Great Lakes!
Trip Start
Aug 14, 2010
1
20
24
Trip End
Sep 05, 2010
Where I stayed
Traverse City, Michigan
Thursday, September 2, 2010
Miles traveled: 253
States covered: Michigan
Weather: Overcast then rainy
Meltdowns: 0! Abby skirted a few close ones, but stayed on track incentivized by her father's promises of possible pie dessert if she behaved. Owen was a happy camper today.
Highlights: Hiawatha National Forest, Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, splashing in Lake Superior, views of Lake Michigan
Milage update: we hit 4000 miles in the UP today, somewhere between Superior and Michigan near a place offering smoked fish, jerky, fudge (though hopefully separate)
Abby QOTD: "Are those real bear skins?" In a gas station "party store" (weird Michigan name for convenience stores) somewhere in the UP.
Yesterday's Trivia: Nice participation on yesterday's trivia. Andy gets it, the popular U.P. food item the "pasty" is a Cornish (from Cornwall, England) dish said to be brought over from the English miners who came to the area.
Today's trivia: Some more from the UP: What was the name of the ship that sank in Lake Superior on Nov. 10, 1975 immortalized in a Gordon Lightfoot song?
Paul got his National Park stamp fix at Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore near Munising. We had a short hike to a water fall and then headed to the very aptly named picturesque Pictured Rocks where Abby loved splashing in Lake Superior again and did not want to leave. But, we headed south and across the Mackinac Bridge to the lower peninsula (?) (or "the mitten," as the Yoopers call it.) The bridge was very pretty and straddles Lake Huron and Lake Michigan. Our route took us through the nice, resort-ish small towns along Lake Michigan. We pulled into Traverse City and had dinner and a slice of pie -- this area is known for its cherry and berry pies -- Abby learned what "a la mode" meant and ate most of her parents "mode." Abby had time for a swim in the hotel pool. And she still is not asleep at 10:46!
Tomorrow we will have our last interaction with the Great Lakes along Michigan's west coast (you may have heard it referred to as America's third coast? OK, we hadn't either, but we'll hopefully get a taste) and end up a little closer to South Bend for Saturday's game.
Comments
The Edmund Fitzgerald is the ship that sank.
OK. Another life experience gets me trivia points. When we were doing workups for my midshipman sail cruise, we got stuck in a little bay squall that tossed us around and got a lot of people sick. One of the guys thought it was really funny to play "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" over and over again. After the fourth or fifth time, the officer in charge threatened to throw the radio over the side.
Meow! Meow! How did Jeff learn to type so fast?
what are Andy and Jeff doing on the computer at 4am?
Hope you ate cherries in TC they are amazing. Have a great time in ND GO IRISH