We had planned to head out around 9am, but a thunderstorm rolled in early in the morning, so we scrambled to close up the awnings and slide out and early and were on the road by 8. The kids did a great job of getting organized and moving too.
This was the only "sign" of moose we saw in the upper peninsula!
The weather was quite cool, and thunder rumbled all around us for most of the day and we hit several heavy rain storms between sunny breaks. It seemed the cold front was following us south.
Our first stop of the day, was at Castle Rock in St Ignace. Here we got to see a very rare, sitting statue of Paul Bunyan. They almost always depict him standing. According to the legend in St Ignace, When Paul had finished chopping down all the woods in the UP, he sat down here to take break and a cold wind froze him in his place. And he remains frozen here, look out toward lake Huron. We personally thought it looked like he was sitting on a giant toilet! We also, climbed to the top of Castle Rock for a sweeping view of St Ignace, Lake Huron and even the Macinac Bridge.
Since the Ledge in Chicago, we think Daniel is truly cured of his fear of heights! Look at these two pictures of him from the top of of castle rock!
From there we drove across the Macinac Bridge. It was under construction so we had to keep to the inside lane. Typically, this is no big deal, but the inside lane is an iron grate and you can look straight through it to the water! It was an unnerving drive in slow moving traffic. Every time we would stop, I could glance out my window and see water through the grate as you can clearly see in this picture. Missy had a blast and was hanging out the window as I drove snapping these pictures.
In Mackinaw City, we took a short walk along the beach to snap a few pictures of the bridge. The attractions here, were clearly priced for tourists, with everything, including gas at least 20% more expensive than across the bridge in the UP. The city does,however have a thriving and well maintained downtown shopping district so we decided to take a walk and have lunch. We stumbled on a small, family run restaurant called Cunningham's. It was a simple looking place along the main drag. The food and service were excellent, with Daniel giving the Chicken strips a 10 plus on his scale. Missy and I each had a home made Pasty which were delicious. A Pasty is a up north delicacy. It's pronounced with a short "a", and is kind of like a Chicken or beef pot pie without the pot. They had excellent homemade desserts too!
We drove out along scenic Michigan route 23 which hugs the coast of lake Huron pulling over at a few vistas. At another Michigan state park, P H Hoeft, we dodged the rain long enough to run out and get our feet in the lake. It was then a mad dash back to the camper in the rain.
The water seemed colder here than in any of the other lakes!
Here we are running back in the rain!
We took a shortcut along a secondary road to the secondary road we were on, through the metropolis of Posner, home to the world famous Potato Festival. Unfortunately we will miss the festival this year, but were surprised by how many potato farms there are in Michigan.
We reached our campsite by 4 pm and settled in, after it took me another 6 times to back into the site the right way. I was clearly not listening to my co-pilot.
Our campsite sits along lake Winyah along the Thunder Bay River. We have a great site along a back canal and right across from a pond for Daniel and Sammi to fish. They have an indoor swimming pool that Daniel has already used.
The weather has finally quieted down here and it's in the 60s with clear blue sky.
Good night from Alpena. Yes, that's our purple flamingo.
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Location:Long Rapids Rd,Alpena, Michigan
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