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Old 19 Sep 19, 09:00 PM  
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CrispyA
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Great Lakes Grooving: Day 10 Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore

Tuesday 16 July

It was a very hot night, even after the rainfall, and we all overslept. This meant a very quick breakfast before getting on the road as we had to get to Munising, along the coast, for our 10.00 am cruise. I wasn't actually convinced we were going to make it on time, especially as we hit roadworks on the way.

I messaged the AirBnB host as soon as I got a 4G signal to let her know that the WiFi still wasn't working and she said she would reset it for us. On the way to Munising, we passed through a place called Christmas Town which had Santas and fairy lights everywhere. It was all quite odd.

We made it to the dock just in time - hurrah - and were nearly the last passengers onto the boat. It was a 2.5 hour cruise to see the Pictured Rocks, which you can only really see properly from the water.

There was a guide who was giving a running commentary but he had a really strong UP accent and we could barely understand a word he said. It was like listening to the Swedish Chef from the Muppets with the odd word in English thrown in, "Voordy voordy voordy atmospheric pressures voordy voordy." I'm not sure many of the other passengers understood him either and there were quite a few people just standing at the back, having given up on the commentary!

The colours in the rocks are caused by mineral deposits left when groundwater has leached out and they are quite dramatic.





Evan used his GCSE in Geography to explain the rock formation to his sister.



There was a kayak tour as well but it took most of the day and was pretty expensive so we did the boat tour instead.





We also went past Grand Island which has a light house and some very fancy houses.



You have to have your own boat to get there though as there is no ferry service.

We really enjoyed being out on the boat and getting to see the lakeshore from the water.

Back at Munising, we walked to a food truck called the Fish Basket that I had read good things about. However, it was closed as they were still buying fish and we didn't really want to wait for them to get back and start cooking, so looked elsewhere. There was a taco place, Primos Tacos, that did Lake Superior whitefish tacos and they were absolutely delicious, so I think we made a good choice there.

We wanted to see more of the Lakeshore and drove along the coast through the Hiawatha National Forest. Unfortunately, some road works meant that there was an hour long detour to get to Miner's Castle on the shoreline and as we had seen it from the boat, we decided not to do the long drive.

We did stop at Munising Falls and called into the Ranger Station, which warned us about Stable Flies on the beach, saying "They bite" - yes, we know!

It was a very short walk to the falls but they were quite good falls!





The Rangers also recommended the Marsh Trail, which we had our doubts about, having experienced the Bugpocalypse on a similar sounding walk. We gave it a go and it was actually really nice and mostly bug-free, despite being a boardwalk around a marsh!

Being cool


Being really cool


There was Sand Beach nearby and we were by this point quite hot and sticky so fancied a swim. People were in the water and nobody was swatting things and screaming on the beach, so it looked both swimmable and bug-free, so we went for it.

The water was COLD but we were extremely British about it and had a jolly good swim. We were super proud of our hardiness!



Paul was being a big jessy at this point and merely paddling, so we insisted he took a picture of us being well hard before mocking him so much that he had to get in the water!

On the way back through Munising, we decided to try a UP pasty as they are quite the thing in Michigan. There were a lot of Cornish settlers here and so pasties are a local speciality.

The pasty was round and although the filling was similar to a Cornish pasty, it contained both pork and beef. It was really nice, even if I do feel a bit disloyal by saying that!



We also got Blizzards from a nearby Dairy Queen before driving back to the cabin, where the Wifi was back on - huzzah!

We hung out on the deck for a while, meeting the owner's cats who were very friendly!





Then we had hot dogs and sat outside for a while as it was so hot, before heading back in for another round of post-its!
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Old 19 Sep 19, 09:59 PM  
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DisneyDaffodil
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I love that you saw Christmas Town, Georgia loves Nightmare Before Christmas so she would love to visit Christmas Town.

The boat trip sounded fun, great views. You were very brave to go in the cold lake, my DH would have been like Paul and stood at the edge 😀

I do love cat photos on holidays, Georgia always take lots too wherever we go.

Sounds like a brilliant day 😀
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Old 20 Sep 19, 05:21 AM  
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Love the rock formations and hurray for a relatively bug free day!

I would have been Paul in the water! The tacos sound delicious!
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2016 Quebec - Kuala Lumpar - New York City 2017 Dubai - Eurocamps France - Ontario and Quebec - So-Cal 2018 Montreal - Bangkok - New England 2019 Argentina - Quebec City - Hong Kong - 2020 Switzerland 2022 Arizona - Costa Med Cruise - Oslo 2023 Hong Kong - Gothenburg
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Old 21 Sep 19, 08:19 AM  
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Love the family photos you take, they are just brilliant! Would like to see Christmas Town, sounds interesting
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Old 21 Sep 19, 08:52 AM  
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katiebaz
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Hurrah for finally getting a swim and great picture of you all in the water - you all look like you about to start YMCA... 😁

The boat trip looked great as did the pasties - although pork and beef together?
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Old 22 Sep 19, 07:31 AM  
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WileyCoyote
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Lovely day, thank goodness you made the boat trip, beautiful scenery. Isn’t it always the way that you oversleep AND hit roadworks the one time you have to be on time. I laughed so hard at the Swedish Chef taking me back to muppet days that I just snorted my coffee.

Extra fabulous poses today although I’m with Paul on the freeze beezy water front.

How did you not stop in Christmas town . Is it the big fellas country retreat ?
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Old 22 Sep 19, 04:05 PM  
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CrispyA
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Originally Posted by DisneyDaffodil View Post
I love that you saw Christmas Town, Georgia loves Nightmare Before Christmas so she would love to visit Christmas Town.

The boat trip sounded fun, great views. You were very brave to go in the cold lake, my DH would have been like Paul and stood at the edge 😀

I do love cat photos on holidays, Georgia always take lots too wherever we go.

Sounds like a brilliant day 😀
Alas, Christmas town looked far less interesting than it should be - I imagine it might a good setting for a horror film though!

The cats were delightful, especially as we were missing Johnny & June.

Originally Posted by Melbatb View Post
Love the rock formations and hurray for a relatively bug free day!

I would have been Paul in the water! The tacos sound delicious!
Hurrah indeed for the lack of bugs and the tacos were so good!

Originally Posted by Loopylooloo View Post
Love the family photos you take, they are just brilliant! Would like to see Christmas Town, sounds interesting
We do like to have fun with our pictures. Christmas Town was . . . odd and I imagine a good place to set a horror film! There was something a little sinister about it.

Originally Posted by katiebaz View Post
Hurrah for finally getting a swim and great picture of you all in the water - you all look like you about to start YMCA... 😁

The boat trip looked great as did the pasties - although pork and beef together?
We may have busted out a song or two

The pasty was really good, *whispers* it may have been one of the nicest I've had . ..

Originally Posted by WileyCoyote View Post
Lovely day, thank goodness you made the boat trip, beautiful scenery. Isn’t it always the way that you oversleep AND hit roadworks the one time you have to be on time. I laughed so hard at the Swedish Chef taking me back to muppet days that I just snorted my coffee.

Extra fabulous poses today although I’m with Paul on the freeze beezy water front.

How did you not stop in Christmas town . Is it the big fellas country retreat ?
The Swedish Chef was comedy gold and we laughed about him for ages. He did actually come and talk to us at the end and we just had to smile and nod as we had NO IDEA what he was saying.

Christmas Town just looked a bit sinister, with giant Santas but no people - could be the setting for a horror film maybe?
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