Friday, September 24th
Sault Sainte Marie, Ontario
Thursday afternoon after touring the Corps of Engineer’s Soo Locks facility we crossed the International Bridge to the Canadian side. We camped at a nice KOA facility just North of town; Donna and Dan had a nice spacious suite at a hotel in town. It rained all afternoon and throughout the night and was still drizzling a little by morning. The colors of the leaves were more vibrant here than we had seen in the past few days on the American side as you can see from this picture Jo took of our RV parked at the KOA campground. More maple trees and just a little farther north I expect.
Our game plan was to spend two nights in Canada, golf at Crimson Ridge golf club, and take a day trip drive along Lake Superior to Lake Superior Provincial Park. The heavy rain over the last several days and continuing to drizzle on and off today cancelled the golfing outing at Crimson Ridge. Then in the morning we found out water had altered Dan and Donna’s plans in another way. Three floors above them either the pipes broke or a bathtub was left unattended and overflowed. Whatever the case, water streamed down their walls and flooded their bathroom and beyond. So whether they went outside or stayed inside they were soaked. This incident and the forecast for continued rainy weather caused a change in plans and we decided to head back to the US. Before we left Jo and I headed over to Crimson Ridge to take a look at the course. Here’s a few shots of it. Very scenic and it looks like it would a very fun course to play. So maybe next year.
Tahquamenon Falls
September 25th Paradise, Michigan
In the afternoon we crossed the bridge back to the US and headed towards Paradise, Michigan. Donna and Dan were at the Best Western on the Lake and we were at the Rivermouth Campground of Tahquamenon Falls State Park.
We visited Whitefish Point to tour the Lighthouse and the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum. Later we stopped in the Little Falls Inn in Paradise for a terrific Friday night fish fry. On Saturday the 25th Jo and Donna toured Tahquamenon Falls State Park to do some hiking and seeing the waterfalls. With all the recent rain the falls were in spectacular glory. The leaves on trees in the park were at about 80% color change. Here we found perhaps the best color for this time of the month in the Eastern Upper Peninsula. Tahquamenon Falls is one of the larger state parks in the UP. It has over 40 miles of hiking trails, very scenic waterfalls, canoeing and fishing, two modern campground units, and a brewpub, restaurant, and gift shop within its boundaries.
While the girls were enjoying the park, Dan and I returned to Wild Bluff Golf Course to get in another round. The fairways were even wetter than a few days ago. So much so that we lost a few good drives in the middle of the fairway – the balls upon landing completely buried themselves in the turf. And we still couldn’t drive on the fairways due to the wet conditions. But we enjoyed the outing even with the lost balls and additional challenges. After golfing we returned to Paradise to rendezvous with Donna and Jo to have dinner at the Tahquamenon Falls Brew Pub. The girls had made reservations so we didn’t have to wait too long to get seated. But the pub and restaurant were quite busy. Unfortunately this meant an extremely long wait for our dinner to arrive – we were starting to eat the napkins – and when it finally did arrive the food was lukewarm and chewy – suspect it sat neglected on a warming tray too long. Needless to say we were disappointed. Nice atmosphere and decent brews on tap but we can’t give passing grades to the wait service and food quality we experienced that evening.
Go Here for Thursday, Sept 27 of our UP Fall Color Trip
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