Phaedra on the U. P.

Phaedra here, finally.

I sure get tired of Zoe getting most of the blog time. We arrived at Mackinaw City and are camping within site of the Mackinaw Bridge and Mackinac Island. Mom looks across the water to the Grand Hotel and is so happy! The campground is like a state park but with better facilities. The best part is the geese. Mom and Dad have their hands full keeping us from eating all the “goose pies”. Plus, you should see turkeys! I bet they're happy it isn't Thanksgiving yet! Yum! Yum!

We went on two “all day” trips to the UP (that stands for Upper Peninsula to non-Michiganders). It was fun crossing the five-mile bridge Mackinac Bridge. Dad was glad that they left the camper and did not have to pull it over the Straits. The first day, we went along the southern coast of the UP and saw three different lighthouses. One was really neat called Seul Croix. The rain stopped long enough for us to have a picnic in the bed of the truck. I got to try liverwurst. It was yummy. I also learned that the UP has lots of snow. Just look at the winter mailbox we saw! We got back late and almost missed dinner.

The next day we headed back across the Mackinac Bridge and headed north to Lake Superior. This was the farthest north we got. The sun came out for a bit. This, of course, did not last long. Rain started again. We went to the Whitefish Point Light Station and that was really cool. We got to play in the sand. Mom finally was able to see a lot of birds because there was an Audubon Bird Sighting Station as part of the complex there. It was really hard to get the folks to leave, but Zoe and I really wanted to see our first large waterfalls. Mom and Dad spent their honeymoon near there and visited Tahquamenon Falls 40 years ago. We were all excited until the rains came, AGAIN!!!!!!! Zoe and I had to stay in the truck while Mom and Papa hiked at both the lower and upper falls stops. Mom told us about how they walked under the falls “way back when”. They weren’t that dumb this time because it was 45 degrees outside, not August! They still got wet and cold!

As if all that was not enough, they drove back via the Soo Locks at Sault Ste. Marie, which is at the Canadian border. We were looking forward to this because we were going to get to go to our first foreign country. Zoe and I have been working on speaking dog in different languages. The locks were neat and so was the International Bridge, but guess what??, we rode under the end of the bridge and never got to go over. We were cheated. We had our papers, shot records and everything but, no, the folks forgot their passports, and we were the ones to suffer. We finally got back to the campground really late, again, but we did get supper. LONG, LONG DAY, today!!!