Jennifer's 365 Project

We are headed to the UP for a few days!
 We stopped at Colonial Michilimackinac before crossing the bridge to the UP.
The little one loved the whole fort and the cannons especially. We spent several hours running around like crazy seeing all the things in the fort.
Late afternoon we finally arrived in our hotel room. We got settled in and enjoyed some dinner in our room while the 4 year old took a break from all of the excitement of traveling.

We started our trek home early in the morning so we could fit in as many random pit stops as we liked, if we liked. It was foggy in Newberry and along most of the drive through the Sault Ste Marie State Forest area. The fog gave the forest and awesome creepy haunted forest feel.
Among the parks I kept pulling over at was the one at Cut River Bridge. There's a roadside park and trail on either side of the bridge that connect and go down, giving visitors a nice view. We started to hike the west side of the trail but stopped after encountering fallen tree after fallen tree blocking the path. We also encountered early on a discarded guard rail, tossed into the forest.
We continued to randomly stop places, including an awesome and secluded (at least for this time of year) picnic area at Brevoort Lake. Also, I dont know why, but I love this sign. It's so...retro. It makes me think 60's but I'm guessing it's older than that.
I played around up and down the small beach area, poking at these little jelly globules (I though the were glass at first). After poking around on the internet, my best guess is that they're bryzoans. No idea if that's correct though. If you know, let me know!
The picnic and mini-beach area were empty so we hung out for a bit. Chris mostly read his book and I alternated between taking photos and reading short stories I had on my kindle.
By late morning we were crossing the Mackinac Bridge back into the lower peninsula. We were promptly greeted with orange barrels.
We spent awhile parked in Mackinaw City. We wandered over to the fort, decided against paying and going through, then wandered around the only other main road which is packed full of gift shops and fudge stores.

The rest of our drive back was less eventful. We stopped at several stores and Chris did toy checks, but he didn't find anything he was looking for. By the time we got close enough to some forests and parks I wouldn't have minded stopping at, I was just ready to be home and see the cat.

The cat was, as usual, insanely excited we were home. He insisted on someone sitting with him while he ate, he insisted on being in front of everything you touched, and most of all he insisted on touching his two favorite people. He's a little guy. He makes coming home worth it. And the ferret - she held no grudges either. She spent a bit bouncing around with more energy than a 6 year old ferret should have.

So we're both on vacation this week and what better way to enjoy it than take a road trip up north?

We left the Grand Rapids area mid-morning, leisurely driving north and eventually east toward the bridge.

We stopped and had a bite to eat in Kalkaska. We hit a McDonalds, not thinking there was anything else around. We discovered that wasn't exactly the case after we'd had a bite to eat and driven a few more miles down the road. But that's ok. I wouldn't have met the adorable fountain drink mascot if we'd stopped somewhere else (raccoons are just adorable, I can't help it).

We continued onward and made our next pit stop in Mackinaw City. It's been over 10 years since I've been over here and I forgot just how many freaking fudge shops there are. Wow. And we weren't even on the island.

We took a little stroll down one of the main roads and stopped at a very small city park that provided a nice view of the Mackinac Bridge.

Across the bridge is a toll both you need to pass through to enter the Upper Peninsula. If you're traveling with any livestock or anything they do pull you off for inspection. It feels similar to crossing into Canada (at least 10 years ago, I haven't been to Canada recently so maybe it's more of a hassle now) except there's no awesome metric system in use on the other side.

The road to Newberry is nothing if not full of colorful trees and wildlife.

We arrived at our destination a little after 4pm. So not quite dinner time and not quite enough time to hit any of the places I wanted to hike at. So we decided to head out and check out the area. There's a lot industry here built up around tourists (motels, cabins, etc) so I'm guessing the downtown was more quiet than perhaps it is on a weekend or during the peak season. We tried to eat at a local pizza joint that had a good review, but it was closed so to Pizza Hut we went.

Tomorrow should be fun, hiking around Tahquamenon Falls, blowing through the jerky I made a few weeks ago and just enjoying the outdoors.