Trip to Northern Michigan

metalspinner · July 07, 2010, 10:59:16 PM

We just arrived home from a trip to northern Michigan. My wife's family has a place in Cheboygan on Mullet Lake. It sure was beautiful. This was my first trip to Michigan - if you don't count the quickie funeral trip we made last year.

It sure was pretty. The lake was spring fed and the water crystal clear with a wide shallow shoreline. The water temp was a bit cool, but that didn't stop the kids from snorkeling around. After about 20 minutes, they would get out with their lips blue and quivering. :D Mid week, the weatherman announced a frost warning.

But the afternoon high was in the upper 70's. :

We found our way to Mackinac Island early in the week. The ferry ride over was an adventure in itself. The boat is a large catamaran type hull that really moves. The island, for those of you that don't know, does not allow any vehicles on it. So the scene was very peaceful and quite. You could actually hear pedestrians' conversations from across the street. The main mode of transportation is horses and carriages. smiley_horserider It was really neat to see deliveries being made by horse drawn wagons. Some folks rode bicycles around, but they looked pretty tired, so we hopped on a carriage for the grand tour.

We met up with Jeff and Tammy on Wednesday at The Old Mill State Park.

http://www.mackinacparks.com/historic-mill-creek-discovery-park/

It was a fun morning filled with all sorts of adventure. First up was a sawmill demonstration on a reproduction saw. Then we moved onto the pit saw demo. Watching these saws work makes me not only appreciate modern saw technology, but wonder what the next 100 years will bring us.

Here's a pic of a scale model of the sawmill. It looked ready to saw up the next log on the bunks...

The park has an adventure tour that includes a sky bridge, rock wall, and zip line. The boys and I had a great time. We couldn't talk Jeff or Tammy into the zip line part, though. :D The rock wall didn't seem all that high until I got to the top of it and had to let go and repel down. The little voice in my head kept saying "No, no, no," but the kids were watching (and I think Jeff was videoing) so I sucked it up and pushed off.
Here's a view from the top...

Not having done any research into Michigan until after we arrived, I was shocked at the amount of rocks and geology type stuff to be discovered. My boys have made quite a rock hound out of me, and we filled our pockets early and often. Included in the rocks on beaches were all sorts of fossils. Among them are Petoskey stones. These are really cool fossilized corrals that polish up beautifully. This was a common sight...

Over the July Fourth weekend, we headed to Traverse City to meet up with my FIL. Coincidentally, the Cherry Festival was taking place with an air show included. The guests of honor at the show were the Blue Angels! That was really something to see! They are flying closer together than this picture suggests.

While in Traverse City, we hunted down a local rock shop. As luck would have it, the owners were retiring and everything in the store was on sale. We went nuts! Needless to say, the mini van weighed lots more on the way home than it did on the way up. The owners even gave the boys and me a rock polishing demonstration in their workshop. My mind was racing trying to decide if I should make them an offer for their polishers when they closed up for good. But I resisted the impulse and made it out of there with just a bucket full of rocks.

Though it seems we were go, go , go the whole week we were up there, most of the time was spent just hanging around the lake house fishing and boating. The weather was just perfect.

One surprise was the lateness of the sunset. It was well after 9:30 until it was too dark to get around easy. Jeff mentioned that for every 7 miles you travel north, you gain one minute of day light.

Anyway, the trip was lots of fun. I can't believe we waited so long to head up that way. It was nice to hang out with the in-laws and Jeff and Tammy. Hopefully I can make the Piggy Roast one of these years.

WDH · July 08, 2010, 07:20:56 PM

With all those relatives, you should be able to come up with an excuse to visit and then sneak a little side trip to the Pig Roast

.

Patty · July 09, 2010, 02:42:45 PM

Sounds like a great trip, metalspinner! One your sons will long remember..

metalspinner · July 09, 2010, 04:06:06 PM

Patty,
Not for the reasons you might think... smiley_devilish smiley_devilish :D

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yiAuyRUHoc

Jeff · July 12, 2010, 04:53:57 PM

Metal Spinner, THe video I took consisted of a very good view of the bottom rail of the top of the tower. I did however get one still shot of you on the wall. Thats what I get for trying to use Tammy's pink camera I know nothing about while mine was locked in the trunk.

When Tammy and I left you, we went across the Mackinaw Bridge and did something I had never done in just shy of 49 years. Climb the 271 steps (Tammy and I counted them independently and came to the same number) to the top of Castle Rock. That was after the climbing and walking we did at Historic Mill creek.

Here is Tammy and a few from the top of Castle Rock

That last car on the left is Tammy's Malibu.

From there we went on to the cabin and I pushed mowed every thing there was to mow. Needless to say, I spent much of that night sreaming next to the bed for the Carlie horses to go away. :D

The next day we went to somewhere that the you would have loved. We went Rock hounding on the Shore of Lake superior near the Muskellunge State Park. If you ever want to pick up stones, that is the place. You will spend hours going Look at that! Look at that one! Hey, look at that! :D Tammy and I have decided to plan a three or 4 day camping trip there in the near future. We love to pick up stones, and actually almost every one there is a keeper. I'm going to email you the full size version of the one below. They are the stones we picked up in about a half hour or so there. We only got a few as we only had a cloth shopping bag to put them in, and its a pretty decent walk down to the beach.

Here is a photo of a few stones, and of the Beach. Notice, its a peaceful beach.

My Dad use to take us there when I was a kid, and I had not been there in probably 35 years. Tammy loved it. Note that if you look close at the photo, you will see stones under the water. That is solid stones, no sand!

metalspinner · July 12, 2010, 11:19:03 PM

Holy conglomeration,Batman!

I'd need to bring a utility trailer with me. :D

That's a heck of a lot of steps. But the view looks like it was worth it. Was there a zip line to get down? ;D

The next time we go up there we'll definitely be in a more exploratory mode.

Jeff · July 12, 2010, 11:24:20 PM

We put 1100 miles on Tammy's car. :D Generally I go straight to the cabin and maybe go to town, but we decided to go enjoy some of the local sites. (local is a relative term in the U.P. Anything less then 100 miles I'd call local. Maybe only a town or two in-between.)

Yep, we were focusing on conglomerates. This area is known for agate hunting. I found a stone hamburger there when I was about 6 or 7 years old or so. I still have it. ;D