Sault Ste. Marie - day 1

August 21-23, 2009

Location - Sault Ste. Marie, MI

We left Big Cedar with Sunny skies and decent temperatures for our 130 mile ride to Sault Ste. Marie.

We made one stop at a rest area so we could check the straps on the tow dolly and check out Lake Michigan at a nice overlook.
We made a 3 day reservation at Aune-Osborn Campground. It's a City park located on the banks of the St. Mary's River which divides Michigan from Canada. About 2 miles from downtown and the Soo Locks, it's a great place to stay for a few days of tourism. Has good modern facilities with Water and Electric hookups and a dump station.

The view of ships coming down the River headed for Lake Huron or Lake Michigan is very cool. For the most part, the ships are Great Lakes Freighters. They range from 750 to over 1000 ft. long and many are designed to be self-unloaders, with a built-in crane and conveyor system.

Our flyer at the campground showed pictures of a number of different ships with guidelines telling what the differences were. Very cool to see.

Before we went to see the Locks, we decided to tour the Valley Camp ore ship. The ship is a 1917 steam powered freighter housing the largest Great Lakes maritime museum. The picture showing the interior display is just one of 3 converted cargo holds that were filled with ore until the ship was retired and made into a museum.

Now it houses two levels of Maritime displays and also has two life boats(really 1-1/2) from the Edmund Fitzgerald. The operations center and crew quarters have also been set up like they were used when in operation. Hope you enjoy.


If you get a chance, I highly recommend doing the tour.

ttfn

Paul

Seul Choix Lighthouse

August 19,2009

Oops, I needed to add this post before I do Sault Ste marie.

While staying at Big Cedar, we decided to do a day trip to the Lake Michigan Shore to see the Seul Choix Lighthouse.

I had done a little checking online and thought it might be fun to see the Lake on a sunny day.

I'll let the pictures speak for themselves. Enjoy.



ttfn

Paul

Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore

August 16/17,2009

After a leisurely day on the river, with Connie struggling with the paddle, :-) we headed for Munising,MI on the Northern shore of the UP.

I had done a little checking online about Pictured Rocks National Shoreline and knew that we could check out the Park from the shore and thought it would give a little different perspective than seeing them just from the boat tour. Turns out it was a good move.

Although it took a little up and down hill walking, I managed to hike out to Miner's Castle and get a couple of decent pictures. The view from the shore is pretty cool.

Connie in Lake Superior	Miners Castle from Shore

After doing the day trip, we went into Munising to see about the boat tour. Because of the time and the length of the tour, we decided to come back the next day and do the tour. It turned out to be a great move. The next day was the UP's Summer :-) . I'm pretty sure it was the only day to reach 80 degrees in Munising all year.

Here's the view from the boat tour, with just a few comments. Enjoy.

Our Tour Boat	Miners Castle from Boat

Next will be Sault Ste Marie and the Soo Locks.

ttfn

Paul

Big Cedar Campground

August 14,2009

It seems that since we left KY, we've run into our share of rain and cool weather.

We left the campground in Three Lakes with about a 6 hour drive planned to get us into the "Upper Peninsula" (UP) of Michigan. We had made a reservation at Big Cedar Campground in Germfask, MI for a weeklong stay. (assuming we could get Internet with our aircard.)

The day was once again overcast with showers along the entire ride. We stopped at a rest area along the Northern edge of Lake Michigan and took a couple of pics of the shore. Because it was so cool and damp, Connie didn't even get her feet wet. ;-)After our pit stop, we only had about 1 hour to Big Cedar Campground. I chose Big Cedar, because it's an SKP discount park, and about center of the UP North and South.

I had seen some information about a lighthouse on Lake Michigan that was about 45 miles away, and it also put us about an hours drive from Munising, MI, where we planned to see the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. (it didn't hurt that the campground was also a canoe livery with a landing site at the campgrounds)

We've decided that we really enjoy canoeing when we get a chance, so it's even possible that we'll look at buying a canoe somewhere down the road. (or just plan to rent periodically)

We were only at Big Cedar for a day and decided to do the canoe trip, because it was a sunny and dry day, and also about 75 degrees. Here are a few pics from the canoe trip on the Manistique River. Hope you enjoy.

	All pretense of paddling is gone :-)

Next Pictured Rocks. :-)

ttfn

Paul