Adventures in Michigan

Where to begin?  There was just so much to love about Michigan--impressive state parks, stunning lighthouses, plentiful dog friendly beaches, delicious cherries, waterfalls all over the UP, and the miles and miles of Lake Michigan and Lake Superior shorelines.

After a drizzly start in Vermont darned if we didn't hear a ping and a crack less than 30 miles from home on Interstate 89.  We detoured at the Williston exit for nearest Safelite and luckily our windshield ding was repaired and we were back on the road in less than an hour.  We love our van, but we're already on our second windshield because the Promaster's steep front end is notorious for kicking up  road debris.

Crossed the border into Canada where we were ready with Rosie's rabies certificate when asked for it.  Our Wallydock in Ontario had surprisingly good wifi and even a one night visit to Canada isn't complete without a visit to Timmy's in the morning.

Our first destination in Michigan was South Haven with a welcoming downtown including the cute Decadent Dogs where Rosie tried out a new harness and decided it made her a very well behaved girl who just doesn't have much use for a leash at home.


Comfortable in her new harness, Rosie took us on a harbor walk to see our first look at a Lake Michigan lighthouse.

Our next stop was Holland famous for it's Tulip Festival and it's massive 'Big Red' lighthouse.  We were too late for the tulip festival in Holland's Windmill Island Gardens, but fascinated with the guided windmill tour (dogs allowed in gardens, but not in the windmill).  We discovered Stroopwafels from the Netherlands in the gift shop and enjoyed morning snack in the van for the next few day by warming them over our coffee.

'Big Red' deserved it's name and iconic status--it's stunning!

Grand Haven delivered another picture perfect day and another red lighthouse.  Who knew you could find Hawaiian shaved ice on the harbor walk?

We spent a couple nights in Ludington State Park.  And a word about Michigan's State parks--the sites are a little smaller than we expected coming from Vermont state parks, but we were happy with electric hookups and clean bathrooms with free hot showers.  If you're planning on camping in multiple Michigan state parks, it's worth it to purchase an annual pass.  State park sites are easily reservable online here and they definitely fill up in the summer. 

We didn't think we'd use the electric hookups much during a Michigan summer, but were we surprised! Michigan had a heat wave with a week of 90+ days, and the campground electric with the van's AC kept us cool and comfortable.                                                     

Big Sable Light is accessible from a flat 1.8 mile trail that begins in the campground.  Leashed dogs are allowed on the trail but not inside the lighthouse--which is just fine with Rosie, because there's no way she's climbing up those steep stairs.  Bring plenty of water and sunscreen since most of the trail has no shade.

Next we added another stamp to our National Parks Passport at Sleeping Bear National Seashore, but we passed on the dune climbing--it was one of those 90+ degree days!

And then it was all about cherries at the Traverse City National Cherry Festival--cherry pie, cherry ice cream, cherry wine, cherry pecan sourdough bread, and just plain wonderful cherries!

A drive up the Leelanau Peninsula took us past miles of cherry orchards interspersed with hillsides of grapes and small wineries.  At the end of the road is Leelanau State Park with another light house and lots of off leash areas for dogs to cool off in the Lake.



With the continuing heatwave Lake Michigan was the perfect place to cool off.  Added benefit?  The fresh water doesn't make dreadlocks out of Rosie's fur.

We arrived in Petosky on July 3 and had purposely reserved a campsite in a private campground on the outskirts of the city even though several public campgrounds were close to town.  Rosie's thunder anxiety is at it's peak during fireworks season and the Petosky KOA assured us that no fireworks were allowed.  It was definitely a good choice.

From Petosky we meandered up the 'Tunnel of Trees,' Michigan's scenic Route 119 which ended at one of the most bizarre historic landmarks we have ever visited, the Legs Inn in Cross Village.  This Polish cuisine restaurant has been family-owned for over 90 years With Lake Michigan in it's backyard, it looks like something right out of a fairy tale.

