Day 9: Voyageurs National Park

Jessie: Our last day of vacation started with Dad getting up at dawn to go fishing using the hotel paddle boat. He caught two smallmouth bass and two northern pike. He also said one other pike startled him by jumping almost two feet out of the water right next to the boat (going after his lure as he was pulling it out of the water). When he returned to the hotel we quickly collected our belongings for the last time and went to the docks for the shuttle ride back to our car. After a 20 to 25 minute boat ride with clear skies and dead calm water we returned to the Ash River Visitor Center and our car.

Then the real ride came: the 10 to 11 hour drive home. Along the way we stopped to get the oil changed in our car as we had driven about 300 miles past the recommended mileage. Alli and I walked to the Dollar Tree to shop during that time. But after that it was a straight drive home. Our happiest moment that day (besides being in our house and sleeping in our own beds) was when we pulled onto our street. We all leaned in and listened close with giddy anticipation as our GPS said: "Drive .2 miles to home." And although our vacation was over I think I speak for all of us when I say: there's no place like home.

Day 8: Voyageurs National Park

Alli: Well, we found the bugs in Minnesota: they were all in Voyaguers NP. Or, should I say they found us - Two seconds after we got out of the car we were greeted with the persistent sound of horse flies and mosquito’s zooming around our heads. The boat ride in wasn't bad though; the boat traveled fast enough to escape the swarms, giving us the chance to check out the surrounding islands and snap a few pictures. Within 20 minutes we were docking; thankfully we didn't leave any of our luggage behind this time.

After we checked in to our hotel we took a canoe out on Rainy Day Lake. Jessie and I took on the job of paddling while Dad fished. For whatever reason our kayaking skills didn't transfer over to canoeing (I blame Jessie). Over the next 2 hours we zigzagged around the lake - slowly but surly making our way over to the locations Dad wanted to test. As Dad made his casts, Jessie and I looked for any signs of wildlife. In the end we saw a deer, a bald eagle, and what seemed like a million mosquito’s and horseflies. We had to create a bug-buddy-system, something that seemed like a good idea at the time. It turned out to be a lose-lose situation, one second you'd get bitten and the next Dad would slap you in the head with his shirt "claiming" to be taking it out on the bug. All I can say is that arguing must attract a lot of bugs.

Having worn out our arms acting as Dad's water taxi, Jessie and I decided to take a break, going back to the hotel for a little bit while Dad finished up fishing. After about an hour Dad returned, and we went downstairs to have dinner. Jessie, having done a little research about the hotel told us about the famous tilting floor in the bar; so after eating we went to check it out. For once, Jessie was right! It was ridiculous how slanted the floor was - there was a pool table in the center, and when standing on the lower side I looked as if I was 3 feet tall. We played several games of cut-throat, and who would have known - Jessie has some mad pool skills! She turned out to be the bee's knees (an apparently ancient expression I used, causing the bartender to poke some fun at me). I on the other hand, had a little more trouble getting the balls to go where I wanted, at one point quietly singing the words "Not gonna mess this up" as I prepared to cue off. After a few games, a Bloody Mary for Dad, and a Snicker's bar, we decided to call it a night. Making our way back to our room we finished the night with a movie before tucking in for the night. Apparently this turned out to be harder for some, seeing as Jessie had trouble falling asleep after finding a spider crawling under her covers. Still, within no time we all began to doze off, the sound of the cool night's breeze gently rustling the trees, and thus bringing about the end of another great vacation.

Day 7: Minnesota Coastal Parks

Jessie: It's always nice to see waterfalls with water, and that's exactly what we saw about 20 times today. Driving coastal highway 61 from Duluth to Grand Marais, MN, we started with Gooseberry Falls State Park, a name that reminded me of what dad calls goose bumps. He'll randomly say: "Look at your goose pimples!" Goose pimples? Who calls them goose pimples? That's like calling them goose acne. With these thought in mind we started the easy hike at 8 in the morning - I know, it never ends. The falls were pretty amazing, and big. And it was nice being one of the only people there. The same thing goes for all of the other falls we saw - considering we went to more parks today than any other - which included Split Rock Lighthouse SP, Tettegouche SP, Cascade River SP, Temperance River SP, and Judge CR Magney SP.

