Middle of Lake Superior, Michigan We are moving along a nearly glass surface at about 15 mph. There is a split of land behind us, but absolutely nothing but wide horizon in front. You can kind of see where the lakewater meets the cloudy sky, but the colors are close to being the same. Water temperature out here is about 38 degrees. That’s according to the captain - I personally didn’t measure it. The air temp, especially with a 16 mph wind chill, is only around 40 degrees. People go outside to the bow of the boat to see the smooth lake, but they don’t stay very long. We’re on the Queen IV, a passenger ferry. It is one of three different boats that ferry passengers over to Isle Royale. Isle Royale, as the name implies, ... read more

Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, Munising, Michigan We began our exploration of this park yesterday with a bang - the Sunset Cruise, offered by Pictured Rock Cruises out of Munising, Michigan will be one of the all-time highlights of this trip. We knew this was highly touted as a good way to see this park, but we had no idea just how good it would be. Even though it was overcast the entire trip, the colors in the rocks came through just fine and the thrill of being next to, and in one case, right in them, was an invigorating experience. Yes, there are hikes through this park, but you won’t be able to see the majesty of these bluffs from on top of them - you have to be on the lake itself. (For more rugged ... read more

Platte River Campground, Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, Honor, Michigan When I think of a ‘Seashore’ or a ‘Lakeshore’ what immediately comes to mind is a sandy beach. We’ve been fortunate in our travels to see lots of them in Florida, Georgia, the Carolinas, and California. On this trip, we’ve been on another beach on Lake Michigan, at Indiana Dunes down at the southern tip of the lake. But here we were on the last day of our stay at Sleeping Bear Dunes, and we had yet to actually walk the sands of the beach. So that’s what we did yesterday. We also realized that we hadn’t been able to spend much time with the girls, so decided to take them with us. There was a small, maybe half-mile section of the beach just down the ... read more

The Villages, Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, Empire, Michigan If Monday was a day with Nature, yesterday we absorbed Culture. There are two ‘settlement’ villages in the park that are restorations of communities that existed starting in the 1800s. They are in the northern section of the park and we had to drive about a half-hour to get there. Our first stop was at the Maritime Museum at Glen Haven. This is a setting of a couple of buildings from the days of the U.S.L.S.S., one of the organizations that preceded the Coast Guard. The United States Life Saving Service was the organization responsible for responding to shipwrecks and attempting to save people. This is the organization that coined the motto, supposedly to promote bravery, ‘You have to go out, but you don’t have to come ... read more