The Lakeshore

is where we spent our next traveling day.


After the MDOT memorial, we continued up north to experience the Mackinac Bridge. It is the most magnificent structure I've ever crossed, all 4.9 miles of it! This first shot is just starting up on the bridge, viewing where the land meets Lake Huron. The bridge has four lanes, the outside ones are paved while the inside ones are grate. As long as I'm on the inside lanes, I'm fine. It is amazing to conceive of the building of this structure dividing Lake Huron and Lake Michigan and connecting the Upper Peninsula to the Lower Peninsula of Michigan. The specials shown recently on The History Channel on the bridge are truly riveting (pun intended!)




Being in the front passenger seat, I could leisurely show you the bridge from my viewpoint... and with traffic facing us so s sense of perspective might be gained on the bridge's grandeur.

That evening was spent at a comfortable motel in Manistique. We had dinner at the local country club, and this was our fairway/lake view as we partook of the Cajun chef's specialty. On the way back to the motel, we checked out a section of the local lake walk.


There was a steady moderate headwind that day, so the insects weren't dive bombing us as we followed others close to Lake Michigan. Since I've never been exposed to the water other than to swimming pools, each visit to the Great Lakes is experiencing a miracle to me. The colors, smells, flora and fauna have been out of my life experience, so I am intrigued here to discover a few of the nuances.

The ground rock is 'dimpled' (from a post card it appears this is PetoskeyRock, the state rock of Michigan. should I be incorrect, please let me know.)No sand here, just the rock. Does it not seem as though we're looking at a closeup of the moon in shadow? And the grass growing seemingly out of the rock... I'd guess just enough sand was deposited to sprout the wayward seed. On our travels, I'm always watching for plants/trees/cactus growing in unexpected environments.

The next morning we continued in the UP (Upper Peninsula) to find not just 'sea grass' but even nearly wild roses and other wildflowers interspersed with the grass. Lake Michigan was beckoning, but we had to continue onward to Wisconsin.

At the same pull-off, I turned to the left for this shot of the morning sun sparkling on the lake. Sigh. From here we continued on to Escanaba for breakfast at the Swedish Pantry mentioned in an earlier post, the yarn shop in Menominee, and to Merrill, WI.

In Merrill,we checked into our rooms, called "little brother" and Sarah and I were privy to the brothers' verbal jousting. Then on to dinner and more knitting with Sarah, as we had also had our own private knit-in on the lake shore the prior evening. After Russ had his yearly coffee clatch with one of the local coffee groups and we all had brekky in Skipper's patio downtown, and more of a tour of Merrill with stops at two of DH's childhood friends, it was off to Marshfield for a 3 p.m. rendezvous.



This greeted us in the lobby.


(Click to embiggen!)