Our original plan was to travel to Seney, Michigan on Sunday for a 6 night adventure. We got wanderlust and took off on Friday. We made a stop at the Peshtigo Fire Museum, a snack break, a fuel stop, and made it to our new home for the next couple of nights. We have a quaint room, with a view of Lake Michigan at Skyline Motel. We were hesitant to stay here when we found out there was no a/c. But, a lake view, a nice breeze, and a fan, makes life comfortable.
We had a nice meal at the Bayview Restaurant which was next door to the hotel and are settled in for the night.
Saturday was a touristy type of day. We took the side roads to the Mackinac Bridge and saw a few critters along the way.
A stop for an usie at the visitor center and a $4 toll and we were off, across the bridge. It was a very enjoyable ride on a beautiful day.
We checked out the gift shop and walked along the shoreline of Mackinaw City for a bit then headed out to a Lake Huron Roadside Park to look for rocks. The water was pretty cool, but felt good on this hot day. Our first rock hounding was a lot of fun, except for the biting flies!
After getting out of the water, I washed the sand off my feet at the water well. The well water was just as refreshing as the lake water.
We paid our $4 toll and enjoyed the ride back across the bridge.
We stopped for a bite at Mackinac Grille and Patio Bar. Lauren had an Edmond Fitzgerald beer and I had a Bud Light with our delicious burgers.
We made a stop for some expensive but highly recommended jerky, then stopped at the Cut River Bridge. A few rain drops and thunder in the distance changed our minds about hiking. We will revisit this tomorrow.
We made it back to the room and chilled out with the cool wind blowing through the windows.
We actually pulled up the covers and cuddled in the wee hours Sunday morning. It was so nice to have the Lake Michigan wind blow through the windows.
We went back to Cut River Bridge for what we thought was a tough hike. It was a fabulous hike, and it was not as much huffing and puffing as we thought we would do.
After we got to the beach, I took off my shoes and did some more rock hounding. It was quite a refreshing walk in the surf, but the Cut River runoff to the lake was piercing cold. I could barely feel my toes when I put my shoes back on.
We made it to our new pad for the next 6 nights at Fox River Motel in Seney. We have a great room with a full kitchen. It is fabulous!
We drove the 5.5 mile Marsh Drive at Seney NWR and found all kinds of cool stuff. The first picture we took was of a very photogenic Loon.
After we got back to the motel, we did a little exploring, finding all kinds of cool skulls and horns, (aka antlers), in the outdoor pavilion, then had a wonderful meal of homemade chili, before calling it a night.
It was a nice night with the blow of the a/c. I finally woke up at 8 ish Monday morning and was in a frantic because I had slept so late. My frantic was over when Lauren told me the rain forecast was 100%. I opened the curtain and the proof was in the pudding. It was a steady, dreary rain.
We finally took off at 11:30 heading to Pictured Rock National Park. A quick stop at the visitor center and we got some awesome advice on what we didn't want to miss. The Sable Creek Fall trail and the Log Slide Overlook Trail.
We made it down the 168 steps to the Sable Creek Falls, got our usie, then onward to Lake Superior.
The rocks along the lake were so enchanting. One lady ask if we had ever seen prettier rocks anywhere else, and it was a definite, "no." We filled our pockets full of pretty rocks, then made our way back up the 199 stairs back to the truck.
We also managed to find a few cool plants along the way.
Our second stop was Log Slide Overlook Trail. It was a breathtaking view of the sand dunes and the gorgeous water.
On our way to the trail, we stopped and took a few photos of pollinators.
We made it to Picture Rock Cruises for the 5 pm departure. We had a fabulous 2 hour cruise. Another bucket list checked off, cha ching!!
When we returned to the hotel, we enjoyed a few beer sodas sitting outside the room, and found a cool bug and watched a kettle of Nighthawks flying.
Tuesday was the first day the Seney NWR visitor center was open since we arrived. We got some good information about where to find Fe, thought to be the oldest female loon. A bonus, she has a chick. A walk around the 1/2 mile visitor center and off we in the hopes of finding Fe.
