Northern Michigan, Part 1

Well, moving day came and went, and we were finally able to head out on this adventure-of-a-lifetime.  We headed north and east to Michigan, where our son and his family live.  Our grandson, John, was home from school during Covid, and watched a YouTube video series about national parks.  When he realized that there was one IN HIS VERY OWN STATE, he asked his parents if "we can please go to Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore."  We jumped on that bandwagon, and took him north last summer.  We toured the lakeshore, and his Grandpa John's hometown of Grand Marais, MI.  It was lots of fun, until Grandpa John's heart decided it was time to cause a little drama, something it does periodically.  It resulted in Grandpa John taking a ride in the flashy car across the Mackinac Bridge, with Grandma, Dad, and John following behind.  We had to skip a few stops on our tour, so we worked those in, this summer.

(Here we take a stop to clarify that no, the Petermans are not very imaginative when it comes to naming their sons.  John, Sr named his son John, Jr; that would be in 1937.  In 1959, John, Jr named his son Jon III.  In 1983, John III named his son John IV, and, in 2014, John IV named his son John V.  John, Jr is called Jack.  John IV is called Jay.  Other than that, it can get pretty confusing when the whole family is together.  Which they do often, this time in 2015.)


Everyone was anxious to get on the road for some fun.  However, Mom and Dad had to work a bit, so, when we arrived, we spent a little time in Bay City State Park, a nice little park right on Saginaw Bay.

We had some lovely hikes, and met some of the locals.





One was a little more discreet, but we did follow her trail to her nest.



We watched some parasailing, and took some other pictures.  




It was a nice week.  I even got to have tacos with John.  But not at Taco John's.  And not at the taco place I picked, either.  Oh, well.  He's 7.


We started further north near the end of that week.



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