Local Tourist -- Port Huron

This past week, the Local Tourist and the Mrs. took a trip to Port Huron for an overnight stay.  Perhaps Port Huron rests a little outside the "local" definition, but it was not much more than an hour away, so I contend it qualifies.

We enjoyed a nice meal at Vintage Tavern, opting for interior dining instead of the roof top experience.  According to their website, we would have had a nice view of the St. Clair River from there, but the first floor also seemed a little quieter.

We enjoyed a nice walk along the St. Clair River under the Blue Water Bridge.  We appreciated seeing a Great Lakes freighter float by, the Algoma Guardian.  Then we drove to the downtown area and walked a few blocks to enjoy the older buildings.  We spent a bit of time in an antiques store that just seemed to go on and on.  It is a bit unsettling to count the items I knew from childhood in an antique store.  Staff at a different antique store I had visited some years ago assured me that those are "collectibles," not old enough to be antiques.

Finally, before the return trip home, we enjoyed some fish at the Black and Blue Brewery on the Black River.

Things that make me go HMMMMMMM -- Lake Huron

Here is a sunrise over Lake Huron taken from Lakeport State Park, just north of Port Huron.  The haze and the distance makes it impossible to see the Great Lakes freighter which was on the horizon--going south into the St. Clair River, as best as I could tell.  Laura and I were able to sneak away for a camping trip, just to two of us.  (Peter spent the night with a friend.)  Laura noted that this was the first time we had done this since 1993.

As we were enjoying a day, a night, and a morning on the shore of one of the Great Lakes, I began to ponder.  My thoughts made me go, "Hmmmmmm."  Why is it Lake Huron, Lake Michigan, Lake Erie, Lake Ontario, and Lake Superior, but it is Houghton Lake, Higgins Lake, Torch Lake, Burt Lake, etc.?  What decides if "Lake" is the first word in the title or the last?

Size of the lake, you suggest?  I don't think so.  Lake St. Clair is in the chain of the Great Lakes, but it is most certainly not a Great Lake.  In Wisconsin, Lake Winnebago is the largest lake in the state, but certainly not worthy of Great Lake.  The Great Salt Lake is the largest inland lake west of the Mississippi, but "Lake" comes at the end.  In Wisconsin, Mirror Lake and Lake Delton are right next to each other.

So far, the best theory I can come up with is that "Lake" being the first word happens because of a French influence.  The French got to the Great Lakes first, so "Lake" introduces the name of each Great Lake.  In turn, "Lake" coming at the end of the title might be a British influence.  Lac du Flambeau (Wisconsin) would support that French influence theory, but then Fond du Lac (Wisconsin) blows it apart.  So, the mystery remains.  Any ideas out there?

Traveling with the Schroeders -- Trip to Sheboygan

It had been more than six months since I had seen my parents, and it had been about 3 years since Caleb had seen them, so we waited until Caleb was on vacation to make this trip to Wisconsin to see my parents.  We managed to get some yard work done for them, and we put Peter to work picking raspberries in their back yard.  My brother made the trip over from Fond du Lac to see us for the evening.  And then after a nice stroll out the the lighthouse at the Sheboygan marina, we came back home.  Here are some photos.

Notice how the harbor side is brown and the lake side is blue.

Schroeder Vacation, Part 3 -- Western Michigan: South Haven

After four nights at Hoffmaster State Park, we moved on to the KOA south of South Haven.  We had hoped to enjoy some sunsets on Lake Michigan, but clouds tended to roll in later in the day.  In South Haven, we had our chance.

Our first night, however, had strong storms blow through.  The jacks which held up our camper did a great job keeping us upright.  The camper rocked, but it never seemed to be in danger of getting tipped.  Some of the trees in the campground were not so lucky.  Thankfully, no one had their camper or car crushed by any branches or trees.

On the second night, we finally got our sunset -- sort of.  We walked down to the lighthouse later in the day, but we had not had any supper.  We hoped to grab something and still have time to walk down to the lighthouse and watch the sun go down.  The short version -- we got quite delayed getting our food.  We returned to the lakefront in time to see the late strains of sunlight which still offered some beautiful views.

Here are some photos from South Haven.

