From the Yoop to Viking Country

So, Tuesday (yesterday) kicked off our first of three long driving days that would take us 1,271 miles from Mackinaw City, Mi to Billings, MT--our jumping off point to Yellowstone National Park. In our planning, we tried to keep our "longest" days restricted to no more than 8 hours just so we could improvise and see "cool" things along the way. This ended up serving us quite well.

We left Mackinaw City on Tuesday morning and headed out across the Mackinaw City Bridge, which at some point in history was the longest suspension bridge in the world at 5 miles. It connects Michigan's lower peninsula to its upper peninsula, or "UP" as it's known. (Locals can be called Yoopers......and trust me, I used it as often as possible.)

From what we were able to gather, folks in the Yoop are an interesting bunch. They LOVE pastys--or at least they love advertising for them, and they love selling things on the side of the road--boats, canoes, cars, wheelbarrows, t-shirts, doodads, etc. 

Another thing that Yoopers seem to have an interest in is animals. In fact, there were tons of ads for Zoos in people's backyards......that's right. A friend we made at the gas station in Mackinaw City advised us to visit one of these homegrown zoos in particular--Oswald's Bear Ranch. GREAT SUGGESTION! Court was interested in the prospect of petting a bear cub, so we headed out to Oswald's to see what the fuss was about.

"What the fuss was about."
BEAR CUBS!
(Look at Court's face. Or look up "unadulterated joy" in the dictionary." Same picture.)

Patty the bear cub

The bear pawed me. Oswald says that is a sign of respect.  THAT'S WHAT I'M TALKIN' ABOUT!

The Man. The Myth. Oswald.

This was Reed, the bear poop scooper. He wanted us to get an unobstructed bear picture.

The Disney Classic

From the Bear Ranch, we headed out to another pit stop--Pictured Rocks National Lake Shore. In brief, this was a very beautiful place that was difficult to see from above, and it was FREEEEEEEEZING cold and extremely windy. Thus, we got the following pictures and then left immediately.

After Pictured Rocks we drove straight through the rest of the UP and entered into Wisconsin on highway-2.

Ashland, WI

If you've read our itinerary, you know we had planned to stop in Ashland, WI and camp. However, it was still early in the day when we arrived in Ashland, so we ended up camping in Duluth, MN, about an hour and half west of Ashland on Lake Superior. The campsite was rockin and we had a great night, even though the temperature dropped to the upper 40's at night........and we met a guy named Mo Squito in a big way.

Much love to all you folks at home! Thanks for the messages!

Mackinac Island

On Monday we drove up through "The Tunnel of Trees" on M-119 to Mackinaw City, MI. If you ever have the chance to drive this road, I highly recommend doing so! One thing: There's no line to divide the lanes, so it can get a little crazy around the tight turns.

Out the Driver's window

If you were one of the many bugs stuck on my windshield....

When we got into Mackinac, we checked into the illustrious Thunderbird lodge and then headed out to play some mini golf. Court and I love mini golf and have a very intense rivalry. It would be more intense if she was able to ever beat me.............OHHHHHHHH! (She won't read this.)

We decided on "Animal Tracks" because Court was attracted to its educational qualities. You see, on every hole, the players also get to learn fun facts about animal paw/hoof/foot prints. It was CRAZY awesome, but we found out that we are very bad at recognizing animal footprints, as we only correctly identified the prints of 7 out of 18 types of animals in Northern Michigan.  

Oh! Oh! What's that?? HOLE IN ONE to clinch the victory........

Court was OK with the outcome of the putt-putt game since she was able to snarf down one of the local culinary favorites--a Pasty. (Pah-stee) It's basically a glorified chicken pot pie. She was diggin it big time!

Docking at the port at Mackinac Island

Next, we set off on Shepler's Ferry for Mackinac Island, which is located a few miles off the coast of Mackinaw City. We spent the day on the island, which is a bikes-only green energy commune, or something like that. Since we have our bikes, we brought 'em over and spent the day cruising around the island seeing the sights. Some of those sights are now shown below:

Main Street Mackinac

Court and her cruiser

The view from some sweet spot we had to walk 15 minutes to get to.....so worth it.

From the same spot as mentioned previously

Completing the 8 mile loop around the coast.......also making friends with our fellow bikers who were very friendly

It got cold. We got coffee. AND HATS FOR 3 BUCKS!

Court likes horses.....but was about to get terrified when it moved near her......

Couldn't be happier...

Just found this stunner when I was unloading the pictures from the day....SURPRISE 

After it got crazy cold, we left on the ferry and went out to dinner to get fish. Fish was good. Then we retreated to the comforts of the Thunderbird Lodge to write this blog for our homeys. Much love.

Goodbye Tawas, Hello Harbor Springs!

Sunday morning found us eating breakfast with Court's grandparents at one of their favorite Tawas City "dives"--Mitch's "We-also-make-great-breakfast!" Pizzeria. The food was, in fact, great! The company was better.

From there we headed out M-55 and north on I-75 up to Gaylord, MI to visit some of Court's cousins who weren't able to make it to the mini family reunion in Tawas. (I know what you're thinking, and no apparently the town was not named for Neilson Murray.)

Uncle Jeff, Court, and Cousin Mitchell, the future hockey star and current lady killer

From there we headed out to Harbor Springs, a beautiful resort town on the shores of Lake Michigan. The drive was easy and the scenery was beautiful. Also we got to listen to some great sermons from Matt Chandler of the Village Church along the way--awesome. (Some of you may be wondering about the sound system in the Hyundai. I can assure you it is exceptional, and we do have an input for our ipods to stave off any would-be driving boredom.)

Upon arriving in Harbor Springs, we toured around a bit and then went to lunch at Turkeys, which was delicious.

Downtown Harbor Springs

Crossing Main Street like it ain't no thang

After spending time in town we headed just outside the city. My Aunt Leslie was kind enough to offer her parent's guest house, which is located in a wooded area on the other side of the harbor, but still on the shore of Lake Michigan. The place was UNBELIEVABLE! Courtney and I had an absolutely awesome time with Leslie's parents who were very hospitable and even took us out to dinner!

The stinkin' guest house....WHAT  WHAT!!!

Lake Michigan....and porch furniture

"How many stupid pictures of me are you going to take in the next five minutes?"

Well, anyway, so Sunday was a great day. PEACE!

The Woods in Tawas

We arrived in Tawas City on Friday to see Courtney's Dad's side of the family. It is an absolutely beautiful town in the middle of nowhere in Michigan on the shore of Lake Huron.

We stayed with Court's grandparents, who live in a wonderful little lake house right outside of town. We had an AWESOME time with them and with the whole Michigan Woods family. Below are a couple highlights of our trip:

Skipping rocks into the lake for hours...

18 mile bike ride around the harbor to the light house

The infamous light house!

Just for the Mex! EJ!

Seeing where Court's Dad and Grandad worked as kids--KLENOWS!

Court meeting her Dad's friends from home

Big family cookout (They loved the group picture!)

Goofball Cousins with goofball accents

The House--ballin'

Coffee by the lake on Saturday morning--how artistic!

View of Lake Huron from the back deck--awesome.

We had an incredible time and are so thankful to the Woods for letting us stay with them!

By the way, we have loved getting calls/emails, etc from people while on our trip. Please don't hesitate to contact us or post on the blog!

Much love.