Adventures in the U.P.: Day 4

We didn't have to get up quite so early on the fourth day since we were doing activities closer to camp that day.  So we enjoyed a morning campfire and a cooked breakfast of sausage, eggs, and hash browns.  Yum!

This little chipmunk was so cute and evidently pretty thirsty!  He took a drink from the spout on the cooler.

After breakfast we loaded up and headed for The Oswald's Bear Ranch.  Of course with that name, we had to do it.  We discovered this place on our last trip and thought it was pretty fun.  It was basically a zoo for black bears.  They have lots of trails to follow with huge enclosures of various bears.  They let you feed them apple slices so you can get a pretty good, up close look at them.

We sharpened the end of a stick which worked great for spearing the apples and sticking them through the fence for the bears to reach.  It worked great until Kalen was feeding one bear but didn't get the stick through far enough and the poor bear got a shock from the electric fence.  It took some persuading for him to take the apple after that, but he finally did it.

There was  a small enclosure for the baby bears and we could feed them fruit loops by dropping them down this tube.  It was so cute watching them try to get at the cereal.

I loved how this bear turned to look at the camera when I asked him to:)

After the bear ranch we decided to go off the beaten path a bit and find our way to a light house that I had read about called the Crisp Point Lighthouse.  It meant taking a winding dirt road for most of the way but we decided to try it.  On our way there we first stopped at a little bakery we had passed before that sold brick oven bread.  Oh my goodness, it was SO yummy.  We ended up eating it on the way to the lighthouse by just breaking it off in handfuls. 

The drive was definitely an adventure.  It took a lot longer than we thought it would but it was so beautiful winding up through the forest.  Then all of a sudden we rounded a bend and there it was--a lovely sandy beach on the shore of Lake Superior with the old lighthouse off to the side.  It was absolutely stunning and wound up being probably my favorite activity of the entire trip.  It was well worth the time it took to find it.

The water was freezing and we hadn't brought bathing suits for the kids because we knew it would be so cold that they wouldn't want to do more than stick their feet in.  We should have remembered that these were our children we were talking about. 

They started out okay with just their feet in the water and lots of laughing and shrieking at the cold.  But once one particularly big wave surprised Kaya, they were all in and had a ball.

The soft sandy beach had lots of hidden treasure too.  We had so much fun hunting for the lovely rocks that were all different colors and worn so smooth by the waves. 

We did have some towels in the van luckily so once the kids dried off a bit, we went to check out the lighthouse.  It was really cool to go up inside and was surprisingly scary up at the top.  It didn't look that high from below but once we got out on the tower with the wind whipping around and the ground seeming a lot further down, it was a bit nervewracking.  I loved the contrast of forest and beach though and the view was amazing from up there.

After we got back to camp we spent some time exploring the actual campground.  We had been so busy before that we hadn't actually taken advantage of the beautiful surroundings right there.  The Tahquamenon river ran right by the campground and we found a fun little beach area a ways away along a great hiking trail.  The kids had fun playing in the sand and on the old pieces of driftwood.  We were there to witness a gorgeous sunset too.

It was a bittersweet evening because we knew we had to leave the next day and it had just been such an enjoyable, but way too short trip.  Still, the idea of showering in my own shower and sleeping in my own bed was beginning to have a lot of appeal...