We drove the Fisherman Drive then walked about a mile and a half at Pool I. We saw all kind of cool critters, but no loons.
On our walk back, we went to the spillway and heard a sound we had never heard before. A closer look and we saw 4 loons in Pool J. So back toward the truck we went, snapping a few photos of loons on our way back.
We ate our picnic lunch sitting on the bench at the fishing pier. As we were eating, one of the loons kept getting closer and closer. By the time we finished lunch, the loon was so close that it filled up the camera lens frame. Pretty dang spectacular!
Another spectacular sight was the loon started calling when a Bald Eagle flew over. Again we were able to fill up the frame with so up close and personal shots.
We found 4 more loons at another pool.
We also saw several other species of birds, several snakes, and a few frogs.
After getting back to the room, we sat inside and watched the rain fall. We had a great meal of those hot tamales Anita helped us make, worked on our wonderful pictures we took today, then called it a night.
Wednesday was Seney NWR day. We went on another hike looking for Fe, again we were Fe-less. But we did see a lot of neat stuff on our 3 mile hike.
When we drove into the parking lot at the fishing pier, our friendly loon posed for pics again.
We walked down to Pool after we returned from Pool I and saw a loon way off in the distance. Later we found out this was the oldest male loon. Too bad, it was too far off for a good picture.
We were getting in the truck to leave when we saw the Loon family fishing. One of the parents fed one of the chicks a fish.
Also while taking the loon pictures a very agile Caspian Tern showed us some aerobics.
We made it back to the room and had a late lunch, worked on our pictures, then back to the refuge for Wildlife Wednesday. We saw 9 loons on the tour, unfortunately, we are still Fe-less.
The sunset was gorgeous, especially with the sandhill crane silhouettes.
We saw lots of critters, which turned our 2 hour tour into almost 3 hours.
Thursday was another great day. We spent the day at Tahquamenon falls and Whitefish Pointe.
We stopped at the Upper Falls first and thought dang this is nice.
It did not compare to our walk along the Lower Falls. We were able to get up close to the misty water falls and walked along the river banks. It was a gorgeous walk.
We had a nice picnic lunch at Whitefish Pointe Harbor before heading to the point.
We took a few photos at the point then got out of the touristy section and walked down the Seney NWR trail. We got us away from people which was nice, but not the mosquitos, not so nice.
This Lake Superior beach was more rustic than the beach at Pictured Rocks, but, was nice and isolated with very few folks around.
A dip of the toes in the water doing a little bit of rock hounding was quite refreshing.
We made it back to the room with a couple of Edmond Fitzgerald sweatshirts, a frozen Chicago dish pizza and wings, which we baked in the comforts of our kitchen.
Friday, we debated on what we wanted to do on our last vacation day. Should we go look for Fe and spend the day at Seney, should we go back to Pictured Rock National Seashore, or should we go to Sault Ste Marie. We choose the 1 1/2 hour ride to Saulte Ste Marie.
We got to the locks, paid a $1 parking fee, and got lucky, watching a big ship go through one lock while the Famous Soo Lock Tour Boat was going through the McArthur lock. Pretty cool to see and we made it back to the truck with 5 minutes to spare on the parking meter.
We had a great meal at Antlers, (Thanks Roger for the recommendation), then check out the Original Soo Locks boat cruise. We again debated, if we want to go on the boat tour or not, and decided why not.
Our 2 hour tour was fabulous. We went through the McArthur lock feeling like rock stars waving at the people above in the gallery. The same gallery that were were standing in a few hours ago.
We made a loop around to the Canada Lock then made it back to the dock. It is pretty cool to be locked in twice today!!
Saturday, it took us almost 7 hours to drive the 350 miles back to Camp Chewy.
When we stopped for fuel, we had a very talkative Ring-billed Gull perched on the light pole.
We had a few hours of light rain showers, then it cleared until we were about 15 minutes from home. where we got into a heavy downpour with a little bit of hail.
It has been a fabulous 8 day vacation!!
