Cheboygan, MI and Dayton, OH

October 2009

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	Our cabin was a short walk from the Cheboygan River, which connects Mullett Lake with Lake Huron.
	More Cheboygan River
	The Cheboygan River has a small dam and lock facility down stream from our cabin, and we went fishing there. Uncomfortable and cold. People (not us) were catching huge salmon there, but were releasing them all because they were near death, just having spawned below this dam, the highest point they can go on the river.
	More fishing.
	The sun came out for a few minutes.
	Another day, we drove up to Whitefish Point in Michigan's Upper Peninsula to see the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum. We didn't take any pictures inside the museum, but it was great, and included the ship's bell recovered in 1995 from the Edmund Fitzgerald, which sank in 1975 nearby and is the largest shipping disaster in the Great Lakes. Family members of the victims get to ring the bell once each year in memory of their loved ones. This is the lighthouse at Whitefish Point.
	Several days later we drove to Lansing to visit Ben. No pictures of Ben here, but we did catch our cat Sami lounging on the bed in our hotel. She put up with a lot of guff from us for this traveling we put her through, so she enjoyed the luxury.
	We continued to Dayton, to attend Aunt Faye's 90th birthday party. Here is Izzy and his sister Faye.
	Izzy, Faye, and Izzy's sister-in-law Aunt Martha.
	Elaine and Aunt Faye.
	William, Elaine, and Aunt Faye.
	Cousins Donna, Lisa, and Aunt Faye.
	First cousin once removed Declan.
	Elaine and cousin Lisa.
	William, Elaine, and Izzy.
	Aunt Faye and her daughters Madeleine and Lisa
	Lisa's hustband Bob and his son Michael admiring Lisa
	After Dayton, we returned to Cheboygan. This is the view of Mullett Lake from a diner nearby, in Topinabee
	We went fishing in Topinabee at Mullett Lake. Didn't catch anything, but saw a frisky river otter and some cormorants
	Fishing at Mullett Lake, Michigan's fifth largest inland lake.
	More fishing at Mullett Lake.
	Mullett Lake. Please excuse the intrusion, but if you turn your speakers on and place the mouse on the thumb-nail picture to the left, you will hear Mullett Lake. It was a windy cold day.
	More fishing at Mullett Lake
	More fishing at Mullett Lake
	More fishing at Mullett Lake.
	The gas fireplace in the cabin. Kept things toasty - it was freezin' outside! (In the mid to low 30's at night anyway! Mid to high 40's days.)
	We drove up to Sault Ste Marie, MI, to see the Soo Locks, a major engineering marvel that completed the Saint Lawrence Seaway. Izzy walks to the tour boat here. The boat would take us around the St. Mary's river and through two locks.
	Mary, a deck hand with the Soo Locks tour boat, helps us cast off.
	The bald eagle here likes to hang out on these St. Mary's River rocks (which are in CANADA I believe).
	Our tour guide showed us 50,000 tons of road salt that had been unloaded by a freighter earlier the same day. We would later see double trucks loading it up for deliveries elsewhere.
	A big electric plant harnesses water power from a tributary flowing in to the St. Mary's River. People like to fish near those arches under the building. The building is all made of cut stone.
	Detail of the power plant.
	A freighter berthed near the tour boat dock - it is used as a museum, and is similar in size to the Edmund Fitzgerald.
	Coast Guard vessel.
	The MacArthur lock opens up for us to enter. It was built secretly during World War II to facilitate movement of urgent raw materials from the upper Great Lakes.
	The MacArthur lock closes.
	We wait as the boat rises in the lock
	The MacArthur lock gate is about to open.
	The MacArthur lock gate opens.
	The lock gate is all the way open and we are clear to enter the upper St. Mary's River. The automotive bridge to Canada is in the background.
	The bridge to Canada above, and a part of the railroad bridge below.
	More of same.
	Railroad bridge elevator. Ships have the right-of-way on the St. Mary's River, so trains have to wait for ships before crossing
	The bridge to Canada.
	Our tour boat passed by the huge Algoma steel works in Sault Ste Marie, Ontario on the upper St. Mary's River. The freighter S.S. Saginaw was offloading tons of crushed limestone at the works.
	After we viewed the (smelly) Algoma works, we returned downriver via this lock on the Canadian side.
	After we enter the lock, the gates are about to open.
	After the water is drained out of the lock (21 feet of water) the gate opens and we depart
	We pass by the rapids of the St. Mary's River. The river joins Lake Superior to Lake Huron, with a 21 foot drop between them.
	Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario
	We had lunch at the Antlers restaurant a Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, landmark.
	The Antlers restaurant was decidedly not vegetarian-friendly! We had an excellent lunch there.
	The Antlers restaurant. Looks like it was cut from the same stone as the power plant we saw earlier.
	We went up the "Tower of History" in Sault Ste Marie Michigan to see a panoramic view of the locks. To the left is the MacArthur lock which our tour boat passed through earlier.
	The American locks are in the lower middle of the picture, black booms in the up position indicating the gates are open. The river rapids are visible behind the locks.
	The power plant as seen from the "Tower of History". The salt pile we saw earlier is behind it
	Another view from the tower.
	Our tour boat, visible from the tower.
	The S.S. Saginaw emerges from the MacArthur lock on its way down stream after unloading limestone at the Algoma steel works. We watched pass through the lock from the tower; it took about 20 minutes.
	The exterior of the "Tower of History". It was originally built in 1968 at great expense by the Catholic church next door, and was intended to be part of a big shrine complex. Costs got out of hand and they stopped the project, and donated the completed tower to the nonprofit corporation Sault Historic Sights. It is 210 feet tall.
	The view from our back door back at the cabin in Cheboygan. The water visible is a little tributary stream that pours into the Cheboygan River.
	More back yard.
	We drove to Petoskey Michigan to check it out and look for petoskey stones and do some fishing. This is the clock tower at the marina, nearly under which William and Izzy were fishing, and by which both were impressively stunned when the clock bell sounded on the hour.
	The marina at Petoskey. Not the best weather.
	We saw some guys fishing near a little dam in Petoskey and stopped to take a look.
	The dam in Petoskey.
	We had breakfast twice at the Cafe Noka in Topinabee Michigan, on the shores of Mullett Lake. Delicious, especially the cinnamon buns!
	Towards the end of our trip we drove back up to the Upper Peninsula to see the Tahquomenon Falls. This is the lower falls.
	After we looked at the lower falls, we drove to the place where you can see the upper falls and Elaine and Izzy checked out some fall foliage.
	Izzy picks up some leaves.
	The upper falls. They are so dirty brown because of tannic acid naturally leached from cedar, hemlock, and spruce trees in swamps upstream from the falls. It's supposed to be non-toxic (but you still don't want to drink it without boiling!).
	Elaine and William took the steps down to the brink of the falls.
	The steps down to the falls.
	The falls from the bottom of the steps.
	More falls.
	William looks at the falls from a vantage point amongst the foliage.
	More falls.
	More falls.
	After we left Tahquamenon Falls, we drove back to Cheyboygan via the south coast of the Upper Peninsula, along Lake Michigan, approaching the Mackinaw Bridge. This is a view of Lake Michigan from a roadside park.
	The Mackinaw Bridge from the roadside park. Dismal in that direction (Cheboygan, our destination, is in that darkness somewhere)
	Elaine snapped some nice sunset pictures from the roadside park on Lake Michigan
	More sunset
	Izzy flew home from Pellston, MI, a pretty little airport serving northern lower Michigan, but poses with William before he leaves. He didn't catch any fish in Michigan, but we all had a good time.