Vermont 2021 {Getting There: The Great Lakes}

(Day 4) Sunday, 26 September 2021: Iron Mountain, MI to Marquette MI to Munising, MI to Cheboygan, MI to Grayling, MI

When we first were plotting our route, we knew we wanted to spend some time in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan since it's been on our travel bucket list for a while. Gregg has a friend who lives in the area, so he gave us some great recommendations of things to check out. Our first stop was Presque Isle Park in Marquette. It was spectacular! It's a one-way drive around a forested peninsula that goes into Lake Superior, with spots to stop at explore the rocky shore, the cliffs, and some large black rocks in the water. We loved it all. And we also loved our walk through the forest in the middle of the isle, too. A fantastic way to spend a morning!

Gregg's friend told us we had to try a pasty (pronounced with a short a as in past - learned that one the embarrassing way by ordering pasties (as in rhymes with tasty) and the girl was like, "what? pasties" and I was like, "yeah, I'm not from around here!" ha!) from Jean Kay's. So we did. We got one of each and loved them all! I love when we get a local's recommendation on local food.

Our next stop was down the road in Munising at Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. It was a pretty park, but we were feeling a bit hurried after spending so long at Presque Isle that morning, so we probably didn't give it the love it could have gotten. Plus it started raining, so we were getting pretty wet. But we enjoyed our lookout views and our hike to Miners Falls.

Our next point of interest was the Mackinac Bridge that goes over the straits of Mackinac which is the waterway that divides the Upper and Lower Peninsulas of Michigan and is the connection point of Lake Michigan and Lake Huron. Pretty dang impressive!

It was about this point in our planning that we realized we would be able to see all five Great Lakes on

this trip, so we made a particular effort to not only see them, but at least get a picture by each of them, too. (We do love a checklist type goal around here.) So we made sure to stop before the bridge to photograph Lake Michigan and then again after the bridge a bit further down the road in Cheboygan (maybe not the same Cheboygan referenced in Home Alone by John Candy, but close enough for our nerdy fan hearts) at Lake Huron. After our soggy pic detours, we continued on to Grayling for the night.

A huge iron ore dock near Presque Isle.

Zoom in on this one if you can. These facts completely
blew my mind. This lake is ginormous!!

S's for Superior! (Yep, we're nerds.)

Ginormous and gorgeous!

The water is so clear because it's so cold and not a lot
of things grow in it.

Rock skipping on Superior.

Cool rocks.

A little lighthouse is out there at the end of this wall.

Pretty polished rocks!

This tree tunnel was epic!

We got out at the Black Rocks parking area and it was
fantastic! It reminded me a lot of the coast of Maine in
Acadia!

It was like tide pools, but no tide here; these
puddles were filled with rain water!

And these (cedar? they smelled cedary) tree-bushes were growing out of the rock!

Love these bright green growths.

Cal spotted a tiny purple flower peeking through!

The cliffs yonder were black rock with orange lichens
and looked amazing except when photographed.

Cute little cairns on cliffs.
(We've been talking about alliteration some in school lately ;)

Such clear water!

We went around the isle again
(go around again!) so we could stop on the cliff side
and walk along the trail there.
Cool lichen tree on our walk in the woods.

Cal loved the oak leaves and acorns that abounded.

Seriously abounding acorns! It felt like we
were walking on marbles.

More fun nature finds.

We didn't know where we were headed on this trail,
but it was so delightful to wander through the trees
with my fam!
I wanted to sing I Think the World is Glorious and
My Heavenly Father Loves Me.

Cool church in the distance as we drove through town.

Pasty rhymes with nasty, but these were the opposite: 
SO tasty!

The view of Grand Island Harbor from a rest top near Munising.

Info for future reference found at Pictured Rocks.

Whoa!
(We want to come back and take a boat tour
up close and personal with those cliffs.
They also have glass-bottomed boat shipwreck tours
on the lake that sound super cool, but didn't happen
on this visit.)

Wandering down to the lower overlook.

Here is the Miners Castle formation at
the lower overlook.

Looking back toward the upper overlook
on the cliffs - not a great picture taking spot with
those trees in the way! ;)

First glimpse of Miners Falls.

And even better when you go down the stairs
to the better overlook!

Oh Callie June. No Pumpkin Face in our family group shot, please!

Much better!

It was quite a soggy hike, but nobody complained!
And the forest smelled like a cedar chest! It was lovely.

Lake Michigan, check! (And check out that bridge in
the background.)

How they feel about crossing a 5-mile long bridge.

I was driving and it was kinda intense!

Gregg photo-documented the experience.

Next stop, Cheboygan!

Lake Huron, check!

This was a big one parked in the harbor!

(Day 5) Monday, 27 September 2021: Grayling, MI to Luna Pier, MI to McDonald's somewhere in Ohio to Ripley, NY to Syracuse, NY

We drove from our hotel in Grayling and Gregg worked in the car Monday morning till we got to Luna Pier because a) it was on Lake Erie and b) it had a playground. We ended up hanging out here for a good long while while Gregg had a few meetings in the car and the kids and I enjoyed the sandy beach (unfortunately the playground wasn't that great, but the sand and shells more than made up for it!).

This was just a long day of driving and I don't even remember where we stopped for dinner at McDonald's. But I do remember that Gregg was not thrilled with his tiny fish sandwich. Womp, womp. We pressed on further to our evening stop in Ripley, NY at a park for some disc throwing and park playing. Our destination for the night was Syracuse, NY.

Lake Erie, check!

We walked to the end of the pier.

The beach was great!

The day was really warm (mid-80s!)
so a dip in the lake (even if it was just our
toes) felt really nice!

They were pretty happy with their big hole that hit
water level and filled up.

I get the sense that baseball is not super popular here
at this park in Ripley anymore.
(Spoiler alert: these are bleachers.)

The fences around the fields are covered
in these vines. (They look like grape vines
to me . . . and there were tons of vineyards in
the area, so maybe they were?)

Here's the fence around the field.

(Day 6) Tuesday, 28 September 2021: Syracuse, NY to Baldwinsville, NY to Oswego, NY
We woke up in Syracuse and spent a few minutes cruising neighboring Baldwinsville streets on a tour of the town Gregg lived in after he graduated and before he moved back to Logan to start his masters (Dec 2008-Aug 2009). It was fun to see his apartment and the park he played soccer at and the store he bought things at during the time we were first facebook messaging back and forth back in the day.

Our next stop was Osewego where we checked off our last Great Lake siting of the trip. Whew! They sure are impressive! That was a fun little challenge and an amazing tour of that part of the world.

Ontario! Check!

The grass was especially conducive to handstanding here
on the shores of Lake Ontario in Oswego.

We wandered down through the docks and looked at
all the boats.

And spotted what we think is a loon!

That's not the end of the Day 6 coverage, but it is the conclusion of our Great Lakes tour, so I'll carry on with a new post of our next area of exploration: The Adirondacks.