A Grand UP Trip

It still feels like the ground is moving under me after a 800ish mile, 13 hr, 4.5 day road trip to the UP and back.

Using a previous northern lower peninsula trip as bait (https://dbur023.blogspot.com/2019/05/a-short-guide-to-michigander-conversion.html), I lured my Pennsylvania friends back to MI (plus my brother!) for an even grander trip.

And I think it paid off.

Day 1
We mostly collected people, rental cars, snacks and headed north. We were all enamored by the sweet little A-frame we rented in Harbor Springs as a quick touchdown spot. 



Day 2
First, a quick tour of Harbor Springs. The cookie shop was closed, but a very big boat was there (which I feel like is a pretty standard recap of H.S.?). Then to Mackinac City to snap some pics of the bridge. Then, OVER the bridge and straight to Tahquamenon Falls. 

I always forget how big and majestic the falls are. Plus, it seems they've added way more walking trails to see much more of the lower falls since my last visit. A future to-do activity would be completing the 4 mile hike between the lower and upper falls. 



From there, onward to Munising to catch a sunset Pictured Rocks tour.



We had A+ wood fired pizza (one with blueberries and blue cheese on it? Don't sleep on that) and beer. The sunset cruise... I could go on every month and would never tire of. We had completely clear skies, a fantastic sunset, 2 bald eagle sightings, and a rockin' captain who parallel parked the boat in Chapel Cove with more ease than I pull my Nissan into a grocery store parking spot.

That night, to cap it off, the boys went out on a hunt for the Northern Lights, and THEY SAW THEM! I'd kick myself for not joining, but us girls were so cooked from the day we saw little northern lights dancing behind our eyelids .2 seconds after laying down to bed.

Day 3
This was the first time I hiked the Pictured Rocks. We took a quick walk to Miners Castle and down to Miners Beach. I'd love to go back and do much more.

Then on to Kitch-iti-kipi. Unfortunately there was a 2hr (can you believe??) wait to get on the boat, so we skipped that. Still worth seeing once or twice. The clear emerald water was amazing. 



THEN to Mackinac Island! Of course we ended the night sleepily drinking pink drinks at The Pink Pony.

Day 4
"Rest" day.... in comparison to the other days. We toured the fort, shopped, ate, biked the island, sat at a white rocky beach i could retire on tomorrow and threw stones in the water like little kids. We shopped more. We worked together to buy enough fudge so we could procure a souvenir tote bag. 





We played on the island until the last ferry came to collect us, then waited until it was dark enough, and drove out to the Dark Sky Park to lay below the stars and giggle. 

Day 5
Isn't the last day the worst? We woke up back in our favorite A-frame in Harbor Springs. We walked Petoskey. We drove and drove and drove and said sad goodbyes. 

Throughout the whole trip we never saw a drop of rain, almost never even a cloud. Our group of five were hardcore troopers. We saw it all, and slept well.

About 30lbs of peanut butter M&Ms were consumed en route, hours of  A+ alt rock (plus Celine Dion) music enjoyed. We traded work and weird dentist stories and came up with band/song names (Crawl Space Below The Chalet--plz, someone take this).

I'm home now, sleepy still, not unpacked and definitely don't feel grounded, but man that trip was great. 

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