Split Rock Lighthouse had a small island a little ways off the coast, and I was surprised when dad said we could walk to it, considering an island means that there's water all the way around it. It turns out that when the tide is low there's a path of rocks that comes from the mainland and goes out to the island. Unfortunately we weren't able to make it to the island, not because of the water but because of a sign that said we weren't supposed to. So instead of hiking to the island we walked along the pebbled beach. As we walked dad said the best sentence ever: "I don't think we're going to do the Eagle Mountain hike." The Eagle Mountain hike or, as Alli and I liked to call it, the Evil Mountain hike, was a seven mile hike (round trip) up a mountain.

As I said earlier waterfalls were the main attraction today but Tettegouche SP had an area called the Palisades which was an expanse of shoreline with shear cliffs that were several hundreds of feet high. Dad wanted a photo of him sitting with his feet over the edge. Beautiful scene except for the comment "If I fall, here are the car keys." Yeah, that inspires confidence. Thanks Dad.
 

After skipping the hike of doom we happily went to Dairy Queen, where I boxed a wooden moose and Alli imitated a bear. We went back to our hotel room, the awesomest - yeah I'm pretty sure I made that up - room ever. We had a balcony that looked out over the lake, where the occasional pirate ship passed by, and a shower with multiple shower heads. Our hotel was right on the beach so Dad and I walked the beach, Dad skipping rocks as I searched for rocks. I went into the water willingly and came out a second later involuntarily. That water was so cold it almost hurt. But after a nice talk with a friendly stranger we called it quits - don't get me wrong it wasn't because of the stranger - and went in for the night, having only two more days of vacation left.

Day 6: Apostle Islands National Lakeshore

Alli: Once again we found ourselves with a light schedule. The day consisted of a cruise around the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore and later a hike to the sea caves. Still, we had to get an early start, seeing as the boat tour was a good hour away from our hotel.

Once there, we picked up our tickets and stood in line, all the while admiring the boats and lakeshore view that surrounded us. The cruise lasted a little over 3 hours - and it was worth every minute! Sitting in the comforting shade of the lower deck we snapped picture after picture of the distant islands, sea caves, and lighthouse. The boat also had a section of glass-bottom windows where we could often see the rocky shores and treasures of the lake (aka an old tire) as we approached the shorelines of the islands. We also passed a couple other boats, one in particular being a fishing boat with what seemed like a thousand seagulls floating around it waiting for its nets to emerge. At the end of the tour the captain told us that one passenger had been selected at random to win a prize at the local gift shop. Unfortunately, it wasn't any of us; but that didn't stop us from taking a look around. In the end I bought a teal mug, and Dad, an orange shirt.

Our final stop of the day was the Sea Caves trail in Apostle Island's National Lakeshore. The trail was about 5 miles round trip, through nasty humidity that made it feel hotter than Satan's balls. The path wound through the trees, over small bridges and up and down steps strategically built an awkward 1 1/2 strides apart. Just as I was about to reach my breaking point, I started to make out the sound of waves crashing, and within minutes the shimmering blue waters began to peak through the trees. Though the hike had been brutal, the view from the top of the cliffs was indeed, very beautiful. As we peered over the side of the cliffs, we saw a small group of kayakers wading in a sea caves below and envied the cool breeze they were getting off the water. We ended up walking down a little further, taking a couple more pictures before turning around and making the dreaded trip back to the car. We ran out of water towards the end, but somehow we still made it back alive. On our way to our hotel in Duluth, MN we stopped at a gas station and treated ourselves to ice cream and an ice cold root beer. Probably gaining back all the calories we had just burned off. Still worth it though.

Though we were all worn down, and after checking into our hotel, we decided to walk around the Canal Park area for a little bit to check out the areas shops and parks. We then ended the day having dinner at a restaurant near the hotel, before making our way back for a refreshing shower and a good night's sleep.

Day 5: Upper Peninsula

Jessie: The float plane flight back to Houghton was much faster than the flight out. There weren't any storms, just a nice, sunny day. When we landed dad miscalculated the height of the plane from the ground and decided to ninja roll off the plane onto the ground, all while holding his camera. Though every part of his body touched the ground the camera didn't come within two feet reinforcing the number one law on vacation: protect the camera at all costs.

