Rio Travelers: GRAND HAVEN MICHIGAN AND GRAND PORTAGE

After we left Craig and Ann's house, we drove we drove to Grand Haven to visit "Coast Guard City, USA". It has had that distinction for about 70 years. It started out as the city giving a picnic for the Coasties on Coast Guard day (August 4th) to show their appreciation and has blossomed into a week long festival that draws thousands of people to the city. We missed Coast Guard day but enjoyed the visit.

After Grand Haven, we drove north along Michigan's Upper Penninsula (the UP) and visited Munising and took the Pictured Rocks boat tour. As we drove to Munising, we realized that we had done it before (in 2009 on our way to our Polar Bear trip) but, since the tickets were paid for, we went anyway. I think we have seen too many rocks.

Our next stop was to visit our friends Carol and Jay and their son Scott who were volunteering for 4 months at Grand Portage National Monument in Grand Portage, Minnesota. On the map, Grand is in the extreme northeast corner of Minnesota, about 6 miles from the Canadian border. It was a great visit and we had a great history lesson on the fur trading period of our country's early history. Grand Portage was the place where the French Canadian "voyageurs" or travelers carrying goods from the east for the Northwest and Hudson Bay companies would meet the local native Ojibawe people and trade their goods for furs. This took place at Rendezvous every July.

While in Grand Portage, we had a wonderful lunch at the Naniboujou lodge. /the lodge was built in the late 1920's as a private club with Jack Dempsey and Babe Ruth as charter members. It never was completed because the Great Depression happened. It is now a restaurant and resort and is on the National Register of Historic Places. The paint is original, the designs are Cree and the fireplace is the largest in MN of native stone. Ken and I also drove to Thunder Bay, Ontario where we visited Fort William. Fort William told the same basic story as Grand Portage but on a grander scale. Fort William was built because the British found out that they were trading on U. S. land after the Revolution. OOPS! They totally moved the fort at Grand Portage to Thunder Bay Ontario which is now a thriving industrial city.

We had a great visit but the weather has not been the best. It has been cool and rainy and the cold water of Lake Superior just added to it.

GRAND HAVEN, MICHIGAN

COAST GUARD CITY USA

COAST GUARD, THE NEW

COAST GUARD, THE OLD

NOTE THE BOW SHAPED FOUNDATION ON THE LEFT TO BREAK-UP ICE FLOWS AND THE CATWALK THAT WAS USED TO SERVICE THE LIGHT IN ROUGH WEATHER

GRAND HAVEN BEACH 65 DEG WATER TEMP

LOCOMOTIVE USED TO HAUL COAL TRAINS

NOTE JUST IN CASE YOU HAVEN'T NOTICED TRAINS AND BOATS ARE MY THING

MUSIC AND DANCE ON THE WATERFRONT

AND OF COURSE SUNSET

MUNISING, MICHIGAN

HOME OF PICTURED ROCKS CRUISE

COAST GUARD ON PATROL
Actually tied up to dock on other side for dinner break

THE PICTURED ROCKS

GRAND PORTAGE MINNESOTA AREA

TYPICAL OF THE ROOM PAINTED BY A NATIVE CREE

LARGEST STONE FIREPLACE IN MINNESOTA

ALL OF US DOING WHAT WE DO BEST

2 PICTURES OVERLOOKING LAKE SUPERIOR

DUE TO THE FALLS BELOW AN 8 MILE PORTAGE AROUND THE FALLS WAS DEVELOPED SO THAT BOTH CANOES AND GOODS COULD BE BROUGHT FROM LAKE SUPERIOR TO THE RIVER ABOVE AND THEN PROCEED TO TRADING POSTS WEST. THUS THE NAME GRAND PORTAGE.