This Weekend – Head North and Play in Michigan Sunflowers

Dan and Teressa Hall have a 400 acre farm in the U.P., with 20 acres in sunflowers. Their farm is near the town of Rock, Michigan, between Escanaba and Marquette. People love sunflowers, so the Halls have had people coming to the farm to ask if they can use their sunflower field for photos - senior pictures, engagement photos, pregnancy photos. So the Halls decided to open up the sunflower field to anybody who wants to come hang out there. For free - no charge. According to MLive.com, “We want everybody to come here with their kids and enjoy this,” Dan said. “There was a day and time in our life when we didn’t have a penny to our name. We don’t want anybody to be excluded because of money.”

Holy moly. Did you just read that? Who says stuff like that anymore?

They've put up observation platforms and a hay wagon (you have to have a hay wagon for those photos, right?) You can donate money if you feel like it, but other than that - it's free to hang out with their 400,000 sunflowers. And now's the time to go. The sunflowers will be "photo-ready" for about three weeks. Eventually, Dan will harvest them for bird seed.

Have fun. Send photos. Here's the story.