Enjoying Time With Our Friends from Texas!!

Tom (Pyro) & Erma (Flame) overlooking Spectacle Lake, Brimley Bay & Canada

     Our friends Tom & Erma Humphries, from Edgewood Texas, flew into Marquette to make their first visit to our beautiful UP. By Wednesday evening they had visited many sites in the Pictured Rocks area, the Big Springs @ Palm Book SP, Lake Michigan, Huron & Superior, Mackinaw Island and Drummond Island. 

      We were excited to have them stop by our place to spend some time together the last few days of their vacation. Things timed out nicely. When they arrived Wed. evening they were able to meet Jeb & Lisa and the kids, who were spending their last night at the cabin next door before heading back downstate to home. Joyce made a fantastic raspberry pie with freshly picked berries from our garden. We enjoyed this treat while we caught up on the highlights of their trip up to that point. We hit the sack fairly early as we had a busy day planned for Thursday and wanted to get an early start.

 Visiting the Soo Locks

     After eating breakfast we set out for Sault Ste. Marie, about 40 miles north of our place, to take in the Soo Locks. After a quick stop at Wal*Mart to pickup Subway sandwiches for lunch, we made it to the locks just in time to see 2 ships coming thru. With a 21' lake level drop from Lake Superior to Huron you can see the importance of locks and their value to shipping.

Point Iroquois Lighthouse

     After watching the ships at the locks we headed west along the Superior shoreline to visit Mission Hill, followed by Point Iroquois Lighthouse on Brimley Bay. About 10 miles west of the lighthouse we stopped at Big Piney picnic grounds for lunch with a view on Lake Superior. We then continued west to visit Tahquamenon Falls SP. We visited both the Upper and Lower falls before heading home.

 The Lower Falls

 The Upper Falls

     About an hour after returning home we met our friends Steve & Leanne for dinner at the Raber Bar. Steve and Leanne came out to hike a few days on the Appalachian Trail with Flame and us 2 years ago. They enjoyed seeing each other again along with the great Walleye meal. We enjoyed time afterwards back at our house re-living our adventure together on the trail. The next day we slowed down and relaxed around our place. I headed back to Colwell Lake to take care of hosting duties in the afternoon while Tom, Erma and Joyce went down to Scenic beach along Lake Huron. (10 or so miles south of us)

Flame, Steve, Leanne, Thimbleberry & Greenstone hitting the trail

     Saturday morning, around 10, we all met at Garden Corners and drove down to Fayette State Park. Fayette is a restored ghost town on Lake Michigan that once had been a busy iron ore smelting operation right on Big Bay De Noc. There are many restored buildings along with remaining foundations here. After we completed our tour of Fayette we stopped at a local eatery and had lunch. We topped it off with ice cream back at the state park. Back to Garden Corners and we sadly had to say our good-byes as our good friends headed back to Marquette for their flight back to Texas. We miss you guys and sure are happy that you came our way. We had a wonderful time together once again!

Family Visiting @ Colwell Lake - July

Jenni, Lisa, Jeb, Cole & Olivia overlooking Munising Bay

     Around the 3rd week of July our daughter Jenni flew into Marquette from Chicago to spend a week camping with us at Colwell Lake. At the same time our son Jeb and his family drove up from downstate Michigan to spend time with us in the UP. We enjoyed time together around campfires, playing games, along with visiting various places around the area. One day Jeb, Lisa and Jenni did the Mosquito River to Chapel Beach triangular loop in the Pictured Rocks Lakeshore. The trail is a 10 mile loop that includes 4 miles of walking along the tops of cliffs 200' above Lake Superior. We took the grand kids to visit a playground and the marina while their parents were hiking. Cole just loved all the boats. One evening we visited the "Big Spring" down by Indian Lake and the kids took us out to eat at the Pizza Hut in Manistique afterwards.

 Olivia & Cole @ the marina in Munising

 The raft at Big Springs

 The spring is 40' deep and stays 43 degrees year around

Lisa and Cole looking down at the fish in the sparkling clear water

      We also visited Munising Falls and spent some time on Lake Superior at a sandy beach west of Munising. Jeb and Joyce spent one evening fishing from the canoe on the lake just before sunset. Jeb did catch and release, not wanting to clean fish after dark. 

 Sunset across Colwell Lake

 Cole showing Grandma the flower he found while canoeing

 The kids enjoying Munising Falls

     We had a nice time together and the time went by quickly. Monday evening Jeb & Lisa headed over to our house in the EUP to enjoy some time back home before going to Mackinac Island on Wednesday. Less than 5 minutes after the kids left Tom & Erma (Flame) Humphries our good friends from Texas stopped by Colwell Lake and enjoyed a nice time around the campfire with Jenni and ourselves. They flew in to Marquette to enjoy a week of touring the UP. I will write more in the next posting about our time with Tom & Flame.