"I have always been delighted at the prospect of a new day, a fresh try, one more start, with perhaps a bit of magic waiting somewhere beyond the morning." - J.B. Priestly


Friday, August 2, 2013

Anniversary Weekend in the U.P.

Our anniversary was Wednesday and we decided to take a little trip.  I've been interested in the many waterfalls in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan so we thought we'd take a long weekend and see what we could find.

Since returning from China, I'm still having some difficulty with sleep patterns so I was up last night until after 4 a.m.; then Jeff was up at 6 this morning.  With this early start (after little sleep), I'm hoping this might be just what I need to get things back on track.

Anyway, we got going this morning and, as we drove north, it was obvious that it had rained earlier.  Fortunately, though, the day was clear, sunny and beautiful for us.  We drove up through Watersmeet and had lunch in Paulding (too early to see the Paulding light, though).  Right outside Paulding is one of the top rated waterfalls:  Bond Falls.  It was absolutely well worth the drive!

After Bond Falls, we tried to stop and find another waterfall, but the path was so full of mud and water that we had to turn back.  :(  Instead, we decided to drive straight up to Ontenogan and see the shores of Lake Superior.  Once again, we weren't disappointed!  


Then the adventure started!  Jeff was pretty sure he could figure out a shortcut back to where we wanted to be so we started driving straight East on a seldom used road.  As we drove, it got more and more isolated and eventually turned into a dirt road -- then a dirt road interspersed with lots of water-filled potholes.  There was some logging activity taking place along the road so the road was in pretty bad shape.  After a pretty long time, we eventually found signs of civilization and came out pretty close to where Jeff was hoping.  Unfortunately, the "lake shore drive" didn't pan out, though, as we were going straight east and the shoreline actually took a northerly turn.  On the plus side, we came out over a bridge with a really lovely view of the river beneath.  Note:  due to all of the rain and the run-off, the water is really brown from all of the vegetation!


Got to Houghton, Michigan planning to spend the night and turned out to be Alumni Weekend at Michigan Technical School, which is a huge school so, consequently, lots of alumni taking up the hotel rooms.  Across the bridge in Hancock, though, we scored the last hotel room at the Ramada right on the water so it worked out.  I had hoped for something like "The Pine Trees Cottages" or something like that rather than a national chain, but this is right on the water and we can enjoy the hot tub this evening.

Tomorrow we're headed to Copper Harbor at the very tip of the Keweenaw Peninsula and, then, who knows where we'll head next.






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