I’ve never spent any real time in the UP. The farthest north I’ve ever gotten, in fact, is St. Ignace. So it was pretty exciting to head out from there on our fourth morning. After a stop at Java Joe’s (because I’ve somehow become a coffee person this summer), we took the highway up to Whitefish Point.
Devin, of course, was happy as a clam to learn more about the Great Lakes shipwrecks and see the salvaged items.
He wasn’t too bummed out to see the nine-foot-long Lego model of the Edmund Fitzgerald either.
And then there was the water.
I was very excited to lay eyes on Lake Superior. But he went scrambling down the steps and running toward the rocks way before I even got started. Lots (and lots) of rock throwing ensued.
We also took a tour of the lighthouse, where Dev managed to strike up a short-term friendship with two brothers.
Then, after some arguing with my husband about his navigation skills, we headed to Tahquamenon Falls.
Devin wasn’t impressed by the lower falls, but we decided to hike a bit and we ended up doing the entire four-mile trek to the upper falls.
We were hot, sweaty and mosquito-bitten, but we made it. Although the kiddo lacked sufficient interest in these bigger falls because we realized we were behind schedule to see the bear sanctuary we’d been advised to visit. We rushed over to the the trolley pick-up spot only to learn that the trolley had come early and we had to wait for the next one, which wasn’t scheduled to show up for another half hour.
Gah.
Because that’s when I realized that our lovely hike probably just canceled out my kid’s chance to see a bear cub in person.
I was sad. He was mad.
Once we got in the car, Scott “floored it” (which was nothing extreme, I can assure you) and we headed post haste to the bear place. Dev fell asleep and missed my under-my-breath cursing at the closed gate that greeted us. Big Mommy fail. (But he did tell me later that he enjoyed the hike. So there’s that.)
On our way back to St. Ignace, we drove along US-2, which ambles right along the water and some really lovely beach areas. We couldn’t resist stopping at one of them and dawdling in the surf. Ahhhhh!
