Friday, September 06, 2013

Day 5, Friday September 6, 2013

Today we drove from Petoskey to Munising with a stop in St. Ignace, Paradise and the Tahquamenon Falls.


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As we approached the Mackinaw bridge to cross over into the Upper Peninsula of Michigan we were greeted with a sign that said Caution Slow Moving Tractors, well we assumed that meant Tractor Trailers, but no; we had stumbled onto a cavalcade of antique tractors crossing the bridge as part of an annual antique tractor gathering. It was great to see so many old tractors, but they did stop me from getting off at the rest stop just over the bridge so that I could get a pic of the bridge. However, Jill was able to get some good shots of the tractors and the bridge during our crossing. 

Custom tractor!
We pulled off at the next exit on I75 and found ourselves in St. Ignace, smack dab in the middle of the tractors again. More photos of tractors! After a gas and sandwiches for lunch stop we were on our way again.

The road to the falls took us through Paradise and so we stopped to take a pic of Patrick and the sign! This was also our first view of Lake Superior.

Lake Superior and Canada in the distance

Onto the falls which are in two parts, lower and upper. We visited both sets of falls and thought that it was well worth the visit. The upper falls are the 2nd largest falls east of the Mississippi after Niagara!
Lower falls

Lower falls

Upper falls

Upper falls and gorge

Jill said that's like liquid amber, I said its beer and Patrick said, no it's Woodford Reserve!
We had lunch at a brewery pub/restaurant at the upper falls and then made our way onto Munising, our destination for the day. En route we thought that the Romans must have been in Michigan as we drove along the longest and straightest road we've ever seen!

When we arrived at the hotel we found it in the dark. A thunderstorm had knocked out the local power and we were not able to check in so we went for a drive around town, which isn't much to speak of, but we did find a good scenic overlook where we got our first glimpse of the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore that we get see much closer tomorrow on our boat trip.
Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore in the distance
We returned to the hotel, still in the dark, so sat and read our books in the lobby until the power was restored just after 7pm.

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