Green Bay, WI to Upper Peninsula, MI (July 28-30)

Having spent a couple of days with Liz, a friend we got to know through RVing Women (RVW), who is such a Packer supporter she sat through the "Ice Bowl" in 1967, we decided to stop in Green Bay and see what all the fuss is about. 

Irene actually was a Packer fan because her roommate in nursing school was a Dallas Cowboy fan. Different from all other pro teams, the Packers are mostly owned by the people of Green Bay and WI. The stadium seats 81,000, has a 80% grass field with some synthetic "grass" woven into the base, and is heated to keep the grass alive. 

 

It is beautiful and impressive and the story behind it is too long for here.

It is 2 pm Monday, and we're off to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan to the little town of Munising for our first viewing of Lake Superior. We went straight to the office of Pictured Rock Cruises to book our 2.5 hr boat cruise for the next morning. 

While still dusk at 9:00pm we decided to ask if we could just park our rig on the street where we would need to be in the morning rather than drive out of town to camp. Long story short, we walked to the police station to ask permission, and yes we stayed right there on the water and enjoyed a glass of wine and watched the last cruise of the day come into the dock. 

9:30am Tuesday morning we went to stand in line to get a "good seat" on the inside of the boat. It was windy, about 59 degrees, foggy and the locals thought it was a fine morning. Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore is beautiful and can mostly be viewed from a boat or kayak.

 

 

As we made our way back to the Munising Boat Dock, we passed this old lighthouse which not surprisingly is called schoolhouse style.

 

Next was the drive to find Tahquamenon (sounds like phenomenon) Falls State Park, Lower Falls Campground to spend the night. The state parks in WI and MI are exceptional in that they have electric at most sites, are well utilized by families with children who bring their bikes, sleeping is done mostly in tents and trailers that fold you into tent-like structures,  cooking is done on an open fire and campfire smoke fills the air at night. You might be wondering how we picked where we were going at this point. Another friend through RVW, Sue who grew up in Michigan, gave us a list of her favorite places. This is a spot that works well as a place to stay as you travel and see the Upper Peninsula. The water falls were different from any in CA with the brown color being tannic acid. We took the short trek to both the upper and lower falls, one could take longer hikes, as it was already 8 pm. 

Wednesday we were off to Whitefish Point which is way up there and winters are serious!

Our destination was the Whitefish Light Station and Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum which includes the story of the history of the Edmund Fitzgerald which was a massive freighter (729 ft long) which sank on 11/10/1975. Winds were gusting over 98 mph, waves were running 30 feet high and the Whitefish beacon was not illuminated this night. While walking through this museum, Gordon Lightfoot's song plays in the background and story after tragic story are graphically described. 6,000 boats and 30,000 men, women and children were claimed by Lake Superior over the years and this museum is a wonderful tribute to their memory. If you can only see one Lighthouse and Maritime Museum this is the one to see!

 

 

  
The White Shoal Lens was a Second-Order Fresnel Lens, built in France, with 344 separate prisms. This nine-foot diameter, 3500 pound lens could refract a modest light source into an intense beam that could be seen for a distance of over 28 miles; however, every 2 hours and 18 minutes the lightkeeper had to wind the mechanism.

The lighthouse and station have been beautifully restored. Robert Carlson, came to Whitefish Point as the lightkeeper in 1903 where he stayed till his retirement in 1931. The US Lighthouse Service allowed families to reside at this station year round.

Paradise, MI is between the campground and the Whitefish Point and this is the local watering hole. 

 

By the way, the RV has 2, 550 miles under her belt since leaving Sacramento July 7.