We got up early today for another day of driving 4+ hours. We were out the door with the car completely packed up by 7. Only problem? There was no outside of hours way to check out. Hmm.
So, we headed for breakfast at Flap Jack Shack. This was a good choice. I had some cinnamon french toast situation. Nick had hash, eggs, and pancakes. We both really enjoyed our food.
We then returned to our hotel (which we had to legitimately drive by anyway), where, thankfully, the office had opened up and we were able to turn in our room key. And then we were off.
Our drive into the Upper Peninsula of Michigan was uneventful. Even our drive over the Mighty Mac was easy. It was a perfect weather day, which we both agreed made crossing the bridge easier, but we also both agreed we have driven over scarier bridges in Rhode Island so the concept that they have people who will take over driving your car over the bridge if you decide you can’t was fascinating to us.
Eventually we reached our first stop in the UP, a campground in Germfask, MI. Yes, I said campground. No we would not be camping here. We really like the trolls by the Danish artist, Thomas Dambo, and there happens to be one at a campground in Germfask, MI, and that happened to be along our exact route. So we stopped to see Benny the Beard Fisher.
Fresh air and troll pictures obtained, we hopped back in the car for the rest of the drive to Munising. This was definitely the shortest part of today’s drive. We headed straight for the visitor center at Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore for the requisite park map.
From here, it was off to Sand Point, where we took in the views at the beach and then walked the marsh boardwalk. This was pretty but not overly exciting.
Back at the car, we headed for the last land based stop for us in Pictured Rocks Lakeshore: Miner’s Castle. This was stunning!
Land based portion of Pictured Rocks complete, it was time to explore the booming metropolis of Munising a bit. Munising is an old mill town. Booming metropolis it is not! But there was a bit of a downtown area where we found lunch and some souvenir shops, which is exactly what we were looking for.
We had lunch at the Driftwood Deli. I had a pizza panini and Nick had some hot dog situation that had pulled pork on it. Driftwood Deli was exactly what I was hoping it would be…a little place with a decent variety of food to choose from, at a weird late lunch-early dinner time. We both enjoyed our food.
After lunch we poked around a souvenir shop or two, went to a “party store” which is apparently the northern Michigan version of a beer store, for some local ciders to take home, and then went and checked in at our 7th hotel of the trip, the Munising Motel.
We were on the second floor, which was definitely not convenient, but we got settled in. This was an older motel that needed some work, but was very clean and pretty comfortable. We chilled here for a couple of hours before it was time to get ready for this evening’s event.
Eventually we hopped in the car and made the short drive to the lakefront. We found parking and then headed for Pictured Rocks Cruises. Here we were directed outside to a holding pen on the dock. This is where we found the most orderly boarding and check in process for anything that we had ever seen.
The holding pen had rows of seats. You sat in order of arrival. When it got close to boarding time, they scanned our tickets so that we were all checked in. When it was time to board, we boarded in the order we were sitting in, so those who had arrived first, got best choice of seats. It was completely not chaotic and I loved it. We grabbed seats on the upper open deck.
So what were we boarding? A sunset cruise around Pictured Rocks Lakeshore to Spray Falls. It was about a 2 hour cruise and it was fantastic. Lake Superior behaved well enough, so the ride was smooth enough. The temperature definitely dropped as the sun set, but it wasn’t unbearably cold. And the views? Amazing! Put a sunset cruise around Pictured Rocks Lakeshore on your bucket list!
Once back at the dock, we found the car and headed back to the hotel where we crashed for the night.
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