Summer Family Vacation – Part 3 (Ontario and the U.P.)

It was cloudy for our day in Lake Superior Provinicial Park and threatening rain, but I didn’t care.  My main goal was to get that “peaceful lake paddling” time that I’d been craving for the past few months.  We headed over to Crescent Lake where I took the inflatable canoe out on the water, while my brother and Millie hiked a trail that connected the 3 different nearby lakes to Crescent (of course, he had to let her try out each lake!)

We drove up north to the town of Wawa to get some gas before heading back south thru LSPP again.  By the time we got to Katherine Cove, it had started raining, but the views were so pretty, we walked the trail and took pictures anyway:

As we drove down to Pancake Bay Provincial Park, it began pouring rain—no worries, though.  All our outdoor activities were done for the day anyway.  We set up camp, rolled out the awning, and cooked on the grill staying nice and dry.

The next morning, Lake Superior was as calm and peaceful as bathwater.  I took a short stroll along the beach before we left to drive back into the U.S. and to the Upper Peninsula (the “U.P.”) of Michigan.

Once in the U.P., we took a brief detour to see the Upper and Lower Tahquamenon Falls.  First the lower falls:

then the impressive Upper Falls:

We stopped at the Wisconsin/Michigan border for dinner, and it was such a nice night, that we decided to just keep on driving finally arriving home around midnight.  It was a wonder week!

Summer Family Vacation – Part 2 (Ontario)

Mom had some events she wanted to attend back at home, so she drove home while my brother and I continued north into Ontario for the next couple of days.

I absolutely love Canada and try to get there at least once every year.  The scenery, “the similar yet different feel” to their daily life, and most of all to the friendliness and civility of the Canadian people.  Perhaps it’s naive, but I always feel safer traveling in Canada than I ever do in the U.S.—not quite sure why—is it the lack of handguns? less population density? less division between rich and poor? Not sure, but I love it.

My brother had never been to Canada before, so I knew exactly where I wanted to take him first—to the “British Columbia of the Midwest”, the Algoma region of Ontario along the northern shore of Lake Superior.

It was about a 4 hour drive to get there from Traverse City, and the highlight of the trip was crossing the Mackinac Bridge (a suspension bridge nearly as big as the Golden Gate that crosses the straight between Lake Michigan and Lake Huron).

We stopped in Mackinaw City for lunch and photos in front of the bridge before crossing it.  Only a $9.00 toll for the RV (sigh), but still worth the experience.

Our next event was the border crossing from Sault Ste Marie Michigan to Sault Ste Marie Ontario and over the Soo Locks where large tanker ships pass through to get to Lake Superior.  I still can’t figure out how they get such giant tankers through such tiny locks, but they do!

     

As we drove north on our way to Lake Superior Provincial Park, we made a few photo stops—one at the Chippewa River Falls, and another along a rocky shore of Lake Superior.   I decided to take the boring, distant, tourist shots while my brother hiked to get photos “from the edge”--

We arrived to our campsite at Agawa Bay around dinnertime, or as Millie would call it “swimming time”.  Even though chilly winds were blowing in off Lake Superior and waves were 2-3 feet high, Millie thought she could still go swimming….that is, until she got slammed and engulfed by one of those waves!  She then learned better not to chase any sticks my brother was trying to make her go fetch in those high seas!

We returned to camp to rest for the evening and watch a gorgeous sunset off of Agawa Rock.