My 2 SMALL Boys: Michigan Vacation

We started a tour of the Great Lakes this month that will (hopefully) be completed next summer. We spent some time in Ludington on Lake Michigan and then on to the Upper Peninsula where we saw Lake Huron and Lake Superior. School day do happen while on vacation!

Walking the beach with dad on Lake Michigan.

Enjoying Lake Michigan

The following several pictures are from the Hydro Electric Plant in Ludington, Michigan. The boys learned how the plant works and supplies the majority of Michigan with their electricity. Here is a Wikipedia link about this particular storage plant. And here is another.

Sunset over Lake Michigan:

The boys had an opportunity (along with their grandpa, dad and 2 uncles) to go Salmon fishing on a chartered fishing boat. Here is Nicolas's King Salmon.

And here is Alex's King Salmon.

Near our campground, there were 3 - 24 holes Disc Golf courses. We played the easiest of the 3.

We went into Ludington State Park and rode our bikes out the the Big Sable Lighthouse. We watched a short video about the lighthouse and then climbed to the top for a wonderful view of the area.

On to our second leg of the trip. We camped at Straits State Park in St. Ignace, Michigan which is right on the straits of Mackinac with a beautiful view of the Mackinac Bridge - day or night.

We took the ferry across Lake Huron to Mackinac Island along with our bikes.

We rode 8 miles around the island...

...stopping along the way to view the lake, climb the rocks and take some pictures.

We saw the lighthouses from the island and the ferry.

Round Island Lighthouse
We saw Fort Mackinac, but didn't go inside.

The view from Arch Rock.

The dock we used for our ferry was named Railroad Dock. There used to be a railroad that went to this dock and there was an A-frame dock that loaded the rail cars onto a boat. This A-frame ceased being used in the mid 80's and collapsed due to not being maintained last August.

We climbed Castle Rock in St. Ignace. This rock was used by the Native Americans as a lookout.

At the base of the rock, there were statues of Paul Bunyan and Babe the blue ox.

We went up to Sault Ste. Marie on Lake Superior to see the Soo Locks. These locks are used to bring ships up to Lake Superior's level from the St. Mary's river level - which is about 26 feet different.

We were able to watch this huge ship carrying parts for the wind turbines go through the entire process - which took about 30 minutes. The HHL Amazon's main port is Monrovia in Africa. They said they had come from Spain and were heading to Thunder Bay.

Here is a view of International Bridge. The boys thought it very neat that they could look across the river and see Canada.

We went to Tahquamanon Falls near Paradise, Michigan. These 2 pictures were taken at the lower falls. The next 2 were the upper falls. If we had had an entire day at this park, we would've walked along the river. The weather was perfect. The boys got in the river at the lower falls, walked across and down on the other side to actually stand in the falls.