Saturday, Aug. 7th Day 30…
Man, oh man, Michigan is a sight to see. We love it here. This is where my mother was born and both my parents were raised. My grandmother taught both of them at Denby High School and all my cousins lived here. I've got roots, just no experience with the place. We stayed just outside Marquette in a forested campground for five nights. Ranger Jeff was described in every review as “eccentric” but he was flat out weird. Too many examples to even write about, but he gave us lots to talk about. So, we are camped in a forest and when we walk across the street, we are greeted by a pristine beach with only a few people enjoying the sun and sand. Lake Superior is so large it looks like the ocean except there are no seashells and the sand is a fine, tan color with very little debris. One of the weather dudes said the water was 69 degrees, but it was so shallow where we were that it seemed much warmer. Strangely, at home we would never consider going in the pool at that temperature, but here it seemed perfect. The sunset was so pretty it made me miss Arizona.
We were in Marquette to tour the National Weather Service station. Fred is writing an article about the Skywarn system for QRZ.com. It's a federally sponsored program where amateur radio operators in surrounding areas call in to report severe weather sightings. Their info is used to update NWS weather alerts and forecasts. Each NWS station has at least one amateur radio operator available to listen and take reports from the network of hams calling in their reports. With tons of technology, big generators, charts and graphs, Fred was once again in the “big boys and their toys,” world. He scampered up a 100 foot radar tower with glee, crawled under big machinery and interviewed all the guys that worked there. It was an interesting hour....we were there for three.
Every time Fred gets to have “fun through technology,” I get to have “fun through tourism.” We went on a boat cruise along Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. The waters of Lake Superior are crystal clear blue green and have created masterpieces of colors and rock formations found nowhere else in the world. We had a narrated, up close tour of the caves and rocks, a light house and an island. There were people waving from beaches, kids swimming into caves, teenagers jumping from cliffs and general frolicking. I wondered how all the people got there since it's a forest on top of sheer cliffs. Evidently there are hiking trails, campgrounds and parking lots behind the trees. Anyone who loves camping should definitely check this place out. At least it looked good from the boat. The last time I camped in a tent was in my living room with a toddler and a four year old.
Michigan Attractions we skipped: “Mystery Spot – Open Rain or Shine” ...and...“Weird Michigan Wax Museum”
Celebrations: The calm and quiet of staying in the same beautiful campground for 5 nights
Surprises: The abundance of gorgeous beaches along the coastline of Lake Superior
Disappointments: Mouse droppings on the clubhouse tables (pool table, however, was clean..I won)
Lessons learned: It takes twice as much charcoal to cook a steak than I thought (dinner was very late)
Next dispatch, I have a brand new “incident” to report pertaining to one WHOPPER of a lesson learned and I've created a blog so I can embed pictures for all of you who have requested visual aids.
from the road:
-robin
Man, oh man, Michigan is a sight to see. We love it here. This is where my mother was born and both my parents were raised. My grandmother taught both of them at Denby High School and all my cousins lived here. I've got roots, just no experience with the place. We stayed just outside Marquette in a forested campground for five nights. Ranger Jeff was described in every review as “eccentric” but he was flat out weird. Too many examples to even write about, but he gave us lots to talk about. So, we are camped in a forest and when we walk across the street, we are greeted by a pristine beach with only a few people enjoying the sun and sand. Lake Superior is so large it looks like the ocean except there are no seashells and the sand is a fine, tan color with very little debris. One of the weather dudes said the water was 69 degrees, but it was so shallow where we were that it seemed much warmer. Strangely, at home we would never consider going in the pool at that temperature, but here it seemed perfect. The sunset was so pretty it made me miss Arizona.
We were in Marquette to tour the National Weather Service station. Fred is writing an article about the Skywarn system for QRZ.com. It's a federally sponsored program where amateur radio operators in surrounding areas call in to report severe weather sightings. Their info is used to update NWS weather alerts and forecasts. Each NWS station has at least one amateur radio operator available to listen and take reports from the network of hams calling in their reports. With tons of technology, big generators, charts and graphs, Fred was once again in the “big boys and their toys,” world. He scampered up a 100 foot radar tower with glee, crawled under big machinery and interviewed all the guys that worked there. It was an interesting hour....we were there for three.
Every time Fred gets to have “fun through technology,” I get to have “fun through tourism.” We went on a boat cruise along Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. The waters of Lake Superior are crystal clear blue green and have created masterpieces of colors and rock formations found nowhere else in the world. We had a narrated, up close tour of the caves and rocks, a light house and an island. There were people waving from beaches, kids swimming into caves, teenagers jumping from cliffs and general frolicking. I wondered how all the people got there since it's a forest on top of sheer cliffs. Evidently there are hiking trails, campgrounds and parking lots behind the trees. Anyone who loves camping should definitely check this place out. At least it looked good from the boat. The last time I camped in a tent was in my living room with a toddler and a four year old.
Michigan Attractions we skipped: “Mystery Spot – Open Rain or Shine” ...and...“Weird Michigan Wax Museum”
Celebrations: The calm and quiet of staying in the same beautiful campground for 5 nights
Surprises: The abundance of gorgeous beaches along the coastline of Lake Superior
Disappointments: Mouse droppings on the clubhouse tables (pool table, however, was clean..I won)
Lessons learned: It takes twice as much charcoal to cook a steak than I thought (dinner was very late)
Next dispatch, I have a brand new “incident” to report pertaining to one WHOPPER of a lesson learned and I've created a blog so I can embed pictures for all of you who have requested visual aids.
from the road:
-robin
I would be interested to hear more about this Ranger Jeff you speak of...
ReplyDelete-Jaime