Final Travel Log

Hope you enjoyed the videos of our vacation!  We sure had lots of fun and the Lord blessed us with great weather all the way to South Dakota and back. Sad to hear that a town we stayed in the Upper Peninsula was hit by a tornado, just a week later!  No injuries or deaths reported, thank goodness.

The last travel log left off in North Dakota. We drove another seven hours on Friday to nothern Minnesota.  It was so nice to see Mark and Pat. They have a beautiful new home on North Star Lake and we enjoyed a fun boat ride! Saw some Loons and Mark did his expert Loon call and "talked" with them.  Cookouts, stories from the past and present made for a great evening.  Pat made a delicious breakfast bake and time flew.  Didn't really want to leave, but the Porcupine Mountains were waiting.

We were able to see a lot in about four hours.  Beautiful Forests, Waterfalls and Lake Superior Shoreline. I kept an eye out for bears, and saw none.  Did see cute chipmunks and they are fun to watch scurry around the forest. There was lots of  hiking.  By now, I knew my limits and didn't always climb the whole way to see  the falls from another view point.  The weather was great and I do love the smell of the trees and nature of the forest, and hear the sound of rushing waters of the streams and waterfalls.  We stayed at a family run hotel with adequate accommodations and took a walk along the lake superior. The sunset was beautiful!  Dinner was late at a place called Roxy's.  The food and service was delicious. We were tired and we needed sleep.

Sunday we spent more time at Porcupine Mtns and saw Lake of the Clouds.  We also stopped at Bond Falls. They were spectacular.  Took lots of pictures and headed to Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. They were awesome too. The hiking we did here was not as long and I even made it up a smaller Sand Dune.  But don't be deceived...there is a huge drop on the other side that would take hours to climb back up. Maybe days for me! LOL!  We did a lot of driving and had dinner at the Dogpatch. It was good too, but a little pricey.  Our waitress was very kind and after finding out we were an USAF family, she told us of her son who is in the AF and of all the places she had been visiting him.Saturday night we stayed at a Holiday Inn Express. It was very nice and we finally had the chance to swim a little. I wish I had taken a few pictures of this lodge.

Monday we did a few scenic view stops and ended up in Mackinaw City for lunch.  Good pizza. Can't leave there without doing some shopping and we did find some good deals!  Got home around 8:30 pm and Sammy was very happy to see us!   We also discovered that somewhere along the line, we think the badlands, a little animal got into our snack basket and helped himself to the healthy seeds and nut snacks. The only place we brought the snacks in, was our cabin for breakfast. Went for a walk and the snack basket stayed in the RAV the rest of the way. Just glad they didn't get in the car and surprise us while we were driving.  Don't need to bring any rodents home.

That completes our trip. The excitement doesn't end though, Grandma came on Tuesday for two weeks, and we have plenty planned.  That will be blogged in the next entry.

Gracie