It was funny as we waited to board the boat, we were the only ones in line. We began getting nervous we were in the wrong area. However, we were assured we were in the right place. Once on the boat, the Huron, we got seated and the boat began to pull back from the dock. We were the only people on the whole boat!!
The ride back was fun having the boat to ourselves. I got a couple nice pictures on the way back.
Once back on the mainland, we gathered our bags, loaded the car, and drove across the Mackinac Bridge, arriving in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. This as a first for me as I have never been to this area. My family was already tired of being in the car, so I had to sell them on a quick trip up to Sault Ste. Marie. I really wanted to see the Soo Locks while I was up there in the UP. Where it was only an hour away and we really had no set plans for the day, they allowed me to go. Bingo!!!
The only deal was that if we went to the Soo Locks, we had to get some food and maybe a treat before we left town. So we ended up at Frank's Place for lunch. The food was great here and so were the staff. Coming from Maryland, we were shocked at the price of the food as it was very cheap, but very high quality. As usual, I got the Reuben and was happy with it.
The downtown of Sault Ste. Marie is very quaint and has some nice store fronts. I loved the cross walks as they all had artwork on them.
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The Soo Locks are amazing! There is nothing cooler than seeing a captain steer a 1,000 foot cargo ship into a lock going between Lake Superior and Lake Huron. Luckily they have an amazing viewing platform that you can stand on to watch this process.
While there, the Paul J. Martin came into the locks and you could watch the progress of the boat being lowered to the level of Lake Huron. It was pretty cool to watch this happen over time.
I was like a kid in the candy store and I could have stayed there all day. Can you tell by the look on my face?
The wife and kids were not as impressed as I was, but I still had a blast. After watching the Paul J. Martin in the locks, we headed over to the Soo Locks Visitors Center. The girls had a great time learning about how the locks worked and then trying their hand at steering a cargo ship into the locks on the simulator.
Being the tourist I am, I wanted a t-shirt, so I visited some gift shops across the street to find one before grabbing treats and heading back on the road. During this time we visited Zak and Mac's Chocolate Haus and the Sugar Daddy Bakery where I had a delicious Boston Cream Pie Bowl. Overall, I would have loved to have spent some more time in Sault Ste. Marie, maybe even taken one of the lock boat tours, but we had to get back on the road.
Next stop was a 80 minute ride to see the third voluminous waterfall east of the Mississippi River, Tahquamenon Falls. This was a neat water fall as there is just a lot of water going over these falls and the water is brown. They say that the brown color is from the tannins leached from the cedar swamps upstream. Once parked, the Upper Tahquamenon Falls are a short half mile walk to a couple viewing areas.
The sound of the water rushing over the falls was loud and it was just very impressive to see a waterfall like this up close. They say over 50,000 gallons of water go over these falls every second in the spring. The day we were there, there was only 3,232 gallons per second going over the falls. I can't imagine the sound with 50,000 gallons per second going over. Wow!
Before heading back on the road, we stopped at the Tahquamenon Falls Brewery & Pub which is a brewery located in the state park. This was something I had never seen and had to check it out. The brewery was crowded, so I grabbed a glass growler of their Peach Wheat Ale and headed back onto the road.
After this brief stop we were back on the road for another hour and a half drive to the town of Munising, Michigan. This was our last stop of the day before heading to our lakeside AirBnB in Gywnn, Michigan. Still craving beer, we stopped at East Channel Brewing Company in Munising. This was a little brewery with an outdoor, woodfire pizza shop attached to it. The pizza shop's name was Cooking Carberry's Wood Fired Pizza. There we grabbed some dinner and I had some beers. The beers were pretty good there and the pizzas were amazing.
I appreciated the fact the brewer left the brewing notes up on the wall for everyone to see.
Once we finished up, we headed to the grocery store in Munising to stock up on food and then drove to Gwinn. We knew we'd be back in Munising the next day, so we did mind a quick stop there before moving on.
I spend a lot of time looking for the perfect AirBnBs for my family. I consider a lot of things. Layout of the house, location of the house, what is nearby, cost, number of bedrooms and bathrooms and things to do in the area. This one that I settled on was named Bayview. It was located in Gwinn, which was a little further outside of Marquette and Munising than I would have liked to have been, but when I saw pictures of the house and location, I knew it was perfect for my family. We arrived and it was just as advertised!
We had a long day of riding on a boat and car, walking the streets of Mackinac Island, Sault Ste. Marie, and Munising, visiting the Soo Locks, Tahquamenon Falls, and a couple breweries, we were exhausted. But I could not go to bed without getting a picture of me and my little bestie Norah at 10:00pm with there still being sunlight.
I will say my first day in the UP of Michigan was more amazing than I could have ever imagined. I could not wait to wake up the next morning and see what else it had to offer.
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