Pictured Rocks

Hello all:

Well, we took the Pictured Rocks boat ride in Munising, MI (pronounced "Myoo-nising"). Their biggest employer in the town of 2300 is the paper mill, fueled by the black rock:  coal.

Anyway, the boat ride was very nice, and the pics we took were well over 100. But I am only going to share a few. The rock formations are interesting in themselves, as they resemble some pictures. But the pictures themselves are what you see in the different colors of the rocks:  black = manganese; white = calcium (or seagull droppings); green = copper; red = iron; and yellow = sandstone. But all of the colors mingle together to give you a good pic.

Let's start with the rock formations:

 Rainbow Cave

 

 Lover's Leap

  Broken Vase

 

  Battleship Row

 

 Pirate of the Rocks

 

 Chapel Rock

(he pulled the boat all the way in there = 15ft of water)

 

 

Now for pictures in the rocks. You enjoy them and see what you see. I will post what I see, you may see something else. But either way it's pretty neat what nature does.

 

  Canoe

 

 Mountains in clouds

 

 Indians and bear

 

 Painted Desert

 

 Mesas

 hilly country and waterfalls

 What do you see?

 

 NY city skyline

 

 

It was a really neat trip. We've been there, done that, and bought a Tshirt!  Today we went on a trolley tour, hoping to see some wildlife. We saw a big brown toad. And lots of ravens.

 

Tomorrow I should post about our trip to the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum, at Whitefish Point. If you listen to the song by Gordon Lightfoot, "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald", she sank 17 miles from Whitefish Point (and it's mentioned in the song). I have some other "musings" to share with you, too.

 

Monday is a travel day to Marquette (overnight Walmart) then to Copper Harbor (Fort Wilkins State Park) which is basically at the western tip of the Upper Peninsula. It's supposed to be really pretty country. We are going on a moose hunt, so hopefully we will be successful up there (apparently they run around in Marquette, too---shopping at WalMart?  Smart moose)!

 

That's all for now. Enjoy the pictures. We enjoyed taking them. It was a great time, with many more airstream adventures to come! 

 

 

 

 

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Heritage Life in the Straits of Mackinac

Hello all:

Yesterday we ate lunch at the Keyhole Bar. We both had a perch sandwich. Yum! And we washed it down with a local and an import:  Bell's Oberon (local) and Labatt Blue (import from Canada). They were both crisp and refreshing. Sometimes they serve the Oberon with a slice of orange. I guess you get your fruit with your fiber (wheat in the beer).

After lunch we ventured to a little known place called Heritage Village. It is a re-creation of a life in this area from 1880s to 1917. We took a self-guided tour. They have posts near the buildings with a  scanner for your cell phone to listen to the audio tour. We hooked up with a local family who let us listen in. I took lots of pictures, because I teach this stuff. I especially like the school. So each building has a picture of the inside. I thought it was neat they had a "quarantine house" for those that were sick. I think it was the Spanish Flu (it was bad around 1900), or just the silly mosquitoes bringing diseases. Hard to tell.

  Quarantine House

 

 Freedom School

(named for the now extinct town of Freedom)

 

 

 Mennonite House

 

 

 Fancy saw mill owner's house

 

 

 Church

Used up until 1960s. Now open for weddings or other life services.

 

 

After the village, we drove about 5 miles away to the McGulpin Lighthouse. I have included some pictures of the inside of the house. It seems relatively large for a lightkeeper's house. I have a picture of the reason they named it McGulpin as well as the lighthouses in the area (for all lighthouse fans).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



 

We are dining at a local establishment called Dixie's Saloon. It is a family-oriented place:  big, lots of tables, and I notice a lot of children here. The ferry parking is right next door. We decided to take it easy today since tomorrow is a travel day. We go further northwest to Tacquemenon Falls.

 

At our campsite we "hooked up" with a nice family next to us. Monday it was the daughter, husband and wife. By 6PM yesterday there was another daughter and husband/dog combo, sister + husband of the first couple and dog combo, college friends and their 3 children. They were expecting another grandson by 8PM. Wow! But they were very friendly and fun, made us a part of their group. They invited us to bring over chairs and make "me casa su casa." Muy bien! Then the king grilled steak and I made my way back to the airstream dream.

 

Well, I think this is my most picture-packed, dialogue-packed blog yet. I hope you enjoyed our walk through the Heritage Village and lighthouse. Tomorrow is a travel day, but I should post by the weekend. We are planning to visit Pictured Rocks on a 2 1/2 hour boat tour (I can hear the music/song already).  "Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale, a tale of a great tourist ship. That started from a tiny port aboard a picture ship." You get the picture?  Enjoy!

 

 

 

 

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Say What??

