What a disappointing day - super crappy!

June 18 - I should have known that with last night’s cold front moving in and all the fog that

View in Pictured Rock

today would not go as planned!  Weather-wise that it.  Be the time we got up the rain had stopped and it was a sloppy mess outside.  Puddles everywhere.  We were not really in a hurry as we were planning to drive up the coast to and through Pictured Rock National Lakeshore ending in Grand Marais.

Munising Falls

The road only follows the shore for a short time way further up the road, so most of the ride was in beautiful wooded area with little to no traffic.  We first stopped at Munising Falls Visitor Center where we checked out the displays and then did the walk back in to see the Falls.  It was brisk out and a nice walk and although it felt like rain any moment, it didn’t.

Sable Falls

As much as I wanted to see Au Sable Lighthouse, it was over a mile trail each way and Bill said he didn’t mind waiting for me if I wanted to go.  How much fun would that be?  So, I didn’t and we continued on to the Grand Marais Visitor Center.  The actual building is and old farmhouse and that was very interesting in itself.  The barn still remains and is used by the park service.  They had a display about the family who built it and how the settlers staked a claim and worked the land and made the improvements the government required to own the land.  Then things came full circle when the government bought it back for the park service. 

1 of 3 sections of stairs

Before getting to the town of Grand Marais, we stopped to see Sable Falls and the twisting and turning stairway to the bottom to see the full view of the falls was 146 steps.  Of course it was the same number going back, so we had our work out for the day.  Needless to say, the falls were beautiful.

Grand Marais is pretty small!  At the end of town is the Grand Marais Harbor Range Light and the Grand Marais Keepers House.  It was closed but we did get to see the Range Light.  The door was

Grand Marais Harbor
Range  light

locked next door at the Ranger Station so we didn’t get any stamps for information there.  Since there is literally nothing along the drive of 48 miles so we decided we better have lunch in town.

We wanted pasties but didn’t see any advertised on the few places we passed.  There was a crowd at the West Bay Diner and I loved the look of the place.  Turns out the food was excellent but our server was not.  She was curt to us when we arrived and Bill tried to ask a question, then she left us standing and Bill wanted to leave.  The owner seated us and brought us popcorn, water,

Cute diner

silverware and said the other girl would take our order.  She took forever, never refilled our glasses and when we asked for a box to take our leftovers, she brought one small tray and a small plastic bag.  Needless to say, her tip reflected her service!  Those were be biggest and best sandwiches!  They were $12 each with chips but were about 4 inches tall and you couldn’t get the whole thing in your mouth.  We ended up each bringing half home so we got 2 meals out of it!  I had a reuben while Bill had a turkey with bacon and of course the both had cheese on them!

We had reservations for the 4:00 Pictured Rock Boat Tour and we were warned that the

What it looks like

What we saw...

temp on the water is at least 5 degrees colder than on land and since it was cold to start with I packed a back with a sweatshirt, rain jacket, gloves and small blanket.  I took a blanket for Bill also.  To make a long story short (if possible) we left on the boat and it was beautiful at the shore but the closer we got to the rook walls and formations (about 30 minutes out) it was so foggy you could barely see an outline of the cliffs or formations.  The captain said there was no point in going further that we’d all get a full refund.  He took us by Grand Island in hopes of seeing the lighthouse on the shore and

Grand Island Lighthouse

at first it was so foggy you could barely make it out, but he drifted for a minute and the fog cleared enough for an OK photo.  Back on shore it was sunny and clear!  So we were refunded our tickets and decided as least we better buy a few postcards of what we were supposed to see.  It was very disappointing since this was our only day to see it, but it wasn’t meant to be.

On the way home we stopped for take out pasties and they were disappointing also!  Mostly potato and no seasoning, just not as good as Bessie’s in St. Ignace!

After dinner we walked over to the beach area and checked out all the new RV’s parked and stopped and chatted quite a while with a couple from NM.  As always, we’ve met some very nice people on this trip.