Out on the town

(This post is backdated - I will add photos soon!)

I drove out to the campground for breakfast. We had fried eggs, instant oatmeal, and blueberries I had brought. We left my car there and drove toward Marquette, then detoured south a little to get to Laughing Whitefish Falls. The road I directed us to turned out to be a gravel road, through part of Hiawatha National Forest – so even though we had to go a little slower, it was a beautiful drive.

Laughing Whitefish Falls is part of the state recreation system, so we had to put in money for a day permit. While Mom was doing that, Joanne and I were picking raspberries! There were bushes growing all along the edge of the parking lot, and we each got a nice little handful of ripe ones that we shared with Mom. Then we started out on the trail to the falls. It was a nice hike, an easy trail. When we got to the falls I was surprised at how big they were – the photo I had seen hadn’t shown the entire thing, just the top part of the cascade. It flows down over many thin layers of rock, like little stairsteps.

There were also stairs down to the bottom of the falls. Despite the knowledge that we would have to climb back up, we headed down to see the full view of the falls. We even took a timed photo of the three of us with the waterfall behind. Just as we took the photo we noticed drops falling in the water. It was starting to rain! Just a light sprinkling but we were hurrying up the stairs, which didn’t have any trees sheltering them.

When we got to the top, Joanne spotted something blue. She thought it was flowers at first, but when I saw them I recognized the berries of the bluebead lily! I had seen in the berry book at work what the fruits look like when ripe – a real, dark blue.

The rain faded by the time we walked back to the car. A couple more raspberries, and then we were off to Marquette. Joanne had seen in the paper that Marquette was having its annual Blueberry Festival today, so that was our destination.

We didn’t have any trouble finding the festival when we got to town, but we did have to leave the main road and drive around for a few minutes to find parking. We lucked out with a spot that was only two short blocks away from one end of the festivities, and we walked the length of the Festival to see what the possibilities were for lunch. We stopped at one booth to buy a big box of blueberries – they said we could pick it up later. I ended up buying a t-shirt from a booth that sold tie-dyed goods. By the time we got to the end we had to keep walking, to a public restroom that was across the street!

We hadn’t seen too many food options, but the taco truck that we all liked was back where we had started, so we had to walk back the way we’d come. I suggested we buy a slice of blueberry pizza to share – I’d heard about it in a radio ad for the festival, and I was curious to see what it would be like! It was quite tasty, a dessert pizza with a blueberry topping and sort of an icing glaze on top of that. We kept walking, and bought a muffin and a blueberry cheesecake bar for later, and some blueberry lemonade – which turned out to be just plain lemonade with some blueberries floating in it. I was expecting something purple!

When we got to the taco truck there was a long line. Mom went to find a table, while Joanne and I waited to order. Then I noticed the menu said they were out of soda, so I walked over to another stall to get drinks. It was a kettle corn stand, so I had to buy a small bag of that, too!

The tacos were good, but very small. The cheesecake was good, though. And the soda really hit the spot – it was sunny and had gotten really warm! We picked up our box of blueberries and walked back to the car, then drove back to Munising along the lake shore road. We stopped at the campground to pick up my car, then drove to the house. Joanne made two loaves from the dough we made yesterday, and then we went swimming while they rose.

Once again, it cooled off by the time we got to the water! It had been so hot when we were walking around downtown Marquette, but now it was almost as chilly as the day before! I could tell it was a little warmer, because the sand was warm instead of cool as we walked across it, but it still wasn’t ideal. I knew what to expect this time, though, and eased my way in. Joanne got in a lot further this time – not all the way in, but up past her waist – she at least got her suit wet! The current was a lot stronger today – really pushing along the shore. I would have stayed in longer but didn’t want to make Joanne stay in when she was really getting cold, so I joined them and we went back to the house.

After we changed, we got the bread baking. Mom and Joanne worked on organizing their food in the cooler, and I was working on preparing food for lunches for the week – cooking garbanzo beans and making hummus, mixing veggie dip, cutting up vegetables, making iced tea, and organizing the fridge to make room for the box with the blueberries in it! After standing all that time I wasn’t really enthused when they wanted to go walk to Munising Falls. We decided they would go ahead and I would meet them in a little while so I could take a break.

We went into Munising and got down to some serious souvenir shopping. Joanne really wanted a T-shirt, and one of the postcards we’d seen that had the recipe for pasties on it! We went to three different stores, and ended up coming back to the first one to get her a sweatshirt. I got a t-shirt that says “Lake Superior: Unsalted and Shark Free!” I figure with all the time I’ve been spending in the water, I’ve earned the right to wear that shirt!

It started sprinkling just as we pulled into the parking lot of Sydney’s Shark Bay Bar & Grill, where we were going for supper. But by the time we were about to be seated, the light had changed, and we ducked back outside to see a spectacular double rainbow across the street! The hostess came out to see it, too, and then we went to our table.

We split two baskets of fried whitefish three ways, and got the soup and salad bar. It was delicious, and the waitress went out of her way to make our order less complicated. It certainly would have been more than enough food for one person!

After supper, we went to the Falling Rocks Café. We were all too full for ice cream, but I bought a cookie for us to split and we hung around until we closed the place down, one last time. The woman at the counter asked if we were going to be there tomorrow night, too – having noticed us the last three nights! – but we had to explain that the two of them were leaving tomorrow. I will probably be back though.