Taking in the views of Northern Michigan

The past week has been spent exploring the Upper Peninsula.  Michigander’s call this the “UP” but if you live out of state than people refer to the upper part of Michigan as Northern Michigan.  To get to the Upper peninsula (UP) by car you need to cross the Mackinaw Bridge.  The bridge is 5 miles long with sweeping views of Lake Michigan, the Straights of Mackinaw, and Lake Huron.  We started our journey early Saturday morning, we drove the entire way (6 hrs.) till we got to the Tahquamenon Falls. We had such a good time there. The falls are breathtaking, and guess what, they have their own brewing company at the state park!  So, of course, we needed to try the blueberry ale 🙂
Once we were back in our car we traveled to Sault Ste. Marie and the Soo Locks.  We waited for quite awhile for a boat to go through the locks and when one did it was a small fishing boat, not a freighter.  But it really doesn’t matter the size because the locks work the same way no matter what type of boat goes through them.  Here is a YouTube video on the (Soo Locks) that shows how the locks actually work.  The locks are truly an engineering marvel.

We stayed at the Delta hotel in downtown Sault Ste. Marie on the Canadian side of the locks. Nice hotel, good breakfast in the morning.  We were suppose to stay two nights at the Delta but decided to cut it short since there was nothing to do in Sault Ste. Marie…everything was closed or closed early- even the brewery closed at 7 pm.  We found ourselves going on a bike ride by the canal which was fun but couldn’t imagine what we would do there to fill up two full days.  We instead changed direction and headed northwest to Marquette,  Michigan.  

Enjoy the pictures, more tomorrow on the rest of our exploration through Michigan’s UP.

Mighty Mac Bridge

Tahquamenon Falls look like a miniature Niagara Falls