Second Anniversary Lake Michigan Circle Trip

Jessica and Dan at Michago
Jessica and me at Michago

Jessica and I celebrated our second wedding anniversary (and nine years together) and traveled all the way around Lake Michigan earlier this month.
I grew up on the shores of Lake Michigan (living in suburban Chicago, visiting Michigan and Wisconsin with my family during many summers as a kid), and Jessica has been introduced to it several times since the first time she visited (me in) Chicago–back during New Years 2003. I remember as I met her after her flight into O’Hare how amazed she was at the size of the lake, which she had just seen from the airplane. “It’s like an ocean,” she said.

Seul Choix Bay
Seul Choix Bay, Upper Michigan

Now was a good time (though it proved a little cooler a late summer than we quite expected at times [like when we were camping on Big Bay and it was 33 degrees Fahrenheit]) to take a circle tour around Lake Michigan.

sunset over Big Bay de Noc, Michigan
sunset over Big Bay de Noc, Michigan

I was excited to show northern Wisconsin, Upper Michigan and northern Michigan to my wife (a native Californian who hadn’t yet ventured north of Milwaukee), and see some new areas with her.

Jessica at Seul Choix Bay Lighthouse Upper Michigan
Jessica at Seul Choix Lighthouse

We arranged for my parents and brother to watch our birds (it was very nice of them) and planned a trip that included Spring Green, Madison, Osh Kosh, and along Green Bay to Oconto, and Marinette, Wisconsin, along with camping at Big Bay de Noc and visiting Seul Choix Bay and over to St. Ignace in Upper Michigan, and then over the Mackinac Bridge to Mackinaw City.  While in town we had T-shirts made for our band and then we used Mackinaw City as our port of departure for our boat to Mackinac Island and spent a day cycling around, exploring, eating ice cream and fitting in a nice lunch before more cycling and then fudge shopping.

Mackinac Island
Mackinac Island

The next day we set out to see northern (lower peninsula) Michigan, visiting Petoskey, Traverse City, Leelanau State Park, Sleeping Bear Dunes, Glen Lake, Crystal Lake, Frankfort, Manistee, Stony Lake, and Michago, in western (lower peninsula) Michigan.

Manistee, Michigan
Manistee, Michigan

We started the two-week trip off in the countryside west of Madison seeing two Shakespeare plays [The Tempest and Taming of the Shrew] (in the rain, as it were) with some of my family including my parents, sisters, brother-in-law, cousins and more.  Between the plays we had a nice picnic.

family picnic, Spring Green Wisconsin
family picnic, Spring Green, Wisconsin

After we circled around the lake and got back to Chicago, we were glad to see our birds and also glad that we had gone all that way up north and seen so much beautiful country.

Sleeping Bear dunes by Jessica McKeown
Sleeping Bear Dunes, northern Michigan, by Jessica

We finished up the trip by spending a few days in Indianapolis as Jessica attended the Exact Target conference [which included getting “pit” access at the Katy Perry concert], after which Jessica, the birds and I all finally made it back to the Cleveland area.

Katy Perry live in Indianapolis
Katy Perry live in Indianapolis

Along the way we took a lot of photos and saw lots of cool birds including a hawk, a crane, swans, an eagle, and a flock of wild turkeys.  It was a good trip with beautiful sunrises and sunsets and lots of adventure.

Mackinac Bridge from Mackinac Island
Mackinac Bridge from Mackinac Island
Jessica in Petoskey, Michigan
Jessica in Petoskey, Michigan
Arch Rock, Mackinac Island
Arch Rock, Mackinac Island
Jessica at Indie Coffee, Madison, WIsconsin
Jessica at Indie Coffee, Madison, Wisconsin
American boat
ferry boat between Mackinac Island and Mackinaw City
Jessica
Jessica camping at Leelanau State Park on Big Bay de Noc
red hawk
red hawk in Wisconsin
beach at Menominee, Michigan
the beach at Menominee, Michigan
Michago sunset, Lake Michigan
Michago sunset over Lake Michigan
Dan
me near the Mackinac Bridge, Upper Michigan, by Jessica
Jessica by Glen Lake, Michigan
Jessica by Glen Lake, Michigan
sunset over the Mackinac Bridge
sunset over the Mackinac Bridge
dogs in Oconto, Wisconsin
dogs in Oconto, Wisconsin
wild blackberries
wild blackberries at Leelanau State Park, by Jessica
Jessica cycling Mackinac Island
Jessica cycling Mackinac Island
birds off Mackinac Island
birds off Mackinac Island
Lake Huron sunrise
Lake Huron sunrise over Mackinaw City