Trip Report (Lake Superior)

27. July: So we cross the Mackinaw Bridge and become Yoopers for two days. First we visit the Soo Locks at Seault Ste. Marie. We%26#39;re in luck, a ship is just about to go through the locks. What an amazing structure the locks are, what a testimony to human engineering! We%26#39;ve seen boats going through the locks in the Great Glen in Scotland but that palls in comparison. Wow! Some sight! On the way back to the car we have an ice cream. I get my first taste of Moose something or other (can%26#39;t remember, what a shame because it was delicious: vanilla ice cream with peanut butter bits, yumm!). We get onto the road to Paradise. (Love the name, pity we never made it to Hell...) and make it to Saunder%26#39;s Sunrise Cabins (about 2 miles outside Paradise) and I don%26#39;t know what to make of it. A row of six cabins, each painted in different colours, each colour peeling off.... We get the key to our cabin and have a look around. My first comment ';Well, I guess they don%26#39;t do doors around here';. There are NO doors at the bedrooms, just curtains. Sorry, hubby, no hanky-panky tonight or tomorrow night, after all, we%26#39;re not on our own... Mercifully, the bathroom has a solid door. And there is a cooker (two rings, gas) and a comfy sofa and a table and chairs. The cabin grows on us. It is literally about 5 meters from the lake shore. Fine soft sand just outside the back door. Lake Superior within hand%26#39;s reach. We love it. We go and have dinner in The Little Falls Inn Restaurant in Paradise. Great place! Hubby has whitefish for the first time and loves it. The staff in the restaurant are extremely friendly. We go back to the cabin for wine and beer and long chats.

We have set the alarm clock for 5.30. We get up to watch the sun rise over Lake Superior. It is a bit cloudy but the sunrise is still spectacular. Not a soul moving around, we stand and gape and enjoy. There is no such place as Ireland, it has disappeared, it doesn%26#39;t exist. All that exists is this very still place with the sun rising over this immense spread of water. Eventually we go inside and since we%26#39;re up anyway we have a fry-up and coffee. Then back to bed for a few hours!

28. July: In the morning we drive up to Whitefish Point. And here we get a true impression of Lake Superior. It is vast. It is huge. It is incredible. I grew up in Northern Germany with the Baltic Sea and the North Sea at my fingertips. I know water. But I have never seen anything like this. I stand in awe at this vast expanse of water. It is just beyond my understanding. I love it but yet I fear it. I respect it. All of us are awed. There are the most incredible twisted tree trunks on the shore thrown up by fearsome gales. This is a coast not to be messed with! Susan and I hunt for agates and find some lovely stones. Damian is walking along the shore and I can see him watching the water, mesmerized. This is one of my overwhelming impressions of the whole trip: standing at the shore of the largest inland lake of the world and I am so tiny in comparison! I don%26#39;t matter, what matters is this immense sheet of water and the little waves which can whip up in no time to huge waves. Lake Superior, you can be kind and cruel at the same time.

We visit the Shipwreck Museum. I think it%26#39;s $12 per person admission. Money well spent. The museum is beautifully arranged and laid out. Of course the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald features largely. We know the song well. We read up on the different shipwrecks and I%26#39;m really absorbed by all these different stories. But of course the story of raising the bell of the Edmund Fitzgerald really gets us. The three of us end up outside in tears. (BTW - Damian is a Fitzgerald on his mother%26#39;s side.)

After that emotional journey we go to Taquamenon Falls. How beautiful! The site is very well laid out and easy to walk. The falls are something else. The water looks like liquid amber. I%26#39;d love to be there in autumn, it must be such a wonderful place to be. It%26#39;s so peaceful. We have late lunch in Camp 30 (?) and Damian has the most delicious linguini with wild mushrooms. We roam around the gift shop and I am disgusted. I was looking for some native art and find some... made in CHINA! Yuck! Surely that is an insult to native Americans? What is going on here?

We visit the Lower Falls. Lovely! And great that they tell you how many steps it is to the lower viewing deck (is it 94? I counted but forget). What a beautiful place. It must be the most amazing place in autumn.

We also visit the Centennial Cranberry Farm. I buy some cranberry mustard but upon unpacking last night I realise I must have left it in Susan%26#39;s house. So what.

Another visit to the Little Falls Inn in Paradise and a great chat with the waitresses. This place is really growing on me.