Good day to all:

We are in the city of Mackinaw; but we also see Mackinac. So how do you pronounce it? All of the spellings are pronounced "mack-i-naw". Interesting, thanks to the French. There is a fort here, called Michilimackinac. It was also a fur trading post. There is a ferry that transports people 20 minutes through the straits (formed from glaciers) to Mackinaw Island. We will probably check that out tomorrow. Today it is very windy and chilly. I don't want to add seasickness to the local "flavor."
There is also an old lighthouse (yes, you guessed it, the Mackinac Lighthouse). Next to it, the small red brick building, was there 2 years before construction of the house next to it. It housed a steam-powered foghorn and was in use in really bad weather, when the light was not visible. The Mackinac Bridge (built in 1957) now houses the foghorn currently in use. We will go over it Thurs when we head to Tacquamanon Falls (you have to pay a fare--I guess we still have to pay for the bridge). The only "ack" you can pronounce is calling this bridge "Big Mac." Well, say what??

 

 

 

 

 

When we got here yesterday we checked out the local restaurant called Cunningham's Family Restaurant (there are a lot of those around here---family restaurants). So we ordered their local special, and G asked for a beer. Nope, came the reply, only root beer. Our neighbors in our campsite are from Petoskey (20 mi away). Apparently the state park we are in is a favorite for locals. And he told us to go check out a place called Keyhole. It has a lot of keys all over the place, but apparently it has good food, too. And you can get real beer. Maybe we'll hit that today. The couple next to us is real friendly, too.  We are just chilling and enjoying our time. Sorry to hear that our locals (you guys back home) are suffering in the 90s. We are enjoying 68 today, 74 tomorrow, and 77 Thurs. Yeah, life is real tough on the Uper (pronounced "you-per".)  Say what??!! Enjoy!

 

 

 

 

Ludington Lighthouse

Good day to all:

Instead of going to the Manistee Forest to hike and go on the suspension bridge, we decided to stay local and go 45 minutes west to Lake Michigan. There is a little town called Ludington. The state park is nothing but sand dunes. The place is really scenic, and it's interesting that the lake has sand (most of the time we see it at the ocean). Anyhow, this is the lighthouse at the end (about 2K feet just to get there). So LH, I got a good bit of my steps today.

So here is the lighthouse and some pics of the coast. We are taking it easy today because tomorrow is a travel day. We head near Macinaw to Wilderness State Park. We will be there a few days, too. The weather is a little cooler. Today it's a scorcher:  82 degrees. Wow! The night's low is about 50. Yeah, life is tough here. Enjoy!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Adventures in Baldwin

First of all,

 

 

Yesterday we stopped at this lovely eatery called Debbie's Sportsman Lounge. We met Debbie and spoke with a family of bikers heading back towards Greenville, MI. They were funny and informative at the same time. Seems there is a delicious drink called Red Beer:  beer, tomato juice (or V8), and/or tabasco sauce. One day when we are feeling adventurous, we may try it. Instead, we drank a pint of the local brew, Oberon, with a beer-battered walleye sandwich and homemade fries. G had the homemade chips. Delicious! We decided to come back today for the special:  fresh pizza with 3 toppings. And what goes good with pizza? BEER! Yes, we will try another pint.

 

 

To earn our delicious meal, we went for a small hike this morning to a wildlife sanctuary called Loda Lake. There were not a lot of flowers in bloom, and most of the birds were in the treetops. But we heard them enough. Here is a pic of the lake along with a fisherman enjoying his time there, too.

 

 

 

 

 

And on the way back, we saw this lovely creature on the side of the road. Turns out there were 3 baby chicks behind her, but they were low in the grass. Lovely creature.

 

 

 

So tomorrow we are heading up north about an hour to visit a suspension bridge over the Manistee River. The forest ranger's eyes lit up when we asked about that one. Apparently that is the really good one! Will keep you posted. I will leave you with some locals we see each morning and evening at our campsite. Enjoy!

 

  blue jay

 

  flycatcher

 

 redheaded woodpecker

 

  robin (state bird)

 

 

 



 



 

 



Welcome to Michigan!

So we arrived yesterday at Bowman Bridge Campground in Manistee National Forest. The town close to us is Baldwin. The population here is about 1200, and I think most of it is the trout.

 

As you can see, this is a big to-do here. Apparently it gets flooded with new residents, and the population goes up to over another 1000. Wow! Most of the quaint feeding establishments say, "We Welcome Fishermen!" I guess in Alaska in the early years they welcomed gold miners. Interesting.

 

 

 

Ate at this cute, out-of-the-way, word-of-mouth hidey-hole yesterday. They are known for serving delicious gyros. I have to say mine was pretty tasty. Behind the picnic tables is a long table with swivel chairs that sits facing the river. That's where we had our delicious lunch. Lovely scenery, good food, and of course, the King.

 

We are off the grid here at our campsite. We get 3 TV channels but can pick up radio. But who cares! We came here to "detox" and recharge, not continually be wired. I leave you with a few more fun pics from this cute town. More later, Enjoy!

 

 

This Log Bar served its last customers on April 4. I just thought it was cute that they advertise liquor. Wow!