U.P., U.P., U.P. and Away...Day Three...

Thursday, June 28th, would find us leaving Newberry, Michigan headed for a full day viewing the beautiful scenery in Michigan. As we drove down the highway we noted an interesting trailer in front of us.

My comment was something about how one would have to be VERY short to use that trailer if it wasn't a pop-up. Nissa said, "You just pop the back and slide yourself in!" There was a brief pause and Nissa added, "I just like to say the name...What Zhat!!"

Another item I noted this day was the rumble strips down the middle of the highway. I don't ever recall that in any other state in which we have driven.

We would drive through a little town Todd has always wanted to visit. It is named Grand Marais. This is a cute little town set behind a bay off Lake Superior. We parked by the first point of interest.

This is the Pickle Barrel House. It was built in 1926 for William Donahey, the creator of the Teenie Weenie children's characters which is a cartoon strip that appeared in newspapers across the country. There was an line of food products which used the Teenie Weenie characters. One of these was sweet pickles. Donahey had this home built after the pickle barrel as a surprise for his wife, author Mary Dickerson Donahey. The house had living area on the first floor and sleeping area on the second floor. There was an addition built on the back with kitchen facilities. It is now a museum showcasing the work of the Donahey's.

We also spent some time in stop 21 on the walking tour.

This was the Old Post Office and was built in the mid 1890's to be used as a jewelry store. A school teacher bought it in 1907 and became the postmaster. Now it houses pieces of the history of the area. We had fun with Nissa pretending to post mail, checking out the huge scales from Toledo, Ohio, viewing the lovely rose garden in the back yard and noting the orignal maps made by French explorers. Todd pointed out some pictures of the Ojibwa Indians from which many of the tribes descended, including Todd's. We also found a box in the back with some papers in it. My 'Lot's Wife Syndrome' kicked in and I had to open that box. It turned out it was the walking tour guide so Todd and I put together a guide for us to know about this cute little town.

Nissa and I shopped at the local hardware store. I purchased some lye soap. Did you know that lye soap came in two kinds? The mild kind (like I purchased) was used to bathe and a stronger version was used to do laundry. The mild version actually retains all the natural glycerin and is supposed to be good for your skin. It also is supposed to provide great relief for chigger bites. Living in the country, as we do, I felt it was worth a try. Then I learned that when you have leg cramps you can put the bar of lye soap under the covers by your feet and it will give you relief from the leg cramps. Hmmmm...we'll see about that as well.

The Todd drove us to the edge of town to see the Sable Dunes. Todd would search for agates and other rocks in the sand. All of this is the shoreline of Lake Superior. The first picture is Claude walking the boardwalk out to the beach. The last picture is Todd and Nissa sitting on a piece of driftwood.

I was most fascinated with the grass growing on the dunes. I told Todd it reminded me of a bad hair transplant. However, that said, I thought it was beautiful.

Our target for today was the Pictured Rocks Boat Tour. To get there we would travel the highway along Lake Superior. We stopped at Sable Falls. There are 169 steps down to the falls. Of course, one has to go back up 169 steps to get back to the car.

We would make one more stop in Munising, Michigan. This is actually the city from which the Picture Rocks Boat Tour leaves. But before the boat tour we hiked back to Munising Falls. Claude and I visited these falls several years ago when Bonnie was with us and we drove some of the Upper Peninsula. This is Claude checking out the fall area.

After visiting these falls we headed into Munising to have a bite of lunch and pick up the tickets for our boat tour. Nissa, Claude and I would take the boat tour. Todd would guard the car, visit a museum and have a cat nap while we were gone.

The boat tour takes you along the shore line where the 'Pictured Rocks' are located. They are beautiful from some of the scenic overlooks that Claude and I saw from when we were in the UP with Bonnie. This had only piqued our curiosty and desire to come back and take the boat tour which wasn't open for the season when we were there before. Nissa and Todd did the boat tour on one of their previous trips and were kind enough to include it for our benefit on this trip. Here are some pictures of the Pictured Rocks from our boat trip.

 Folks, I took over 400 pictures on this day alone. Let's just say these are a few of the pictures. Our boat tour was a 35 mile round trip adventure. It would take 2 1/2 hours because our boat traveled at the lightening speed of 13mph. We were told that Lake Superior is the largest, deepest, coldest and roughest of the Great Lakes. If you put the water in it in a pool that was 5 inches deep it would be the size of the continental USA. It is roughly the size of Maine. The city of Munising is an Ojibwa term meaning 'Place of the Island'. Grand Island is located in  Munising Bay and is four times larger than Mackinac Island. Grand Island is actually two islands connected by a land bridge. Todd found an overlook which he took us to after our boat tour and we got a better view of these land formations.

The entrance to Munising Bay originally had the East Channel Lighthouse located on Grand Island. It is now maintained by the few residents on Grand Island.

This was a delightful experience. We do live in an amazingly beautiful world.

On the way to Marquette where our hotel room was for that night, we stopped to get a quick picture of a giganormous Santa Claus in Christmas, Michigan.

We stayed at the Comfort Inn Suites in Marquette. In the parking lot was a restaurant named 'Hudson's'. We walked there for dinner and had a wonderful meal together before we were ready to go back to the hotel and collapse for the evening. Great day!!