UP! Adventure: Day 3 Tahquamenon Falls

On the third day of our trip, we headed over to Tahquamenon Falls.

First we walked around and took pictures of the falls. There were a lot of stairs!!

 Then we went for a hike. It was such a hot day!

Laila was pretty hot by the end of the hike, so we headed down by the water.

 I was surprised to see so many people playing in the water near some very fast moving parts of the river and near some of the falls. We personally had no desire to die a watery death...so we found a calm spot in the river where Laila could cool off.

 After Tahquamenon, we headed to Sault Ste Marie, where we spent our last night. Yes, it was a whirlwind UP trip.

We didn't have any grand plans for Sault Ste Marie, but wanted to cut off some of our driving time for the following day. We got dinner at West Pier Drive In (which we read had some great burgers) and went down by the Locks to eat. After that, we just walked around and got ice cream and then headed back to our hotel for the night. This was fine with us, because we were exhausted by this point!

In the morning, we headed back home. We were only in the UP for a few days, but with all the driving we were ready to get home. Can't wait for our next trip!

UP! Adventure: Day Two Pictured Rocks

I've always heard that the Pictured Rocks are amazing and I often see the Pure Michigan billboards showing the kayakers around Pictured Rocks. So we knew we wanted to head to Munising for one of our days in the UP.

There were some trails and places in Pictured Rocks National Park that did not allow dogs, so we had to plan around Laila a little more on this day. We just looked at the park webpage for dog friendly locations. We started out the day by checking out Munising Falls.

After that, we went to Miner's Castle. Gorgeous! The water color was Caribbean. 

 After Miner's Castle, we headed to Miner's Beach. This was such a fun part of the day. Laila was a swimming machine. I wish we had grabbed a video of her swimming because it was so cute. She basically fetched a stick out of the water for about an hour. The beach wasn't very crowded and we headed further down, away from people so we didn't have to worry about our dog bugging anyone.  I did take a few shots of Laila at the beach on my phone.

We knew we wanted to do the boat tour of the Pictured Rocks, so Gil figured it would be smart to have Laila exhaust herself swimming beforehand (smart man!). Pictured Rock Cruises offered free pet kennels for people traveling with pets. So Laila took a little nap while we went on the boat. It was about a three hour tour (name that show) because we took the slightly extended trip out to Spray Falls.

Disclaimer: If you do not want to see a bunch of rock pictures, stop reading now!

The Pictured Rocks were really amazing and beautiful. If you ever do the trip, make sure to sit on the right side of the boat for great pictures. The crew was pretty entertaining, the narration was funny, but they gave a lot of cool facts about the rocks as well. 

Ok, here come the rock pictures (we took about a million)...

Spray Falls 

Lighthouse on Grand Island

The boat tour was super touristy, of course, but worth it. There's no other way to see the rocks like that. Now I want to camp at Pictured Rocks. It would be so amazing. During the boat tour, we saw some people high up on the rocks who were hiking and a few people swimming. Maybe next summer??

UP! Adventure: Day One Porcupine Mountains

Gil and I got back recently from a few days in the Upper Peninsula and it was so fun!  I can't get over how beautiful Michigan is. Seriously, why would you live anywhere else!?

We stopped right after we crossed the bridge to snap some shots of Mighty Mac.

Laila really enjoyed sticking her head out the window. So funny.

We stayed in Marquette (cute town) and did a couple of day trips while we were up there.  I was a little worried about bringing our dog. It took us about 7 hours in the car to make it up there and Laila was a champ! We thought about camping, but since this trip was planned last minute (surprise, surprise), we opted for staying in a pet-friendly hotel.

Our first night, we grabbed takeout and brought it down by the old ore dock to eat. Nice scenery!

The first day, we went to the Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park. I really wanted to see the Lake of the Clouds and just hike around. If you think an endless sea of trees would be beautiful, go here!

Lake of the Clouds

Three things:

1. When traveling with a Newf, be prepared to smile. Everyone will smile fondly at you and your dog.

2. EVERYONE in the UP either knows someone who has a Newfoundland or once had one of their own. They will remark on the fact that it was the best dog they ever had. 

3. Laila had bows in her hair for this trip. She had just gotten groomed, we did not put them in her hair. I would say we aren't "those" people, but we did not attempt to take the bows out. And we thought they were adorable. So we are in fact, "those" people. 

 After leaving Lake of the Clouds, we headed to Summit Peak to have a look around. Again, beautiful spot!

After Lake of the Clouds and Summit Peak, we wanted to hike around. We (Gil) wished we had had a better map of the hiking trails that described the level of difficulty, because we had no idea how strenuous the trails would be or what type of incline we'd be dealing with. We (He) wanted to make sure we wouldn't end up with an exhausted Newfoundland dog who couldn't go any further. As my usual impulsive self, I wanted to just get going and figure it out as we went, but Gil decided to ask for suggestions from the park ranger. I'm so glad he thought that through because Laila really did not have a lot of endurance.  At all. The poor dog was so tired by the end of the day. 

We ended up hiking the East and West river trails along Presque Isle River. It ended up being a really cool hike. It followed closely along the river bank. For the amount of times I tripped over tree routes, I'm pretty surprised I didn't topple into the river.

Manabezho Falls 

The shale rock beds were awesome!

Swimming in Lake Superior

Passed out on the drive back to the hotel!