Odometer: 147778
Distance So Far: 3060
Days On the Road: 12
Final Stop: Manistee, MI

In terms of coastline to travel, Michigan takes the cake in the contiguous 48, and Mom and Dad have been milking it for all it’s worth. The last two days were spent ping-ponging between coastlines and booking river cruises, working on their tans, and puzzling out how to pronounce city names. They’ve also spent enough time near Canada to get side-eye from the DHS.

Enjoying what is probably the final stretch of great weather in the American North, the timing couldn’t have been better.

September 11

Three times is a charm. When we were in Munising in 2019, I had just finished my bike ride for that year, and we were in a hurry to get home. So we decided we would take the Lake Superior Pictured Rock Cruise the next year. In 2020, Covid hit, but we were able to reserve the cruise; however, Lake Superior was too rough to go out, so they refunded us the money. This year, the weather was perfect, and we got to go out on the cruise. We sat up on the top deck with a chilly wind blowing, but we had warm sweaters on and were able to take some fantastic pictures. After we got back, we put on our water shoes and waded in Lake Superior for a few minutes. The water was about 60 degrees, and the waves were coming in pretty good. One lake down.

Leaving Munising, we drove to Sault Ste. Marie (pronounced Soo Saint Marie). They have ship locks there to raise (or lower) ships between Superior and the waterway down to Huron. We went up on an observation deck and watched a couple ships be lifted from the Huron level to Superior level.
It was getting late at this point, but we were looking for a place to go wading in Lake Huron. We finally found a spot where fisherman had waded out 150 yards or so from shore, and went out a little ways ourselves. The water was somewhat warmer in Huron than Superior. Two lakes down. Then on to Mackinac (pronounced Mackinaw) City, to our hotel. Got here so late, all the inexpensive food places were closed. Bagels and cream cheese with chocolate milk for dinner.
Yum!

September 12

While Linda was in the shower this morning, I went behind our motel and confirmed that we were right on the shore of Lake Huron. So after breakfast, we went out and waded in the lake again. Nice, sandy beach that went out gently. We grabbed a couple plastic armchairs and took them out in the lake a ways and just sat in them for a few minutes. Next stop was Sleeping Bear Sand Dunes on the Lake Michigan side. I was hoping a road would take us on the lake side, but instead, ended up inland a ways. These dunes are tall—hundreds of feet—and wide—more than a mile. I trekked to the top of one, then a second, then a third, working ever higher. I finally got to a point that I could see Lake Michigan below and the Wisconsin shoreline in the distance. But I gave up way before I could look down and see the Michigan side of the lake. Linda wanted to wade in Lake Michigan, but it wasn’t going to happen here. No way could she make it up and across those dunes. So we headed down the road a few miles farther where I saw a sign for public beach access.

The beach was sandy, the slope was gradual, and since the day was sunny, the water was quite warm and enjoyable. After a short stay there, we continued on to our hotel in Manistee.