Fun in Michigan, Part 2

After staying the night in Saginaw, we visited Apple Mountain ski resort to recreate a picture from Russ' mission. It was essentially a bunny hill (hilarious to a 19-year-old missionary) - nothing like the ski resorts we have on the Rocky Mountains, but it's all they've got. The girls found a cute little bench made out of skis.

Afterward, we headed toward "the thumb" of Michigan. In case you don't know, it's a well recognized fact in Michigan that the lower peninsula looks like a mitten, so they call the part that juts out into Lake Huron "the thumb." At the tourist shops, they even sell hot pad mittens with a map of the lower peninsula printed on them.

But anyway, we were headed for Bad Axe, which was one of Russ' mission areas. On the way, we stopped by the only known petroglyphs in Michigan - a mystery, since Native Americans were not known to live in that area during the time the petroglyphs were made. So, we hiked down this little trail to the site. I like how the girls were both dragging their sticks.

And that's all I'm going to share with you about that because the petroglyphs were SO BORING and anticlimactic... I didn't take any pictures of them. Seriously, it was this fairly small area of rock with a fence around it and a person sitting there to tell you what they know about the petroglyphs (which is basically nothing). For the rest of the trip, the joke was always about how the other things we saw in Michigan were nowhere near as cool as the petroglyphs! I'm so glad we didn't have to pay admission.

After visiting Bad Axe, we went up to Port Austin and saw one of the great lakes for the first time - Lake Huron.

And here was the first of many lighthouses we would see on our journey.

At nightfall, we started heading up to the top of the mitten, where we would stay in Mackinaw City. The next morning, we headed across Mackinac Bridge (or "Mighty Mac," as it's called) to the Upper Peninsula. People who live up there are called "yoopers" because they live on the U.P. Get it?

From there, it was about an hour drive through some pretty impressive forest land to Sault Saint Marie (pronounced "soo saint marie") to visit the Soo Locks. Since Lake Superior is 20-some feet higher than Lake Huron, the ships have to pass through these locks to get from one lake to another. There is an observation deck where you can watch this (very slow for kids) process.

Here's a freighter just entering the locks.

And here it is lowered and ready to exit into Lake Huron (you can just barely see the bow and upper level at the very back of the ship, which looks kind of like a little white building). They don't need pumps to make this work... they just let the water seek its own level. Pretty cool!

For lunch, I just had to eat the main local catch - whitefish. The restaurant claimed that the fish I ate that day slept in Whitefish Bay the night before. Unfortunately, a couple of bites tasted like the fish hadn't slept in Whitefish Bay in at least a week. Oh yeah, Whitefish Bay is where the famed Edmund Fitzgerald was headed when it was hit by a sudden, fierce storm on Lake Superior that sank it and killed everyone aboard.

After lunch, we headed up farther into the upper peninsula, thinking we might visit the shipwreck museum that had a whole room dedicated to the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald - including its bell. The museum is owned by some people whose hobby it is to dive down to shipwrecks and showcase the things they've scavenged from them. But alas, the admission price was a little steep, so went for the cheap option... a free tour of the Point Iroquois lighthouse. (We made a donation, okay people?)

The view from the top.

The lighthouse sat on a very picturesque stretch of shoreline on Lake Superior, so I knew we just had to put our toes in the frigid waters of the greatest of the great lakes. The variety of rocks available on this shore was amazing, so I decided to collect a few. Plus, I was thinking... free souvenirs!

Kallie thought this one looked like a baked potato.

After the lighthouse, we decided to continue on to Tahquamenon Falls. They were touted as the second largest falls by volume east of the Mississippi (the first being Niagara). Sounds impressive, huh? We paid $8 to get in and see this phenomenon.

These are some of the 104 stairs to the lower falls. They reminded me of the stairs to the lower falls in Yellowstone Park, only way more sturdy looking - not so much rust and stuff.

Yeah, I admit it, I counted for her so that I could get the perfect shot.

The walk back to the car was in the early dusk, and the mosquitoes were coming out full force by then. Russ made a beeline to get out of there ASAP, since he's a natural mosquito magnet, and we killed a few in our car even after jumping in as fast as we could. They managed to get a few bites, but overall we came out pretty okay thanks to OFF!

From there, we headed back to our hotel in Mackinaw City - the next day would be our trip to Mackinac Island! More details to come in part 3...