We are in the UP now, you betcha!

We are moving farther into the UP and the trip is going great. I don't need an interpreter yet but they sure do talk funny here.

Today we started off with a visit back to the Soo Locks for a while. Seeing the ships go through the locks is really great fun and better this morning than last night because there was so few people there this morning to block the view. It was pretty chilly though. I had to go across the street and buy a sweatshirt to stand the chill in the air. Yes, I know it is August, but it is different this far north.

This is a 1000 foot iron ore ship leaving the locks while another one waits its turn to go through just off in the distance.

Before leaving for our vacation, Troy had me watch the Chevy Chase movie "Vacation" where he and his family go to Wally World and find it closed for repairs. He holds them at gunpoint and makes them let his family ride the theme park rides after a horrible trip across the country to get there. This morning after leaving the locks at Sault Ste. Marie we drove to Whitefish Point to visit the lighthouse and the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum. When we arrived we found the parking lot packed with oodles of people milling around looking lost and not knowing what to do. We soon found that the entire place was closed. Even the restrooms were closed. So this was our only big glitch in our holiday road so far!

After that plan fell through we moved on to plan B. We looked for a route to the coast of Superior. Couldn't find that and went to plan C. Plan C was Oswald's Bear Ranch! Great! The bears were so well cared for. This place had huge fenced areas that the bears could roam in and never be seen if they didn't want to, but of course they were all front and center for the apples that the kids were feeding them.

This guy was my favorite. You could really tell he was the boss the way he interacted with the other bears.

After the bear ranch it was on to Munising. We decided that it was a good evening to take a boat tour in a glass bottom boat despite the high winds and cool weather. The weather was great but they had to 

cut the tour little short because they could not go out into the open water with high winds. We were able to see a really cool shipwreck and some very neat houses on Grand Isle. A house that was for sale there was over $200,000 and it had no electricity or running water. Talk about ruffing it. Not for me.

Last but not least, my favorite picture of the day!