We went to visit property (200 feet of beach frontage on Lake Superior) that my grandma used to own near Ontonagon, MI. Thinking we had the wrong house we asked one of the neighbors. After talking to the man (exciting his dog that was sitting on the front porch so much it became tangled in it's leash, choking itself and almost falling down the stairs) we arrived at the correct cabin. Having an idea for decorating my room we collected driftwood from the beach. I left with an arm load while Alli left with only one piece which looked like a wand from Hogwarts.

Porcupine Mountain State Park, our next destination, had an easy boardwalk hike with a great view of the isolated "Lake of the Clouds" nestled on top of a forested mountain and flanked by a shear rock wall. While we were there we had a woman take a family picture of us which was followed by dad complaining that she didn't know how to compose a picture. You know, the usual. We also saw a family go outside the fence and walk towards the cliff's edge. This was followed by a muttered statement by dad, "Well that's illegal." We laughed at the family when they tried to get a picture of the dad with his dog. The dog continually turned around putting his butt to the camera and then lying down facing the wrong direction.

Visiting another piece of property that my grandparents owned we went to the old family cabin at Langford Lake, MI. As we drove along the gravel roads we turned onto a private road that read "keep out." After an exclamation from Alli: "Dad I don't want to get shot!" dad turned around and went another way. Though my dad used to go on the property all the time when we were younger, it was now owned by someone else and though the people who lived in the cabin were gone, we illegally went on the property to take photos for Grandma to see how it has changed.

Continuing on with our blast from the past we went to Black River Falls. Dad had gone here on a field trip in college and had been here a couple more times with Mom and some friends. We hiked a total of about six miles (which included about 1200 stairs) to five very different falls including Rainbow, Sandstone, Potawatomi, Gorge, and Conglomerate Falls. The falls were wide and slow to narrow and fast. All of the hiking was rewarding - mostly for Alli - as she climbed over a fence to get $6 that dad noticed lying on the ground. After briefly visiting the beach at the end of the river Dad alone went on to hike about two more miles to see the backside of Rainbow Falls to get a better view of this cork-screwing falls which couldn’t be seen from the road side. We then went back to our hotel in Ironwood, MI ending the day with a nice dinner next door.

Day 4: Isle Royale National Park

Alli: The only stop on the schedule for today was Isle Royale National Park. Though this was to be the least busy driving day of our vacation it was also one of the most adventurous. The day started off with us driving 10 miles to the Houghton Airport to catch our private floatplane out to the island. After waiting the better part of an hour for the plane our pilot, John, (an active F-16 pilot) with the legendary call sign "Lemon" greeted us and loaded up our gear. The flight out to the island was incredible! As we left the mainland, we skimmed over storm clouds, giving the illusion that we were driving on top a snowy mountain rather than flying thousands of feet up in the air. The flight lasted half an hour, but the time flew by (no pun intended) as we gazed out the windows over the shimmering blue waters of Lake Superior.

Once on the island, we unloaded the plane, and thanked John for the lift. After watching him take off from the water we grabbed our gear and took the short hike up to the lodge. Only after we were halfway up the trail did we realize that John had failed to unload our cooler from the plane. After checking in we called the Royale Air Service in hopes that we could get our food stash back before we left the next day. They told us the John would be back in half an hour to drop it off. However, what we didn't know was when they said half and hour what they really meant was an hour and a half. We tried to make the most of the time we spent waiting on the docks, taking pictures and what not, but seeing as we only had a day on the island we were eager to get our day started. Just as we were debating leaving the docks we heard the sound of distant engines and moments later John was pulling up to the dock. Opening up the hatch, he jokingly said "I hope this cooler is full of filet mignon" because he hadn't planned on returning to the Rock Harbor area, to which we replied "Nope! Pringles!"

Now that we had all our luggage together the day could officially start. The first thing we did was rent a small motor boat to take us out to Raspberry Island. Storm clouds were rolling in by the time we reached the shores but because the hike was only half a mile long we figured we'd be okay. Well, rain wise at least. By the time we emerged from the woods we were all being chased by a ravenous swarm of blood-thirsty mosquito’s. Other than being eaten alive the hike was nice though. The moss covered trees looked like something out of the Fire Swamp from Princess Bride - spooky, but very cool. And while walking along the path we saw fresh moose poop - though we never saw the beast itself. After leaving the Raspberry Island dock we drove the boat around several smaller islands, taking pictures and riding the waves. I liked to sit in the very front - comfy, and you get the most air whenever going over the rougher waves. Before long the clouds that had threatened our hike before finally began raining down with sounds of thunder in the distance, so we brought the boat back and headed back to our room.