Evening on Lake Superior. I sit on the little landing stage outside our cabin. Not thinking about anything. The water is lapping around my feet. This is ME time. Except I%26#39;m not thinking about me or anyone. The sound of the water is hypnotic. I sit and muse. The lake is drawing me close. I haven%26#39;t been this relaxed in years.

Night on Lake Superior: The wind turbines over on the Canadian side of Whitefish Bay are sending a friendly twinkle over to us. I%26#39;m outside the cabin feeling the sand between my toes. The sky is so incredibly close to me. There are millions of stars and I could pick any one of them to hold between my fingers. The Milky Way is mine, I could weave it into my pillow for the night. How absolutely wonderful. How absolutely incredible. How astonishing. How humbling.

Trip Report (Lake Superior)

Pure poetry Clauds. Thank you for your wonderful, descriptive words.

I must comment on that sky at night. It truly is unbelievable. The stars are truly a blanket and the Milky Way so visible. Did you see many shooting stars? They are so plentiful in Northern Michigan, especially the UP. We also count the satelites going over. They look different from an airplane in that they don%26#39;t have red and green flashes and tend to move at a slower steadier pace.

When I was a girl I used to sit and gaze at the Northern Michigan sky and watch the lights from the airplanes wishing I could go wherever those planes were going. Europe, New York, LA, Chicago....I didn%26#39;t care, I just wanted to see the world. Well, as an adult I have been blessed to see much of the world. I now see those planes going over and think how unlucky for those people riding to Europe, New York, LA, Chicago, that they are not experiencing all that I get to experience on a quiet dock, on an immense lake in Michigan. Moms

Trip Report (Lake Superior)

Great trip report Clauds!! BTW how is it that you ended up coming to the U.P.? I think the ice cream you are referring to is ';Moose Tracks';.

lungfruit, yes, Moose Tracks! That%26#39;s the ice cream! We left all the organising to our friend and she thought that some time in the UP on Lake Superior would be nice. And quite right she was, too!

Moms, no, I didn%26#39;t see any shooting stars. They must be quite some sight over the lake!

I just realised that I posted this on the Ann Arbor forum, I had meant to post this on the Paradise forum! Ah well...

It is always best to post on the Michigan forum, since that usually catches everybody%26#39;s eye. I have loved your reports, your poetry, and your enthusiasm for our wonderful state of Michigan. Our Great Lakes are our heart and soul. I am in awe every time I see them (which is pretty often) and it catches my heart just a little when I do. Immense, powerful. Thanks for your reports, and I hope you can return one day, as I hope to visit Ireland one day, too!

Hello Clauds,

Nice report. I am glad you enjoyed the U.P. I have lived here for over 30 years and I can tell that you got into what the U.P. is all about. Friendly, no rush, rush, just lay back and relax. I have a home on a bluff that over looks the Northern tip of Lake Michigan. Each time I look out at the Lake it is different. Some days you can hear the waves crashing on the shore and other days it is as quiet as a mouse.

Thank you for such a nice review.

Hallo tymetraveler and Yooperbacker. Thank you (and indeed all of the other posters) for your kind words. I remember looking at my atlas as a child and wondering about all those places. In a way I still can%26#39;t believe I was actually there! But I was and what a great time I had!

Clauds,

Completely agree with you about the Shipwreck Museum. We found it one of the most moving experiences ever.

BTW, next time you visit Michigan, try printing directions using the %26#39;Avoid highways%26#39; option. We almost never use the highways if we can possibly avoid them. In my book, it%26#39;s far more interesting journey traveling via Tawas, Oscoda and Alpena on M23 and, thence to Mackinaw Bridge, as much as possible along the shores of Lake Huron.

Everything you never wanted to know about roads in Michigan:

michiganhighways.org/trunkline_system.html

Finally, no rush. You%26#39;ve got to start planing for your next visit to include, in my opinion, the mid and west side of the UP. You%26#39;ve seen Leelanau in the Lower Peninsula, stand by for Keweenau in the Upper!

Oh Uasal, if only you knew how much I want to go back to Michigan/Ontario!

Why does anybody want to come to Ireland when you have so much beauty at home?

Thank you so much for your report. I grew up in the U.P. but did not appreciate it like I do now, I have a similar itinerary planned for October and your wonderful report has me looking forward to it even more.

pirates, thank you very much for your comments. Strangely enough just this evening we were talking to acquaintances and I was waxing lyrically about Lake Superior. I would go back tomorrow. I Will GO back. There is something compelling about the place. Enjoy. But then who am I to tell you...?