Life with Colieblack

For our anniversary this year we got to travel to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. I have been wanting to see the Pictured Rocks, and Mark decided this was the perfect time to go. He was right, it was beautiful up there. We spent 4 nights up there, 3 full days. We saw the pictured rocks, a shipwreck, hunted waterfalls and lighthouses, and enjoyed each others company.

Day 1 – Our Anniversary

Our hotel was in Marquette, MI, so we had breakfast there. We ate at a wonderful little cafe called Bodega. The food was made from scratch, locally sourced and delicious. I highly recommend it if you find yourself in the area. We wandered around a little bit, there were lots of murals around the area. We hit the road after our walk and drove the shoreline of Lake Superior to Munising MI. The drive was beautiful, at times it was the lake, at times the forest.

We wondered around Munising for a little bit, before heading to our Glass Bottom Shipwreck Tour. We got to see one of the two shipwrecks that the tour normally sees, because the wind and waves were not cooperating. The Bermuda was carrying a cargo of iron ore when it sank in a storm in 1870.

We drove back to Marquette and wandered around some more. There were several cute shops that we wandered through or window shopped at. We had a float at Donckers, and got some of their delicious caramels and chocolates to enjoy later. We then had a fabulous anniversary dinner at Elizabeth’s Chophouse. The service and food were both outstanding.

Day 2 – Chasing Waterfalls & Lighthouses

We decided to chase waterfalls and lighthouses through Pictured Rock National Parks. So we headed back to Munising with a map. The GPS was not reliable so we had to go old school. It was so much fun, and so beautiful.

We had lunch at the Dogpatch, my burger was great. Mark decided to try the local whitefish. This may be a very unpopular opinion, but we were not fans of whitefish, but at least we gave it a try. We were not prepared for all the hiking so decided after about 4 waterfalls, to get a snack and wait for our evening boat ride to see the Pictured Rocks from the water. For a snack we tried the Pasties, we had been seeing signs all over for them, from Muldoons. It was a pastry stuffed with potato, meat, carrots, and rutabaga, the miners like them because they could be easily carried for their long workdays. They were delicious.

The Pictured Rock Cruise was stunning. My pictures won’t do it justice. It had been a bit drizzly all day, but when we reached the rocks, the sun came out. The multi colored cliffs get their beautiful colors from streaks of minerals as ground water comes out between cracks and trickles down the face. Iron(red and orange), calcium (white), manganese (brown and Black), and copper (blue and green) are the most common minerals.

Day 3

We had breakfast in Marquett and Babycakes Muffin Company. They had a great selection of breakfast sandwiches, quiche, muffins, and other pastries.

We headed back to Munising to continued our hunt for waterfalls and one last lighthouse. We weren’t up for all the hikes, so just did the shorter ones. We also found a log slide where the loggers used to send the logs down to the lake. We walk to the last lighthouse, but got to see it from a distance a the log slide.

We also had a lot of fun looking for the different mushrooms that were in the forest while we were hiking.

If you are looking for a unique getaway we highly recommend the UP of Michigan, and the the Picture Rocks National Forest.