Grand Marais, MI

On the way to Grand Marais

We thought we'd go exploring by car today..Eldy's feet hurt and my feet hurt from yesterday's 6 mile hike, so we thought we'd just be tourists today...off to see the town of Grand Marais right on Lake Superior, and a one hour beautiful scenic drive from Munising. The trees are maxing out their colors right now. On the way out of Munising, we thought we would check out Horseshoe Falls, a 50 ft. drop falls located within two blocks of downtown Munising. It wasn't listed in the brochure for waterfalls we picked up, and there's a good reason for that. The falls is located behind a fenced in park, and they charge 5.00 for you to see it. There are some giant trout in the park somewhere, but for 5.00 a person, our interest  just wasn't piqued enough to pay when there are many other falls to see for free. On to  Grand Marais....

Eldy at Lake Superior

Sable Falls at Grand Marais

Pickle Barrel Museum

There didn't seem to be much going on in town due to late fall and a cold, cold, windy day...I almost said winter day!--it seemed like that with the dark clouds passing overhead and the rough waves..wind chill factor had to be in the 40's....but we accidentally stumbled on more of the Pictured Rocks Lakeshore and the beautiful Sable Falls. From the parking lot in the Pictured Rocks Lakeshore park the walk to the falls was about 500 feet.  WOW! Awesome waterfalls! We then followed the waterfalls descent down to Lake Superior on a very well constructed series of viewing platforms and stairwells. Easy going down, LOTS of steps coming back up..that got the ole hearts a-pumpin!  Lake Superior was wild and wooly today...high waves crashing on the shore, there are some sand dunes right next to the waterfall's exit, but we didn't explore them today. We looked around Grand Marais a bit. The historical landmark that was shaped like a pickle barrel caught our eye, and it was appropriately named the Pickle Barrel Museum. Someone famous built it for his wife, a children's author, many years ago, and they actually spent quite a few summers living in it. It's not in its original location, and has been restored but it still looked very cool. We would have loved to see the inside of it, but it wasn't open.

We're trying to decide where to go next...it's going to be very cold in the U.P. this weekend, which is not a problem for us, but cold coupled with wind and rain really curtails our love of outdoor activities. So we're thinking of moving towards the lower part of Michigan Friday and through next Tuesday to head back to Grand Rapids. Our toilet now leaks, the bathroom cabinet lights appear to maybe have a short in them, so the list of repairs is growing! Darn it!