Fall Foliage Tour!

Hello Ladies!  I hope you all are doing great!  We just returned last night from 2 weeks camping in our motor home in Michigan's Upper Peninsula (we call it the "U.P."), and had a really nice time.  With no internet connection, though I was having major blogging withdrawals, and missed you all so much!  I don't know how many times I thought to myself  "I can't wait to share this on my blog", or "I definitely have to take a picture of this for my blog"!!  Anyway, it feels so good to be home.  I think it will take a long time to get caught up with all of you, seems like we have been gone alot longer!

The colors were just gorgeous!  We were surprised that they were at their peak.

These first photos were taken at Porcupine Mountain State Park.  Yes, we have mountains in Michigan!  Ok, if you live somewhere like the Rockies, you probably wouldn't think of them as mountains, but to us they are!

This is called "Lake of the Clouds".  The colors were even more gorgeous than in these photos!

We saw lots of amazing waterfalls!  The U.P. is so different from where we live here in Southern Michigan.  It feels so much more remote, as not alot of people live there, and there are very few large towns.  The landscape is much more rugged and full of wild and natural beauty.  It really feels like you are in a different state!  You  can drive forever and the only thing you see are trees, and lots of wildlife.  I just love it!

In order to reach the U.P., we first have to drive over the Mackinac Bridge.  It's huge!  The day we drove over it, there were high wind advisories, so we had to drive in a "caravan" with other rv-ers and semi trucks, no more than 20mph.  I was a bit nervous!

This was my view looking directly out my window.  Yikes!  That's a long way down!!

Now that is one long bridge!

One of the highlights of our trip was visiting the tiny town of Eagle River.  Well, there really isn't much of a town there.  The main attraction is a little bakeshop operated by monks, and their gorgeous monastery is right down the road.  You certainly wouldn't expect to find monks in this neck of the woods.  Not only is it very remote, but they live on a very windswept and somewhat wild piece of land right along Lake Superior.

Their bakeshop, "The Jam pot", is just adorable, and was created out of an old, abandoned restaurant.

I loved their sign!

Their baked goods were so amazing, we had to go back again a few days later!  They sell delicious jam, truffles, cookies, the best muffins, brownies, and lots more!  My mouth is watering just thinking about it!  Our favorite was the pumpkin muffins with cream cheese frosting!  They were huge, and were chocked full of nuts and raisins.  Yum!  I was going to take a picture of them, but we ate them too quickly!!

Here is their monastery, which is across the road from the bakeshop.  Isn't is amazing?!  Unfortunately, it was locked so we couldn't go in, though we were able to walk the grounds and check out their gorgeous flowers.  We had visited there 3 years ago, and were so excited to be able see it again!

Their flowers were so pretty!

I just loved this tranquil spot!

And this was their view of Lake Superior!  Gorgeous!

Our favorite campground was McLain State Park, which we camped at for 5 nights.  That's our motor home in the foreground.  Right across from us was Lake Superior, which is the largest freshwater lake in the world.  It is stunning!  And it really looks and feels as if you are at the ocean! (except for the lack of saltwater!)

Loved the sunsets!

There are miles and miles of hiking trails in the woods, over looking the lake.  We walked alot, and our little dog just loved it!

I've got lots more to share, but I'll save that for later.  We did have a mishap that I'll tell you about later, too.  It involved a leaky roof, pouring rain, and collecting the leaks in tupperware containers!  Yikes!

Hope you all have a great night!