Sault Ste Marie, MI

We arrived in Sault Ste Marie yesterday and spent the afternoon touring the downtown locks area and visitor's center. We watched from an elevated walkway while a 750+ foot long boat (yep, they call ships 'boats' on the Great Lakes) loaded with iron ore entered a lock and watched it get raised 21-feet to exit onto Lake Superior.

Today, we boarded a much smaller boat (with Soo Locks Boat Tours) for a two-hour cruise through the locks. As we left the pier, another one of those little 750+ foot long 'boats' was entering one of the locks. After cruising around the St Marys River and seeing some of Canada's sights (and seeing our RV from the water) for a few minutes, we entered the lock next to the big boat. The lower lock gate closed and the water level raised us up 21-feet in elevation in about 10 minutes. Then the upper lock gate opened and we entered Lake Superior followed closely by the big boat. We were shown a large steel mill in Canada then we entered one of the Canadian locks to descend 21-feet and return to our pier. What fun! BTW, the high temperature today will be 68 degrees. I never expected to be wearing a coat in early August. Really cool. . .

After lunch, we drove out to Whitefish Point along the shores of Lake Superior and went to see the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum where, among other things, we learned about the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald and saw the ship's bell recovered from the wreck. We toured the museum, lighthouse and the keeper's home. Over 550 shipwrecks have occurred over the years in the waters around Whitefish Point. Makes me glad that we were on land. ;-)

We weren't finished yet. Our next stop was Tahquamenon Falls State Park where we walked along some long wooden bridges and paths to see both the Lower and Upper Falls. They were quite beautiful despite the brownish colored water (mainly from dissolved tannic acids from woody debris upstream). A lot of walking but all that beauty made it all worth while. We'll sleep well tonight.