Life's Good!

OK, here we go, as promised, part two of our summer travel adventures!

As you can see, we moved to a different place, a little further to the north-east this time, to the town of Two Rivers.

We scored a beautiful site at the Stop-N-Dock Marina and RV Park, right on the river. Perfect for happy hour!

We got in for half price with our Passport America membership, which came to a very affordable $15 a night!
Since we arrived early, we spent a few hours in the afternoon to drive to Manitowoc, about 6 miles south of us, and got our first views of Lake Michigan!

A beautiful 6-mile paved, lake-shore recreational trail, called the Mariners Trail, runs alongside the lake all the way to Manitowoc and is the longest, continuous, scenic view of Lake Michigan in the state of Wisconsin.

Manitowoc

Manitowoc has a nice little harbor with a scenic lighthouse 'Rawley Point' at it's entrance ..

In the marsh between marina and lighthouse we found a variety of water loving birds, like these young Cormorants ...

And flocks of Sandpipers ...

On the way back we also took a short drive through the small town of Two Rivers.
In the Marina I even found my own boat ... the 'Dutch Lady'

We'd planned to visit the peninsula of Door county the next day, but the weather was going to be very stormy and rainy, so we decided to sit out the storm in the RV and go the next day instead.

In between the rains, the views from the RV were pretty nice ...

Despite the weather still being on the cool side (36F this morning) and rather grey and windy, we visited Door County the next day.

Situated on a peninsula, it has a distinct 'island' feel to it and is known for it's long shoreline, many parks, charming villages and lighthouses and nice views along the coastline of Lake Michigan.

It's a very touristy area and can be very busy and 'over-run' but on a cloudy day like this it wasn't bad at all.
On the flip side, without the sunshine, it didn't look as nice and the pictures didn't come out as good as I had hoped, but what can you do ...

Door County is home to 5 State Parks and 19 county parks.

We drove into Cave Point County Park, adjacent to the much larger Whitefish Dunes State Park, but less crowdy and a lot cheaper (as in free).

It is known for its underwater caves and wave-worn limestone cliffs

We didn't drive all the way to the northern most 'point' of the Island but crossed the island at Baileys Harbor towards the small town of Ephraim on the east side.

This quaint little town is located across Eagle Harbor from Peninsula State Park.

As you can see, the water was still quite choppy, and we ate our picnic sandwiches inside the truck, where it was a lot more comfortable than outside!

Door county is big into orchards, fruits of any kind but especially cherries.
We passed a lot of orchards and came across many signs for pies and farmers markets but unfortunately they were not yet 'in season'.

Following the coast road southward we passed through the small towns of Fish Creek and Egg Harbor, where we took a little stroll to the marina.

Unfortunately it was too cold and windy to hang around for too long, and we even passed on the the frozen custard that seems to be a real 'thing' around here, but we're definitely going to try some before we leave Wisconsin!

We did however make a bee-line for some wine and cheese tasting!

The cheeses were really delicious, too pricey for our budget, but we shamelessly ate our fill ...

Next door's wine-tasting turned out to be a great deal also, namely free, which is unusual, and I'll just say 'the gloomy day got a lot brighter!'

Crossing the island once again, towards the west shore and the little town of Kewaunee, I spotted some Sandhill Cranes in the fields:

The weather started to break up a little, and we spent a little time at the Kewaunee Pierhead to take a nice shot of yet another picturesque lighthouse.

That evening the sunset was quite spectacular. Sometimes it just takes your breath away ...

OK, I'll better get a move on, or I'm not getting this post up today. There's just so much to tell and so many pictures to show!

Next up, we moved north to Rhinelander, WI, where we'd booked a site at the West Bay Camping Resort. Again, we used our Passport America for a half price rate of $17 a night.

A little tight to get in here but what a great site again!
This campground borders Lake Thompson, and early the next day we rented a canoe and took it out for a beautiful morning on the lake ...

