LAKE MICHIGAN CIRCLE TOUR

Our recent trip around Lake Michigan was gorgeous. Kellen had the week off (his mandatory shut down for the 4th of July, 2004 when he worked at Ford, and yes I was 6 months pregnant), so we went. We camped both in a tent and the back of our car (we took out the back seats, not too bad).

The first campsite was not so good. We were right by Lake Michigan, in Ludington State park, it was gorgeous, but our actual campsite was in a protected cove. Since it was 'protected,' there was no wind, and the mosquitoes were terrible. We slept in the tent that night. It rained on us, but luckily our tent did not leak. The picture is of the drying tent in our little mosquito-layden cove. I hate mosquitoes.


First Camp


Lake Michigan, no mosquitoes :)


Nearby Lake


Rainbow

The second camp spot was nice. It was in a foresty area with no nearby marshes or small lakes, so not really any mosquitoes. This was a National Park - Sleeping Bear Dunes. The park had a ton of stuff to see, although we didn't have a lot of time to spend there. We did hike up one of the largest sand dunes I had ever seen (over 100 feet high) that eventually went to Lake Michigan. There was also a 'scenic drive' that had some cool sites. There was a spot where there was a sand dune cliff over 300 feet high down to the lake. It was incredibly windy there. There was also a tree that was trying to grow in the soft sand and was having trouble (the root picture). A lot of the road was covered with trees. It was gorgeous.


Base of Sand Dune


Top of Sand Dune


Funky Tree Roots

Our drive to the next campsite was amazing. Lots of coastline. There is a part from Harbor Springs to Mackinaw City called 'Tunnel of Trees.' It is supposed to be one of the best motorcycle drives in Michigan.


Tunnel of Trees

The third campsite was awesome. We had a spot right on a beach next to Lake Huron (the other side of Michigan Bridge). The weather was a bit on the cool side for swimming, but the water was actually pretty warm. Since we were right by the lake, we did not really have a mosquito problem, so we slept in the car with the windows down. We stayed there 2 nights. We went to Mackinac (pronounced Mackinaw) Island while there. We took a two person tandem bike around the perimeter of the island, one of the coolest bike rides I've ever been on. Then we ended up walking all over the island to see the cool sites (they have horse rides, but they were very expensive, so we just walked). It was nice.


Third Campsite


Lake Huron


"Hydrojet" Ferry


Ferry Ride to Mackinac Island


From ferry


Mackinac Island


Coastline


Riding around island, tandem bike


Arch


"Grand Hotel" lawn


Hiking around Mackinac Island

We then drove across the Upper Penninsula of Michigan. We bought some of their "famous" fudge up there, it was cheaper. The drive was also pretty much right along the coastline. It was beautiful. We finally pulled over and went in the water for awhile. The water of the lake is nice. It is warm, fresh water. And it looks like you are at the ocean, you can't see the other side of the lake. And the shore is so shallow you can walk out about a quarter mile out into the lake before it starts getting really deep. Many, many years ago these huge lakes used to be just large rivers and these shallow shorelines used to be just the river bank. It's pretty cool.


Lake Michigan


Lighthouses

Our last campsite was at Kohler-Andrea State Park in Wisconsin. That was by far the worst site, so many mosquitoes. I think all of the camping sites were near a wet marsh or something. We walked to the lake shore where it was windy and spent a lot of time there without bugs. We tried to keep the bugs away with spray and we made a fire, but to no avail. We slept in the tent that night, for ventilation purposes (can't have the windows down in the car with all those bugs). The next morning we woke up early, showered quickly, threw all our stuff in the car and drove to a parking lot a few miles away to pack our stuff up without the bugs.

After we packed up, we went to the Jelly Belly factory on our way to Kellen's sister's house. There they take you on a little tour, give you a small bag of jelly beans and let you taste test any of their products. They have another factory in California somewhere. They have a lot of cool pictures of famous people made of jelly beans. We then spent the 4th of July with Kellen's sister Colby and her 4 kids. They live in Sleepy Hollow, Illinois (about 45 minutes outside Chicago). They had a community parade with lots of fun entries. The kids got to decorate their bikes and ride in it. We went to 2 different barbeques. It was pretty fun.


Jelly Belly Factory Car


Laughing Circle: Kathy, Bailey, Foster, Lydia, Nathan