After a proper breakfast of Tim Horton's (WHY don't we have these in Austin? Who doesn't want a cup of chili with their donut and coffee?), we moved on from the Toronto area on a full day's drive around Lake Huron to drop back into the U.S. at the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. A good chunk of the drive was pretty when it opened up into rock outcropped bogs of trees on the shore of Lake Huron, and the rest of the drive was socked in on both sides with trees.
Outside of Mackinaw City, MI we stayed in the world's greatest RV park, which was more like a resort than an RV park. It was right on Lake Huron and had some incredible beaches. S would wake up early with Mike and take Hudson on walks on the beach.
Mackinac Island is a small island in Lake Huron that has banned cars since 1898, so it's a really neat example of what development and infrastructure can look like on a small scale when not designed around cars. Everything on the island is transported via bike or horse drawn carriage. The goods, the food, the garbage, construction materials, the tourist luggage...everything! It's adorable, and almost entirely a state park, with a bike path highway (officially Michigan Highway 185) that circles the entire island in an 8.2 mile loop. We hopped on a ferry from Mackinaw City with our bikes and spent an absolutely lovely day biking around, through, and over the island.
Look behind Mike and the girls and you can see the horse drawn carriages. There are thousands of bikes parked on the side of the road in the main street of town, but you can skip the crowd by pedaling just few minutes outside of town.
Parker, once again doing her thing and just making up songs while she rides along the bike highway.
There are frequent stops to short hikes to see interesting rock formations or historic sights.
A rare photo where P looks normal simply because I caught her by surprise. As soon as she realized I was taking a photo she did that. ^
Family rock cairns!
We saw some epic sunsets in the UP, which unfortunately, for my sanity and the sleep of our children, didn't occur until around 10:00 pm.
After a couple of nights around Mackinaw/Mackinac (same place, two spellings), we went to Tahquamenon Falls State Park. It's known for two series of waterfalls, the Upper (above) and Lower Falls and rusty colored water due to the decaying matter of the trees. In true state park fashion, the girls spent a lot of time riding their bikes around, Mike and I got a couple of trail runs in, and we took some nice hikes to see the falls together. We had a very scary incident with Sybil getting lost, but thanks to some helpful strangers she made it back to camp safely.
Lower Falls, Tahquamenon Falls State Park
You can wade and walk along and below the Lower Falls.
On the move again! My cousin Wendy has a beautiful piece of property on the southern bank of Lake Superior, about 12 miles west of Munising. She kindly offered to let us set up our trailer on it, so we lived off grid for a couple of days with this for a view.
And this.
It was covered in wildflowers and the water views were stellar.
Sisters sittin' and swingin'
We found the perfect beach spot in Au Train, MI. We had a little spit of sand surrounded on three sides by water which allowed Hud to be off-leash and perfect sand and water for us to play in. After setting up, we quickly got to work burying the girls, Parker's favorite sand activity. It is also amazing to be swimming in fresh water instead of salt water. These are the beaches for "beach haters."
We were just congratulating ourselves for our luck with the biting flies and mosquitos, which we had heard could be terrible in the UP when we had a night of horrors. We spent a long night killing over 100 mosquitos that had infiltrated three teensy tiny gaps in the velcro of our trailer cover. We couldn't figure out how they were getting in, but it felt like that battle scene in the Lord of the RIngs where the orcs breach the castle wall and there is an endless sea as far as the eye can see and no matter how many you kill they just keep coming. It was a literal bloodbath in the trailer, with mosquito guts smeared all over the walls, ceilings, and our skin. It looks us 3.5 hours to find the 3 tiny holes and plug them with socks, pajamas, and paper towels...and they still kept coming. The girls slept through the whole battle, but they each woke up with at least 20 new bites the next morning.
Wendy had suggested that we skip the crowded and touristy boat tours of Pictured Rocks National Seashore and just rent a pontoon boat for a day to pilot to them ourselves. This would allow us to stop and anchor on one of the many beautiful beaches in the area, take our time, and really savor the experience. Then she casually mentioned that Lake Superior weather is notorious for quick weather changes which cause the lake within minutes to go from smooth as glass to very choppy waves, up to 15 feet!). So, naturally, we booked a half day pontoon boat to take out on Lake Superior. This is the before picture, when Hudson was the only creature freaking out on the boat.
...30 minutes later and one very mild wind cell later and now there are 4 creatures freaking out on the boat (everyone but Mike). I'm smiling because we had finally turned the boat around and aborted our goal of Pictured Rocks due to the 3-5 ft waves. The waves look so mild in this picture, but we were soaking wet from the spray and were getting tossed around like crazy.
20 minutes later the wind passed and we sought safe harbor on a beach on Grand Island, an island right off the shore of Munising. The water color was incredible, and we still got to see some really cool rock formations on the shores.
Anchored and ready to play in the sand!
...one hour later and another storm cell and this is the after picture.
The mosquito onslaught was too much for us to handle, so we booked a night in the Munising RV Tourist Park, hoping that we could avoid the mosquitos and ticks (4 count so far).
The view out the back of Chirp!
A fun driftwood sculpture on the beach at the Tourist Park.
Another beautiful UP sunset.
One of the things I've appreciated the most about riding with the girls is how they are more aware of what is around them and willing to stop to take it in. On the way to Presque Isle Park, the girls spotted these huge dandelions that were ripe for picking and making a wish before blowing and dispersing all the seeds.
We spent an afternoon at the Upper Peninsula Children's Museum. It was an amazing space filled with hands on activities for the girls and tons of helpful and interesting information for parents. We spent at least 2 hours here and could have spent more.
Now that we've explored the UP, Cara and I have road tripped to and explored at least a little piece of every state in the U.S. While we missed out on Isle Royale NP and the Keweenah Peninsula, we leave feeling like we have a good idea of the area and why people love visiting in the summer, and the crazies that enjoy visiting in the winter.
Now we push on to the Twin Cities to see Holly and Caleb and Fran and Leslie and all the kids!