Local Tourist -- Port Huron

Port Huron kind of breaks the bounds of "local", but the Local Tourist needed to get out of town for mental health purposes.  So, Laura, Peter, and I went to Port Huron on Saturday.  First we walked around the vacant campground at Lakeport State Park and walked along the shore of Port Huron.

After Peter skipped some rocks, we moved on to the city of Port Huron and walked around the Blue Water Bridge area.  We saw the monument to young Thomas Edison who lived in the area for a while and sold newspapers and candy on the railroad from Port Huron to Detroit.  As a bonus, we also got to see a Great Lakes Freighter pass from the St. Clair River northbound into Lake Huron.

A shout-out goes to Meijer and Wal-Mart for giving people a place to use the bathroom; and a plea goes out to the state of Michigan to open up the state parks.

Here are some photos from the day.

Traveling with the Schroeders -- Fall trip to the Mackinac Straits

We had planned to be gone for the Teachers' Conference, which got us out of town from October 8-13.  We ended up going up north, hoping that decent weather and peak fall colors would all come together.  While we did not get everything we wanted for the entirety of the trip, we did get to enjoy good weather for Wednesday-Friday (with a little rain on Friday), and we got to see peak colors up in the U.P.

The first leg of our trip was to start in the Tunnel of Trees on M-119 along the Lake Michigan coast, just north of Petoskey.  While it was an enjoyable drive, we did not get the splendor of fall colors we would have hoped for.  (Note: Before we got to Petoskey, we stopped at the Cross in the Woods at Indian River to see the world's largest crucifix.  Pretty cool.)  After the Tunnel of Trees, we went to Mackinaw City to our hotel and pretty cheap rates (yeah, off season!).  We spent Thursday on Mackinac Island (Peter's first trip there) to see Fort Mackinac and other places on the island.  On Friday, we went up to Tahquamenon Falls to see the upper and lower falls.  On Saturday, with the weather taking a turn to colder weather (highs in the low to mid-40's; that was highs in the low to mid-40's--with stiff winds, no less), we decided that walking around town was not going to be that fun.  So we traveled back up the U.P. to the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum, most of which is indoors.  Then on Sunday, we made our way back home after church at Hope Evangelical Lutheran Church in Indian River.  The trip back home had peak colors down I-75 for the first hour of driving, too.

In addition to this, we got to enjoy a waterpark at our hotel, including a massive hot tub which was very welcome when the temperatures began to dip.

Anyway, here are some photos from a neat fall get away.  Enjoy!

Local Tourist -- Belle Isle, Detroit

This past Saturday, the Local Tourist and family (at least, whoever was available, which was only Laura and Peter), wanted to do something to see different scenery.  We decided to go to Historic Fort Wayne on the south side of Detroit and along the banks of the Detroit River.  It is only $5 per car load, and there are lots of buildings to walk through.  It is only open on weekends.  Sadly, it does not open for guests until May.  So, plan B.

We headed north of the downtown and drove to Belle Isle and had a picnic along the bank of the Detroit River.  We walked through the aquarium, the conservatory, played around the fountain, stopped in briefly at the Dossin Great Lakes Museum, and walked to the Livingstone Lighthouse on the north-eastern tip of Belle Isle.

Because we have the state park passport already, the entire day was free (donations accepted at most places).  Because the day was so nice, Belle Isle was really hopping.  There were lots of bikers, joggers, picnic-ers, photographers, fishers, boaters, and people just enjoying the sun.  Workers were also in the process of getting the roads on Belle Isle prepared for the Detroit Gran Prix later this spring.  The trees were still pretty barren, only buds; but the fields of daffodils--large swaths of yellow--were scattered around the island and were in full bloom.  They were pretty.

Some photos.

Canada on port side; Detroit on starboard (assuming we are headed downriver. 

Inside the Belle Isle Aquarium.

Even though it was gorgeous outside, it is always soothing to look at palm trees.

Peter enjoys the James Scott Fountain.  It will be functioning Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day weekend.

The anchor from the Edmund Fitzgerald.  It was dropped in the Detroit River in 1974 (chain link broke) and retrieved in 1992.

Livingstone Lighthouse.