Northern Wanderings; Day 5

Today is Grandson Ben’s 10th birthday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Ben! It’s hard to believe he’s ten years old.

When we left our hotel in Traverse City at 8:30 it was cloudy and 69 degrees. We were headed north across the Mackinac Bridge to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and west to Houghton, MI. Our route was Hwy 31 north, I-75 north across the bridge, 2 westbound, 77 northbound, 28 westbound at Seney, and 41 north to Houghton. There were numerous construction zones on this route but the last 15 miles or so into Houghton were painful with lengthy stops for construction zones.

Our first stop of the day was at 10:30 at a park on the south end of the Mackinac Bridge, which was also the site of the Old Mackinac Point Lighthouse. I took some photos of both.

We had lunch at the Tanglewood Restaurant in Shingleton, MI. We split a pasty and a salad, both of which were big so it was good we split them. The pasty was a pastry-dough pocket filled with meat (ours was chicken), vegetables, and taters. They seem to be quite popular in this neck of the woods.

A short distance west we stopped at Munising Falls. It doesn’t look like it in the photo but the falls drop about 50 feet.

Somewhere between Munising and Marquette we stopped along the highway where we could access the shore of Lake Superior. There was a strong wind out of the north so there were small whitecaps and it was cool (about 68 degrees).

After about 370 miles we called it a day in Houghton, MI a little before 5:30. After unpacking the car and setting up house in our room we had a short walk around downtown Houghton and then did some laundry at a nearby laundromat. Our high temperature was 74 degrees.

To see all the photos taken today click on this link: Day 5 Pics