Pirogies are served up among mounted moose heads, disco balls, tree root chandeliers, Zoltar the fortune teller, and a larger than life snake sculpture in the garden.

Rosie admires art in Cross Village

From Petsoky we headed north toward the Upper Peninsula, with an impromtu stop in Mackinaw City to turn Luigi into a Hot Dog food truck.

From the waterfront, there's a fabulous view of the 'Might Mac,' the almost 5 mile long suspension bridge that crosses the Straits of Mackinac.  While Tom and I sized up the bridge, Rosie was fascinated with the twirling dog 'scarecrows' designed to chase away the Canada Geese.

Two 'mighty Macs.'

Tom drove; I snapped photos.

Our first UP campsite was in Straits State Park just over the bridge in St. Ignance for a planned meet up with a Travato friend, Marilyn for a day trip to Mackinaw Island.  With just a one day visit, the horse-drawn carriage ride made sense to see this car-free island. We were delighted to discover that that both the ferry and the carriage ride were dog friendly. Rosie wasn't quite sure about boats and carriages, but after a little needy dog lap sitting, she settled right in. The heat wave broke, and we had a one-in-a-million picture perfect day with dog-friendly outdoor dining and fudge for the ferry ride back.

Straits State Park with Marilyn

Rosie needs a lap on the ferry

In the surrey with the fringe on top...

The Grand Hotel

Rosie was ready to relax in the van after a day of ferry and horse-drawn wagon rides!

And it was still all about boats at our next campground in Sault Ste. Marie ('the Soo') where we had a couple relaxing days watching giant freighters as they headed into the locks.

Rosie remained on squirrel high alert perimeter duty.

              




Tom snapped a lovely 'arty' photo from inside the Iroquois Light in Brimly.

Then we cranked up Gordon Lightfoot on Linda's playlist as we motored to Whitefish Point and the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum.  A previous visit to the Apostle Islands gave us a healthy respect for Lake Superior, but the Shipwreck Museum confirmed the dangers of navigating this truly great lake.  Even with 20th century navigation tools,  Lake Superior took the lives of all souls onboard the Edmund Fitzgerald.

Our favorite meal on the UP was at The Inn in Paradise where they smoke their own meats and make a delish carrot cake.  Paradise Public Library provided a welcome robust wifi connection and we also scored a few paperbacks at their book sale. There's also a gem of a yarn and fabric store, Village Fabrics and Crafts,

Next we turned inland and away from the lake for a few days at Tahquamenon Falls State Park.  It's a popular 'destination' state park with clean bathrooms, plenty of hot water, electric hookups, and lots of squirrel habitat for Rosie.  We had our first rain in over two weeks, but as Rosie snoozed in the van we ducked indoors at Tahquamenon Fall Brewery.

Our last stop on the UP was our favorite--the rural Keweenaw peninsula with a twisty, windy seasonal road up Brockway Mountain where we spotting not one, but two Bald Eagles riding the thermals while freighters passed in the distance.  The small communities of Calumet, Eagle Creek, and Copper Harbor tell the story of copper mining on this remote peninsula that intrudes into Lake Superior.  We heard that Brockway Mountain is the perfect place to view the Northern Lights, but solar flares weren't cooperating while we were there.  Fort Wilkins Historic State Park provided another super campsite (complete with squirrels) where we cooked our own meals.  The Jampot run by Catholic monks in Eagle Harbor provided some yummy breakfast muffins and lots of jam to take home for souvenirs.

Wasn't quick enough to snap the eagles!

Michigan--we'll be back.  Keweenaw is definitely on a September vacation bucket list--where we were told to expect an early foliage season that rivals even Vermont!

Mapping Your Road Trip

Just back from an amazing trip meanadering along Lake Michigan and then Lake Superior on Michigan's famed Upper Penninsula, but more on that in another post!

Over on the Travato Owner's and Wannabees Facebook Group (TOAW) several of us have been talking about creating custom vacation-planning maps using Google's 'My Maps' application.  If you haven't used My Maps before, it's a must for road trippers! Here's a very short screencast to get you started, enjoy!  But fair warning--map making can become addictive....

