Two Days in the Upper Peninsula

It will soon be time for Jonathan to head back to college and with all 4 of us all working different jobs, we really have had very little time to enjoy summer together.  We were able to reserve 2.5 days this past week to have some family time exploring the Upper Peninsula of Michigan together.  If only it could have been 2.5 weeks rather than 2.5 days.  Here were the highlights:

We left Thursday afternoon and drove up to Mackinaw City where we spent the afternoon and early evening including dinner before driving over the bridge and up to Newberry where we rented a 3-bedroom cottage right on one of the lakes.  We enjoyed a campfire and smores that evening as we watched the beauty of the nearly full moon glistening off of the lake.

Friday morning after breakfast we went over to Oswald's Bear Ranch.  I think Joy could have spent all day watching the baby bears eating the fruit loops that you could buy to feed them.  We enjoyed a nice conversation with Mr Oswald himself while we were there.  It is a pretty fascinating place.  Unfortunately, government restrictions have now prevented you from petting and getting your picture taken with the baby bears.  Mr Oswald has a State Senator working on getting that corrected.  

From there we then headed up to Munising where we grabbed lunch and then drove up to Miner's Cave and Miner's Falls.  We even started a 4 mile hike which we aborted after having the realization hit us that 4 miles down to the point where we were heading also meant 4 miles of walking to come back.

After some dinner we went on the Pictured Rocks Cruise.  What a beautiful sight with the sun setting into Lake Superior.  I was surprised to learn just how big Lake Superior is.  Did you realize that if you took all of the water in the other 4 Great Lakes and put them together that they still would not equal the amount of water in Lake Superior?  You would sill need to add 3 more Lake Erie's to finish the job.  In fact, if you took all the water from Lake Superior and filled a swimming pool that was 5-ft deep everywhere, the swimming pool would be the size of the Continental U.S.

Saturday morning we had breakfast at the cottage and then headed to Tahquamenon Falls.  What a beautiful sight.  I saw it last winter and to be honest, I love seeing it even more in January than I did seeing it in August!  We then grabbed lunch and what has become our favorite restaurant (at least so far) in the U.P. - the Red Flannel Saloon in Paradise.

From there we headed further north to Whitefish Point.  Again, when I saw this shore last January I was even more amazed at its beauty.  We picked up some rocks there and also went through the Shipwreck Museum.  Whitefish Point is considered the graveyard of shipwrecks in the great lakes, being most known for the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.  In fact, now that I have gone through the museum and seen the bell from "Big Fitz" that they brought up from the wreckage, I just can't get Gordon Lightfoot's song out of my head.

From there it was time to start the drive back to Gaylord.  We did make two stops on the way.  The fist one was just a few miles into the trip as we stopped at the Cranberry Farm in Whitefish Point.  We then stopped in Indian River for pizza at Vivios - our favorite pizza that we have been introduced to so far in northern Michigan.

We packed a lot in to our 2.5 days in the Upper Peninsula.  Maybe next time it will be 2.5 weeks!