There's nothing like your own bed... especially when it's a Tempurpedic. Steve and I both had a poor night's sleep.. the beds and pillows weren't very comfortable, but irregardless of how tired we were, we had a full day of travelling ahead of us. We ate at the hotel and by 10am we were off and running again.
Before leaving on vacation, I was warned to make sure that we had a full tank of gas and empty bladders prior to leaving Wisconsin, because the towns in the UP were few and far between. Add to the challenge: a sweet little three year old who waits to the the very last minute and lets us know that she has to go potty! Amaya had her first "deposit" on the side of the road shortly after crossing the Michigan border. Isn't that a rite of passage?
Around 1pm, our tummies started growling, so we plugged in "food" in our GPS (an awesome graduation present for Steve!) and found a quaint restaurant in Escanaba, MI serving PASTIES - pronounced PASS-TEES. My aunt Jewel and cousin Sonja encouraged us to try this Michigan speciality, although it came with a warning. Depending on the pasty, some may or may not taste all that great! A typical pasty has a combination of beef, potatoes, carrots, and rutabega wrapped in type of dough pastry. The name of the restaurant was, "Gram's Pasties" and we hoped that it would be one of the good ones. All three of us tried a Pizza Pasty - with pepperoni, ground beef, pizza sauce, and mozarrella in the inside. Surprisingly, it was very good... although I can't quite understand the fascination of them. Seriously, instead of seeing signs for "cheese" we now saw sign after sign advertising "Pasties."
The highway followed along the coastline of the UP and was absolutely breathtaking and reminded me quite a bit of northern Minnesota. We saw quite a few gorgeous lake homes and I wouldn't mind owning this one!
Shortly after Nabinway, we came up upon a traffic jam. Seriously? In the Upper Peninsula? Where there has been literally no one else on the road? We weren't sure what we were up against, so he turned around and used the restrooms at the gas station in Nabinway. One guy mentioned that he had gotten further ahead and said it was a bad accident and he was going to use his GPS to divert him a different way. We were getting so close to St. Ignace to cross the Mackinac bridge over to the Lower Peninsula, that we took our chances to go back and wait it out. As we neared the accident, Steve was able to see several police cars and an ambulance. Sure enough, it was a bad accident... a truck and gone off the road into the woods and smashed the trailer up pretty good. This picture is about the best I could get without slowing down the traffic even more.
Since we were already behind schedule quite a bit with the accident AND the time change that we didn't account for, when we saw a sign for a scenic overlook, we thought - "it's all about the journey, so we'll stop."
Simply beautiful...
Arrived at St. Ignace, shortly after 5:30pm getting ready to go on the Mackinac Bridge leading to the Lower Peninsula and hopefully to our campground! My mom told me I've been on this bridge before, but I just don't remember... and you would think I'd remember something as big as this bridge!
The Mackinac Bridge is 5 miles long and there is a $3.50 toll to cross the bridge. What surprised me the most was how high up we were - it was a little scary, but magnificent!At 6:30pm, we finally arrived at Yogi Bear's Jellystone Campground in Indian River, MI!
Both of our families did quite a bit of camping growing up, and one of my favorite memories was checking out the camp store and the entire campground! This trip was no different with the exception of having Amaya along who was just as anxious to check out the store and the souveniers.
While Steve got the tent set up and our camping stuff organized, Amaya played cars and I hunted for mosquito repellent!
Steve found our cooler and campstove and quickly started a fire around 8pm, so we had hot dogs, chips, pears, and smores for dinner. Amaya was absolutely fithly and was in desperate need of a shower. She HATED the shower! She was screaming and shouting and I basically had to hold her under the water to get her cleaned off. In the shower next two us was a mom and a 1 1/2 year old little girl taking showers. This other little girl was a perfect angel in the shower - very, very obedient. I mentioned her behavior to Amaya in hopes that I wouldn't have to hold down Amaya every night!
Pretty soon, we were ready for bed!
And after a long day... we crashed!
Both of our families did quite a bit of camping growing up, and one of my favorite memories was checking out the camp store and the entire campground! This trip was no different with the exception of having Amaya along who was just as anxious to check out the store and the souveniers.
First order of business: set up the tent. Steve masterfully got our tent set up quickly.
While Steve got the tent set up and our camping stuff organized, Amaya played cars and I hunted for mosquito repellent!
Steve found our cooler and campstove and quickly started a fire around 8pm, so we had hot dogs, chips, pears, and smores for dinner. Amaya was absolutely fithly and was in desperate need of a shower. She HATED the shower! She was screaming and shouting and I basically had to hold her under the water to get her cleaned off. In the shower next two us was a mom and a 1 1/2 year old little girl taking showers. This other little girl was a perfect angel in the shower - very, very obedient. I mentioned her behavior to Amaya in hopes that I wouldn't have to hold down Amaya every night!
And after a long day... we crashed!