Google Photos Makes Us Happy!

Note:  Updated 6/13/2019 to reflect changes to Google Photos. 

Even though it's not technically a 'travel' app, we use Google Photos daily on road trips and it makes us happy! Photos has been a game changer for us.  The unlimited free cloud storage, editing tools, photo management, automatic uploading, and sharing capabilities are a winning combination and best of all, my mobile phone never runs out of storage space!  

So let's talk about unlimited free cloud storage--yes you really can store as many photos as you want in the Google cloud, but here's the catch.  Google saves your image as 'hight quality' which is 16 mp.  In the free version we use, images larger than 16 mp would be compressed by Google.  16 mp is just fine for us because most 8 x 10 enlargements print just fine! Google Photos also saves video up to 1020p.   The free version is a super solution for family and travel photos while professional photographers will want to explore inexpensive cloud storage solution for a monthly fee.

Hands down my favorite feature in Google Photos is called 'Shared Libraries' that allows sharing and uploading of all your photos to another person's account (Choose wisely because you can only select one person!). This might not sound like a big deal, but with two travelers with two phones, it was always a total PITA to get all of the photos from a trip in one place.  With Tom's Google Photos account set to automatically share his library with me, I'm a happy camper!

As for photo editing, I'm low maintenance.  I don't have patience to learn Photoshop, but I'm fussy enough to want to spend a few minutes to straighten, crop, and adjust my photos a bit,  Google Photo editing tools are super user friendly with pre-set filters (think Instagram) and easy slider tools to adjust lighting and color. You can also crop and rotate photos.  

Here's an example of crop in action.  At Assateague National Seashore, we spotted a wild foal nursing with Mom but didn't want to get close enough to disturb them.  The resulting photo of this charming pair was just a little too far away.  After a few seconds with the Google Photos crop tool, the edited photo became a stand out memory from our vacation.

95% of the time Google Photo's editing tools work for our needs, but for that other 5% try the Snapseed link in Photos (app available in Apple or Android) for fancier and more create effects.  

Photo management with Google is a breeze because you can search your images!  Find places (like Nova Scotia), objects (like violins), or people through facial recognition.  You can teach Google Photos the names of people by adding labels to photos. It's also simple to create albums and collages.

I'm always in awe of professional photographers with their amazing DSLRs with mile-long telephoto lenses and mad Photoshopping skills, but Google Photos has what I need to simply and quickly edit and organize our memories.  It makes me happy to improve upon the results I get with my iPhone. So happy, that Tom and I will be sharing the basics of using Google Photos with our vancamper friends at Winnebago's Grand National Rally for a second year.  If you haven't used it yet, you can get started here with this printable.

We'd love to hear about travel apps that make you happy.  Share them in the comments below.

Anticipation!

Summer travel season is almost here and the anticipation is overwhelming in our house! Even Rosie knows something is up as we all troop in and out of the house packing and preping Luigi, our van camper.  

This summer takes us to Michigan and it's famed Upper Peninsula--where we get to be temporary Yoopers, 'ya there eh?' The prospect of beaches, lighthouses, waterfalls, sand dunes, state parks, national seashores, and other new discoveries has us itchy to head west.  And then there's our food and beverage bucket list which includes Dragon's Milk Salted Caramel Stout at New Holland Brewing, Mackinac Island fudge, pasties from Muldoon's in Munising, and absolutely anything and everything made from Traverse City cherries.

After Michigan it's on to Winnebago's Grand National Rally in Forest City, Iowa which is a little like summer camp for adults.  We'll meet up with travelers in 40 other van campers like ours (and 1000s of big rig RVs) where we'll attend seminars, listen to live music, play games, and swap stories from the road.

Tom, Rosie (the packing supervisor) and I are excited to make some new memories on the road and share them with you.

Hope you'll share where you're headed this summer in the comment below.