September 4 North to Grand Marais

Friday:  We woke up early Friday morning to the sound of rain. Oh no! Thankfully, we are versatile folk (!!!) and had a Plan B. You see, we did Mackinac Island in the rain a few years ago--and yes, we still had fun, but it was less than what we had hoped. David checked the weather further north, and saw that far less rain was predicted, and even that would be ended by early afternoon.

When I was looking ahead to our trip this year, I wanted to go somewhere we had never been before but that wouldn't take an added four hours to reach. I had kind of settled on Kitch-iti-kipi ("the big spring") and then maybe we could kind of hang around the Manistique area and go to see the Seul Choix Pointe Lighthouse. But as I really looked at that area, I was less than exuberant (because it wasn't near Lake Superior) and decided to look somewhere along the Lake Superior coastline instead. 

BINGO! I found Grand Marais on the map. It was really an equal distance (driving time) from the Straits, and it had a very beautiful lighthouse (Au Sable Light Station) 15 miles from the little city! Yes! 

Grand Marais is pronounced GRAND MA-RAY, "ma (short "a" sound), ray (accent on this syllable). It was a little early for lunch, so we drove down the only street in the little city right to the beach and took a little walk. It was beautiful there!

We ate lunch at the Grand Marais Tavern. We split a delicious double cheese and pepperoni pizza and were absolutely stuffed! We had looked up directions to the Au Sable Light Station on David's phone, but it told us it was 15 miles away but it would take FOUR hours to reach the lighthouse. What?!?!?! It took us awhile, but we finally discovered that since a person must walk 1.5 miles each way to the actual lighthouse site, the map program just combined the driving and walking times together. Sheesh.

However, as we drove out of town David noticed a sign stating that the SABLE FALLS was just ahead. A waterfall that we could see in just a few minutes?! I was all IN. However, I totally forgot that I had looked this up a few days prior (yikes--my frail memory!) and the site said there was 168 steps to the bottom if you wanted to get the best view of the falls. If you were hearty enough and made it to the bottom, they boasted a beautiful beach and Lake Superior. One hundred sixty stairs. I'm OLD now and my body is proving that to me every single day. Both knees ache! Both legs are rather weak! 

We got to the falls, and David scouted out the stairs going down. Look at them!

But about 88 stairs down there is this lookout place, which gave us at least a peak at the falls.

I just realized that all of these pictures look almost exactly the same ... but there was a little barrier fence right where I was standing and I SO BADLY wanted to climb over it and go down that little pathway because I would have had a MUCH  BETTER PICTURE to show you of the falls if I did that ... but the pathway was quite rough with roots sticking out everywhere and a pretty steep drop-off on the one side (into the falls). I kept telling myself that I could just hang on to the trees on the left side and I would be okay. But then ... what if there was a spider or hornet that jumped out at me right on that narrow pathway?

And what if the ground was slippery from the mist of the falls?

And what if I tumbled down, down, down and my poor brother was left to try to figure out how on earth to rescue me?

David kept telling me that I should NOT climb over the small fence that was keeping us safe. He was very quiet about it. I think he half expected that I would not heed his advice! The nerve!

So ... I just kept leaning over as far as I possibly could while trying to talk some sense into my brain. David's advice won out and I didn't go down the much-desired pathway. Pooh. I wanted to SO BADLY.

Also, a few years ago I would not have hesitated to continue down the main steps to the bottom, 168 steps or 200! But we had much yet we wanted to do in the next two days ... and that lighthouse was waiting for me, knowing I had to walk 1.5 miles each way. Discretion won the day, we climbed back to the top, got in our car and continued the drive to the light house.

We did stop along the way because this road was SO pretty.

I wanted to explore this beautiful little pathway too ... but it was super narrow and there were signs warning of poison ivy everywhere. Sheesh!

Instead, I got back into our vehicle and we drove on over to the parking lot and began our walk to the lighthouse.