I guess the "Little Leaguer Crowd" was sleeping in because it was relatively quiet in the breakfast area of our hotel this morning as we ate and prepared to leave.
This morning's drive takes us along the shore of Lake Superior as we make our way to Munising, Michigan. First we drove thru the town of Marquette and checked out the harbor area with its beautifully landscaped homes.
Lake Superior is so huge it is like being on the ocean because when we look across it we cannot see land, only more water. Even though the temperatures are pleasant today, the water is still very cold in the Lake because it has not been that long since the ground here was still covered in snow!
There are so many things to see and places to go here on Michigan's Upper Peninsula that we will have to just pick a few to enjoy during our week here. We passed thru Christmas this morning! The small town of Christmas, that is.
Next we stopped at the Grand Island Visitor Center to check out the activities available there. Grand Island is accessible by boat and has hiking, biking, kayaking, fishing, swimming, beachcombing, hunting and rustic cabins to get away from it all.
No time for exploring Grand Island on this trip; we are heading to Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore to take the 10:00 a.m. Boat Cruise along the colorful rock cliffs this morning. The waters of Lake Superior are such a beautiful blue/green color and crystal clear as we travel up along the rock cliffs and cascading waterfalls. We also pass kayakers making their way along the shoreline. Truly spectacular scenery everywhere on our two-hour Boat Cruise!
Even BooBoo is just wowed by the beauty of Lake Superior and BooBoo loves to go on boat rides!
Here is a great shot of Grand Island as we are heading back to the boat dock.
The boat we cruised on, the "Miss Superior":
Following our boat tour and our viewing of the Pictured Rocks from the water of Lake Superior, we are now going to drive from Munising, Mi. to Grand Marais, Mi., stopping at all the viewpoints/waterfalls along the way. But first we find the lunch spot in Munising that one of the crew members on the boat recommended: Johnny Dog's! Great whitefish baskets!
Our first side trip is the road to Miners Falls. We park at the trailhead and walk the .3 mile trail and the 64 wooden steps down to Miners Falls. Gorgeous!
Before we hiked down to Miners Falls, we stopped at the Miners Castle Information Center and Overlook. As we looked down over the cliff, we could see swimmers attempting to get back to Miners Beach, which is just around that huge cliff jutting out into the very cold water! Crazy!
Our next side trip is to Twelve Mile Beach. We park and walk down the path, and the 50 wooden steps to the beach where I leave my sandals on because of the rocks and put my feet in the very cold water of Lake Superior! (I guess folks who live here may not consider this water so cold, however I am from the South and I say this water is very cold!) I can only keep my feet immersed for a few seconds!
Our next little detour is to the Historic Log Slide, where the .4 mile trail leads through mature hardwoods to an old log landing at the former site of the Log Slide. Interpretive exhibits relate the logging and dune building history of the area and an elevated platform provides views of the Grand Sable Dunes and Au Sable Point Light Station in the distance.
The road travels along the back side of the Grand Sable Dunes as we make our way to Sable Falls. We are really getting our exercise today as we now walk down the path, and the 168 wooden steps down to Sable Falls. (Remember, each time we walk down all these steps today, we also have to go back up those same steps!)
By 5:00 p.m. we reach the tiny town of Grand Marais, which sits at the northern end of Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. Just before leaving home on this trip, we received an email from our A.T. friends, Greenstone and Thimbleberry, letting us know that they are now the Camp Hosts at Colwell Lake National Campground, which is only about fifteen minutes from the hotel where we have reservations tonight in Wetmore, Mi. So we decide to take them up on there offer for this evening of sharing their campfire and a short visit before going to our hotel. We just missed meeting their son and his family, since they were leaving just before we were arriving at the Campground, however we did get to meet their daughter Jenny.
Following hugs, laughter, and rekindling our A.T. friendships around the campfire, we made our way to the EconoLodge in Wetmore. The desk clerk at our hotel recommended (and gave us a $5 off coupon) the Dog Patch Restaurant, four miles down the road in Munising, so off we went. It immediately began to rain, and not just any rain, it poured so hard we could not even see the stripes on the pavement! Tom was creeping along at probably 10-15 mph and that even felt too fast because we could not see anything but a wall of water!!! We finally made it to the restaurant and were so thankful to be safe inside out of that awful storm! We enjoyed a wonderful salad/soup bar, and then made it back to our hotel with only a light rain falling.
What a fun-filled first day in the U.P and getting to see our "Yooper" friends again!
Tomorrow we visit one of Upper Michigan's Seven Natural Wonders, the legendary Kitch-iti-Kipi , the "Big Spring"!
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