, Cort and Marybeth)
What a fabulous couple of days. What a beautiful state! We were so glad to be back.
We are so grateful for all of our customers and friends who stopped by to see us and support us at our first show since 2020.