We took a little break in the afternoon and went back around sunset:

And nothing says summer like the call of a Loon on a beautiful quiet evening ...
We peddled very quietly within a couple of feet of him and he was not disturbed at all!

And than there was this Sunset ...

The next day we went sightseeing in the area, roughly in a triangle between Rhinelander, Eagle River and Woodruff, and in doing so circling around the north Highland American State forest.

As you can see on this map, here in north Wisconsin we changed out the cows and cornfields for forests and lakes ... there are 15,074 documented lakes in Wisconsin!
We just saw a handful ...

So beautiful ...

Onward we went again, this time all the way north, to the town of Lansing, which brought us into Michigan and onto the shores of lake Superior!

And on the way up, after the day of lakes, we 'did' some falls ... there are around 200 of them in Michigan, most of them in the UP (Upper Peninsula), it's hard to miss them.
Bond Falls, a waterfall on the middle branch of the Ontonagon River was probably the most picturesque of all we've seen.

The total drop of the falls is about 50 feet. A walkway that extends around and across the river below the base of the falls allows for perfect viewing.

The river drops 875 feet (267 m) down from Bond Falls Flowage, which is perched on the highlands of the western Upper Peninsula, to Lake Superior. Bond Falls is the first stage of this drop in elevation.

And a little further down the road: Agate Falls. Not a very good view, and a lot smaller but a nice fall nevertheless.

Around midday we reached L'Anse:

We'd booked a site at the L'Anse Township Park and campground, 3 miles out of town and situated on a sloping hillside with beautiful views of Lake Superior and Keweenay Bay.

And what a site it was! Probably the best we ever had! Right on the lake ...

We were so thrilled to finally reach Lake superior! What a beautiful place to be!

Especially good at sunset ...

The next day we went on a day-long drive to tour the Keweenaw Peninsula, which is the strip of land you see in the pictures on the other side of the bay.
This peninsula is the northernmost part of Michigan's Upper Peninsula. It projects into Lake Superior and was the site of the first copper boom in the United States.

It's a very remote, scenic and 'pristine' peninsula, there are no condo or townhouse developments, no luxury resorts, no weekend McMansions taking up shoreline.
Instead, there are blueberry patches, wildflowers and quiet beaches and twisting roads under canopies of trees with great views of Lake Superior and it's lava rock coast-line.

Probably the most northern we will go this trip. We did wave to Canada!

One of the first things to see when you make your way north on the peninsula is the double-deck Portage Lake Lift Bridge which crosses the shipping canal that separates the towns of Houghton and Hancock; Keweenaw is an Ojibwe word for "place where one crosses."

A little further up north you'll hit the so-called “Covered Road”, the first road designated as a Scenic Heritage Route in Michigan.
The trees along this road, some as close as three feet from the pavement, form a complete canopy over most of the entire length of this 'Heritage Route'.

We drove all the way north to Copper Harbor at the top of the peninsula where we had lunch at a small dock jutting out into Lake Superior.

After making 'the turn', we continued south alongside the rocky shoreline ...

After a while the portion of Highway M-26 between Eagle River and Eagle Harbor changes into sandy beaches, and is often referred to as the “Sand Dune Drive” because of the sand dunes in the Great Sand Bay and Cat Harbor area.

The very picturesque red brick Eagle Harbor Light Station sits on the rocky entrance to the harbor and is a working lighthouse.

We stopped at the Jampot near Eagle River, where the cloaked monks of the Society of St. John do a brisk business in ginger muffins, brownies and oatmeal cookies.

In the town of Eagle River within easy viewing distance of a pedestrian bridge, the Eagle river makes one final plunge into a deep bowl of volcanic basalt before emptying into Lake Superior.

On our way back, just before making it back to our campground, we decided to take a look at the L'Anse waterfalls situated next to an old power house in town.

Appropriately called the Power House Falls it is the most dramatic drop on Falls River, a sharp cascade six feet tall.