UP!!! Day 2

I've come back to Japan safely ... that was another story, I have a lot of posts to write about Michigan still!  On my trip to the UP on day 2, we took the Pictured Rocks Ferry, stopped by a quiet, unnamed beach, and went to Presque Rock Park in Marquette.

 

Many kinds of fish live in the lakes..

Artistic cafe with lots of picture on the walls! 

It was a unique space. It's spacious inside, but it was not full of furniture. There was a plenty of space that people can walk (or dance?) around looking at the pictures on the walls.

Pictured Rocks cruise was nice. We were able to see so many different rocks with colorful layers made up of various minerals, hence the name 'pictured'.

We were able to come up to the top floor of the ship when it stopped at a viewpoint. The top floor is the best. No wonder why people form a line an hour before the borading time. 

Lake Superior.  We cannot see the opposite side, ti's that big. It's the same size as the state of Maine. The captain had two daughters working on the same ship working as  crew members.  It was cute. 

Layers of minerals forming the colorful rocks over thousands of years...

There were many that were canoeing. We decided we will try it, too!!  

Then, we stopped by at a beach off the road. 

The beach was so beautiful and quiet with only a few other guests besides us.  You can find many beaches like that along the shoreline, and it was just gorgeous. 

The water was transparent and shining.  Lakewater always amazes me because of their beauty and smoothness.  No sticky feeling afterwards unlike salt water, which is great, too.   

Then we stopped by at the lighthouse on Presque Island Park. The lighthouse was far away, connected with this stone path.  We wanted to go, so we did! But... 

Got somewhat cloudy

From the midpoint, the stone path ended and the rest of the path was rocky!  It was difficult to walk on as it's rough and I needed to jump around. It was an exercise!  I almost gave up, but my travel mates encouraged me and helped me, so I was able to make it with them!!  They carried my bag so that I will be able to use my both hands to 'climb' the rocks.

We were sweating like crazy as it was a hot and humid day, but we did it!!!  It was a great feeling of achievement!  We were drenched with sweat, but yet we were going to dinner afterwards... I felt bad about riding my friends' car with so much sweat, but it was all a very fun experience.  The funniest - "Bugs are drawn on my arm!" cos one of my friends' arm was soaked wet, and bugs were caught in it.. OMG there were so many flies, good thing they were not mosquitos, but there were many that got into my eye and my bag, too!  

Sunset beach on the park. It was getting foggy a little bit, but still it was beautiful. 

A challenger to an extra rocky course.  He's used to it as he played on this kind of rocky shores in his childhood.

Lakewater

Of course, if you came all the way from there, you need to take the same route to go back... But by the time we got to the lighthouse, we were used to jumping and hopping around the rocks to find the best ways, and going back was easier.  I felt like it's great to do something new once in a while to learn.

Then we went around the park.

Sunset beach with geese family

City hall...? Near our restaurant for dinner.

Cheese curds! 

Tacos. It was a fancy restaurant, and the food was all delicious!!  I took the wheel to go back, as my travel mates wanted to drink locally brewed beer.  We tried to go back to the island to look at stars, but the park was closed.  A police car came in front of us at the gate of the park, and turned us away.  It was my first time to be stopped like that, so it was kind of scary.  So glad I had two friends with me!  

We also stopped at a smaller roads just by the woods to look up to see if we could see the stars. But we could not. The sky was not completely dark at 11 pm!  The day is so long in summer in MIchigan, so we would probably need to come back at 3 in the morning or something to see starts on a dark sky. So, we just went back. Maybe stargazing is another activity for fall or spring.  Reminds me of star gazing night trip to some mountainous area of my hometown.  It was cold, but very fun.