Thursday September 21, 2017

Blog time 2100 sitting in America’s Best Value Inn in Munising, Mi drinking wine:

Once again I set the alarm for 0630.  Today we are going on a boat tour of the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore.  The Boat leaves at 1200 from Munising about 80 miles from St Ignace.  The motel’s complementary breakfast opens at 0700.  There are several tour buses staying at the motel so we have to be first in line in order to meet our schedule.  Twenty minutes after our arrival the place was full and they were running out of food.  Good timing for the Scott’s.  We gave the food a C-.

Pleasant drive to Munising.  Bright sunshine and temps in mid 70s.  The colors were starting.  We passed miles of cedar swamps just like the Grand Lake area near Alpena.  

We arrived in Munising about 1130.  The parking lot was already filled with many out-of-state cars.  We had prepurchased our tickets so all we had to do was stand in line.  The tour boat has three decks.  Since it was such a bright, warm sunny day we decided on the open third deck.  

We got good seats on the third deck.  I was mad at myself because I forgot to bring the sunscreen and my wide brimmed hat that I had set out.  The boat left at exactly 1200.  

A pleasant start and we were settling in for a nice two hour trip when the fog rolled in.  We saw very little of the Pictured Rocks.  In fact the fog was so bad that the boat turned around.  Our two hour trip was now one hour with little opportunity to see the Pictured Rocks.  The good news we were given a full refund.

Back in the car we decided to see the Pictured Rocks from land.  Our first stop was to see Miner’s Falls.  It was a nice mile walk.  The fog had lifted so we got several good photos.

Our second stop was at the most prominent feature of the Pictured Rocks whose name escapes me.  Once again we got a good view of this outcropping.  We saw a lot of folks from the boat trip.  They must have felt like we did if not by water then by land.  I think I got a good feel for the area despite our foggy boat trip.

We took a pleasant ride back to Newberry.  We got back at 1700.  A full day of traveling.  We had dinner in downtown Newberry.  

For two days, no TV or papers.  It has been great.  Tomorrow Tahquamenon Falls.  Stay tuned!