Irwins' Adventures: August 2011

Howdy? When we left the farm we headed to Michigan to visit one of Pat"s nieces and her husband. They showed us the sights of St. Joseph and Benton Harbor and took us to some great restaurants. From there we traveled to the Traverse City area. One of our day trips took us to Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, an area where the sand dunes fall right into Lake Michigan.

This area, along with several other areas of Michigan, is known for growing cherries. There are rows and rows of cherry trees.

The Traverse City area is a popular tourist area so we spent just a few days there. We usually avoid crowded tourist places. We moved on to Gaylord to find a Kirtland's Warbler, a small bird that only breeds in north central Michigan. Unfortunately, we were about a month late. They had already gone so we will just put this place on our ever expanding list of places to revisit.

We headed toward the Upper Peninsula. To get there we had to go over the Mackinac Bridge.

At a rest stop I just had to take a picture of this truck. We only see these in Michigan. I don't know how they get around corners with this many axles.

Anyway, I digress. We moved on to Sault Ste Marie. We were planning to stay here about a week and we are still here. It looks as if our one week will turn into three or more. The weather here has been almost perfect with highs in the mid 70s and just a few rain showers. It looks as if we finally got far enough north. The camping areas are one of the reasons we like it here. Our first park was located right on the bank of the Saint Marys River where the large ships travel between Lake Superior and Lake Huron. Along the river's edge there are benches where you can sit and watch the freighters go by.

One day we drove across the bridge into Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario to take a train trip. The trip went 115 miles north into lake and river country with a turn around point at a park with four waterfalls. In the train cars they had placed TVs everywhere.