Travel Diary: Grand Marais, Minnesota
My internet connection is funky here, so I'm not going to frustrate myself with photos. We left Marquette yesterday morning and had beautiful driving weather. But let me back up a couple days...
On Sunday, we drove up to Munising (from Marquette) hoping for some good scenery along shipwreck coast. Naturally, the weather was not cooperating but when we got to Munising, we discovered they offered boat tours of the Picture Rocks. Figuring on far better views from the water, we signed up and boarded at 1pm for a three hour tour. A three hour tour. (I couldn't stop singing that, much to Pat's annoyance.)
Okay, so it was really a tou and a half hour tour along the rugged shore of Lake Superior. This side of Superior is far wilder and rugged than the Minnesota side and so I did have some reservations about hopping on a cruise boat. I've had sea-sickness issues before but I decided to plunge in anyway. As we left the dock, we traveled between Grand Island and the Munising shoreline. Grand Island is largely unspoiled camping and hiking area, with only a few homes on the shore, all rustic and none year-round. The island is huge and affords protection to the immediate area, meaning that when we finally passed it, the waters became considerably rougher.
How rough? Well, it was beautiful to see but my stomach objected immediately. I moved to a back seat and began focusing on stationary objects on solid ground. I believe this kept me from becoming violently ill, which is what happened to nearly half the people on the cruise. Seriously, the crew was handing out red plastic bags with a toxic waste symbol on them. For some reason, the women seemed more afflicted than men, but the captain decided to turn the boat around and return to shore, offering us a refund of half our money. Seriously, even though I was nowhere as sick as many, I would have paid extra to go back. The problem was, we'd been out nearly an hour, so it was a good 50 minute ride back. So lots more hurling went on until we reached calmer waters.
Still, we did see some gorgeous rock formations even through the rain. And it made for an interesting adventure. If my stomach weren't so touchy, I'd have enjoyed the motion, it was rather like an amusement park ride. Although sometimes we tipped so close to the water, I did get nervous. We collected our refund and refused the alternate offer of going out on the 4pm tour. Naturally, by 4pm we were midway back to Marquette and the sun emerged and the weather turned quite lovely. We wound up revising places in the city that we'd only seen through the rain, then had dinner at a lakeside place with pretty views but bland food.
So yesterday morning, I decided we should go to Two Harbors, roughly a 5 hour drive, and spend a couple nights before going home. Long story short, we missed the place I'd booked us to stay (Betty's Cabins) and rather than turn back and look for it, we kept driving. All the way to Grand Marais which was another 2 hours. But I love this town and we're staying at a rather luxurious condo unit (which is curiously tacky in some respects) right on the shore of Superior. I can walk out of the bedroom or living room door right to to the short. I'd happily stay a 3rd night but Pat is set on leaving tomorrow.
I think our next vacation will be here in Grand Marais, only we'll spend a solid chunk of time here of driving, driving, driving. There's a darling little bookstore across the street called Drury Lane Books. I should see if they need someone to shelve for them. :)
On Sunday, we drove up to Munising (from Marquette) hoping for some good scenery along shipwreck coast. Naturally, the weather was not cooperating but when we got to Munising, we discovered they offered boat tours of the Picture Rocks. Figuring on far better views from the water, we signed up and boarded at 1pm for a three hour tour. A three hour tour. (I couldn't stop singing that, much to Pat's annoyance.)
Okay, so it was really a tou and a half hour tour along the rugged shore of Lake Superior. This side of Superior is far wilder and rugged than the Minnesota side and so I did have some reservations about hopping on a cruise boat. I've had sea-sickness issues before but I decided to plunge in anyway. As we left the dock, we traveled between Grand Island and the Munising shoreline. Grand Island is largely unspoiled camping and hiking area, with only a few homes on the shore, all rustic and none year-round. The island is huge and affords protection to the immediate area, meaning that when we finally passed it, the waters became considerably rougher.
How rough? Well, it was beautiful to see but my stomach objected immediately. I moved to a back seat and began focusing on stationary objects on solid ground. I believe this kept me from becoming violently ill, which is what happened to nearly half the people on the cruise. Seriously, the crew was handing out red plastic bags with a toxic waste symbol on them. For some reason, the women seemed more afflicted than men, but the captain decided to turn the boat around and return to shore, offering us a refund of half our money. Seriously, even though I was nowhere as sick as many, I would have paid extra to go back. The problem was, we'd been out nearly an hour, so it was a good 50 minute ride back. So lots more hurling went on until we reached calmer waters.
Still, we did see some gorgeous rock formations even through the rain. And it made for an interesting adventure. If my stomach weren't so touchy, I'd have enjoyed the motion, it was rather like an amusement park ride. Although sometimes we tipped so close to the water, I did get nervous. We collected our refund and refused the alternate offer of going out on the 4pm tour. Naturally, by 4pm we were midway back to Marquette and the sun emerged and the weather turned quite lovely. We wound up revising places in the city that we'd only seen through the rain, then had dinner at a lakeside place with pretty views but bland food.
So yesterday morning, I decided we should go to Two Harbors, roughly a 5 hour drive, and spend a couple nights before going home. Long story short, we missed the place I'd booked us to stay (Betty's Cabins) and rather than turn back and look for it, we kept driving. All the way to Grand Marais which was another 2 hours. But I love this town and we're staying at a rather luxurious condo unit (which is curiously tacky in some respects) right on the shore of Superior. I can walk out of the bedroom or living room door right to to the short. I'd happily stay a 3rd night but Pat is set on leaving tomorrow.
I think our next vacation will be here in Grand Marais, only we'll spend a solid chunk of time here of driving, driving, driving. There's a darling little bookstore across the street called Drury Lane Books. I should see if they need someone to shelve for them. :)