Every year, for the past three years, we have always gone to the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore on Michigan's west side. This year we decided to do something a little different. We went to Alpena which is on east side of the state. Who said you can't teach an old dog new tricks? Anyway, we had a lot of fun!
Friday, we visited the Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary which protects one of America's best preserved and historically significant collection of shipwrecks. Unlike salt water shipwrecks, the fresh water of Lake Huron preserves the shipwrecks so that archaeologists can study and learn more about them. We really enjoyed the educational exhibits, films and the real-life ship we walked through. This enabled us to see what it was like on a ship during a storm. The boys said their favorite part of the sanctuary was the ship and seeing the artifacts from actual shipwrecks.
We then headed off to see some lighthouses. Caleb has had a love for lighthouses since he was very little. When we learned that we were only 23 miles away from 2 of them, we thought why not? So we headed to Presque Isle (pronounced Presk Eel).
As we pulled up, we spotted a porcupine in the wooded area. It didn't seem all that bothered but as we approached it climbed a nearby tree. We didn't realize that porcupines climbed trees. When we left the lighthouse area, we checked on him and saw that he had climbed to the very top of the tree and looked like a rather large bird's nest.
We learned that the Old Presque Isle lighthouse was built in 1840 and was only meant to be used as a beacon for the Harbour. It only stands 40 feet tall. Once we climbed to the top, we thought that was tall enough. The spiral staircase became quite narrow and then to get to the very top, we had to climb a narrow ladder. It was a little nerve racking. It was fun to see the view of Lake Huron, but not to look straight down. When we were getting ready to leave, Jake noticed a pillory. We all took turns being held captive while Mom tortured the kids with taking more pictures. =)
Next we all piled into the car to go up the road to the new Presque Isle lighthouse. It was built in 1870 and is 70 feet tall. We were not able to climb to the top of this one because they were getting ready to close. Matt said that he might have chickened out anyway. Maybe next year. We did learn that this lighthouse is the tallest that you can climb within the Great Lakes Region. This one is still in service and the light runs on a timer. Its light only reaches 5 miles out, but they are hoping soon to have the larger light installed which would reach 27 miles out. Who would have guessed that they are waiting on no one, but Congress!!
After all the time traveling on Friday, the boys were begging to go to the lake on Saturday. We all had another enjoyable day. The boys decided to take the canoe across the lake with Dad swimming along side. I guess on the way back Danny wanted to swim across with Matt in the canoe. Long story short, when Danny jumped in the water, the canoe capsized. I had been watching them and happened to glance down to watch the girls for a second and when I looked back up, all I saw was a lot of yellow, not orange. I thought I was watching the wrong canoe. Little did I know what happened until they came back to shore. Good thing the lake was busy. There was a pontoon boat full of women that saw it tip over and they came to the rescue. They helped the three younger boys onto their boat while Matt and Danny helped flip it back over from the water. One would think this would scare kids from riding in a canoe, not my kids! They spent the rest of the time at the lake capsizing the canoe in the shallow water on purpose so if it ever happened again, they would know how to handle the situation.
Later that evening we enjoyed our favorite camping treat - smores! Abby was always tired and ready for bed before we had the fire going so she didn't get the chance to try the all time favorite camping treat.
We sure enjoyed our peaceful and relaxing vacation up North before having to come back to the grindstone. Matt and the boys were able to shoot the guns a couple of times. This year was the first time they were able to do clay pigeons. They had a lot of fun and the report I was given was they did really good. To end the trip Matt and the boys were even able to get in a little bit of fishing on our way home.
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