Jessie: Back in our dry room dad looked outside and said, I'm going to hike to Scoville Point, who wants to come with me. Alli and I looked at each other, staying silent. Eventually I agreed to go with and so we (just dad and I) put on long clothes for bug protection and left. Five minutes into the hike the sun came back out and we were immediately hot. The 2.4 mile hike to Scoville Point was well worth it. The scenery was beautiful with the orange lichen covering the brown rocks. The aggressive waves crashed into the cliff below. We even saw spots that reminded us of scenes from Lord of the Rings. We took a picture together and then decided to head back to Alli. We thought she might be lonely but it turned out she was busy watching The Blind Side. The hike back seemed longer than the hike out, perhaps it was the heat. After returning we immediately changed back into our shorts, glorious!

Alli: The last thing on the schedule was to rent a kayak, which Jessie and I took out on Tobin bay by the seaplane docks. I'm proud to say we completely mastered kayaking! Well, kayaking backwards anyways. We never could go forwards without somehow veering off course. But backwards we were pros! We also met this really nice Canadian man, Chuck - or maybe he was from Minnesota (I don't know, they both sound the same). He had caught some lake trout earlier that day and was having a cookout, and offered up some fried fish and corn on the cob. It was de-lic-ious! Just what I needed after that long workout that comes with kayaking. After putting the kayak away I was totally ripped - even Dad was impressed with my new sculpturous set of biceps. We then went and grabbed some dinner to go from the lodge restaurant (which they wrapped in 20 feet of tin foil) and spent the rest of the night in our room, eating, watching movies, and molding ourselves into our beds. Dad briefly walked down to the America dock to fish a little and watch the sunset over the island.

Day 3: Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore

Jessie: The third day of our vacation is the longest day we would have. We started off with a morning hike at Tahquamenon Falls State Park. When we pulled up to the trailhead we noticed a squirrel sitting on the wooden fence. Dad told me to get a cracker, and as I did the squirrel went away. I was going to leave the cracker in the car because the squirrel had gone but after minutes of a back and fourth argument I was told (ordered) to keep the cracker. I never knew that I would be in an argument about giving a squirrel in Michigan a cracker at 8 in the morning. After three miles of hiking and 574 steps (yes I counted them) we saw the upper and lower falls of Tahquamenon. The water flowed over the falls looking like tea due to the tannins that leached into the water from decaying vegetation: spruce and hemlock trees. Next destination: Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore.

Earlier on my dad programmed our GPS (named Jill) to take us to Spray Falls. As we drove through the National Forest we noticed that Jill was taking us down every gravel and dirt road possible. When we finally came to the trailhead we realized that Jill had taken us to the wrong location. My dad, looking at the map, started venting. "Jill you flipping idiot! This really burns my ass! You're so stupid... Oh wait, she's right." It turns out that she was just taking us to the trail from a different direction. After some reprogramming we finally got to where we needed to be, Chapel Basin Trailhead. Originally, Alli and I were told (by our dad) that it would only be a four mile hike round trip. Upon arrival we found out that it was a six and a half mile hike round trip. The long hike was well worth it though, taking us by Chapel Falls and finally ending with a picturesque view of Chapel Rock and Chapel Beach, which looked like one you would find on Hawaii. We didn't have swimsuits but that didn't matter. Being the only clothed people on the beach we swam in our clothes. We stayed there for hours, taking pictures, swimming, and collecting rocks to pass the time. The water in the lake was so cold that we found ourselves drifting to the water coming from the falls, which was blissfully warm.

After this long hike we made our way to see Miners Castle (no hiking, just a beautiful overlook) and Miners Beach to sit and relax and play in the water. Dad then added one last stop along the way, Munising Falls. Only an 800 foot long trail so not too much complaining. Finally finishing the day with dinner at the Bonanza in Marquette and a 100 mile drive to the hotel. Filling up on the buffet we were ready to just relax in our hotel room for the rest of the night while Dad went over the next days activities.