Vacation Journal Drawings of Lake Superior Circle Tour Bound In A Recycled Vintage Book

My daughters and I recently drove around Lake Superior, it's called the Lake Superior Circle Tour. We started in Minneapolis, traveled through Ontario via Duluth and then drove along the south shore through Michigan and Wisconsin to complete the circle in Duluth.

I wanted something a little different for a trip journal so I made an accordion book and bound it in the vintage book The Call of the North. I used a map of Lake Superior for the end papers.















This is what the book looks like inside.














The first page is a pictorial map of our journey. Normally I use more color but we were busy and I don't like going back to rework pages.

We like to stop at the Portland Malt Shop in Duluth. It's in a charming building near the shore, off of downtown. My kids love the malts but they order them without the whipped cream. They were rather surprised the first time they came with whipped cream and didn't make that mistake twice.

My oldest, Alethea, is a major rock hound so agate beach is a required destination when we go to Duluth.

The Canadian border guard thought it was truly odd that we wanted to drive around the lake and suggested doing something else.

Alethea wanted to look for gem stones at an Amethyst mine outside of Thunder Bay. We have yet to travel anywhere without coming home with rocks and sand.

























Betty's Pies are an institution here and we were never able to find the shop but we did this time. The interior is cheery, the coffee and pie were good. I was expecting life changing pie and it was simply pie; but it's tough to live up to that much acclaim. We didn't even finish our pieces which is an oddity for us; we say "it's not pie" when something smells bad or is unpleasant so you can tell we are serious about pie.

























The Silver Creek Cliff tunnel was fun to go through and we honked at the Menehunes (mischievous imps) like we learned to do in Hawaii.

























The gas pumps were a lot of more complicated that we are used to. You need to push a button to indicate if you want $5, $10, $15, $20 or to fill the tank. The directions were worn off so it took awhile to figure out what the buttons were for. I'm used to 24/7, pay at the pump, so it was odd to find gas stations that closed.

























Most of the drive was through mountains and it seemed fun to show that view in a rear view mirror.

























Wawa Ontario has a signature giant goose that sits near the visitor center. Shortly after Wawa is the Magpie High Falls which has the potential to be fierce but it was still very impressive. To reach the falls you go through fields of brush and clay covered roads. The best beaches came after Wawa and the first nice one was Old Woman Beach, the sand was very fine stone instead of what you normally think of as sand.

























We love, love, loved Katherine Cove. The water was pristine and warm with a luscious sand bottom. I read afterward that there had been a wolf attack previously on the beach but I would gleefully go back. The road we traveled had stacked rock formations all along it and we actually saw two women making the piled rock sculptures on boulders in the lake. In Hawaii there are numerous posted signs not to stack rocks (we've only seen it to a large degree in those two areas), Canada seems to embrace it and I think its fun.



















After Wawa we started to see more small lakes with mist covered islands.

























Every few miles there were warnings about night danger with moose and there were a few of these billboards just in case you didn't get the message. We did see moose by the roadside but they were snacking and had no interest in us. We did take the warnings seriously and didn't drive after dark.

























Things were very expensive in Canada, the most we paid for gas was $7.50 a gallon. I expected a lot of restaurants serving game and fresh fish but we saw gas stations that served KFC and fresh deli. I'm sure Canada has fine dining but we never happened across it. My favorite sign was for a restaurant that served both Canadian cuisine and Chinese food but didn't find an open location.

Our first Canadian motel had bears in the parking lot and 5 items in the vending machine; maybe it was attacked by bears with quarters.

























Yay! We found an open restaurant, Perkins never looked so good.

























The record snowfall on Michigan's Keweenaw Peninsula was 390.4" and the lowest snowfall was 161.1"; I will no longer complain about Minnesota in February.

























I have an irrational fear of high bridges and we ran across 2 very memorable ones. The lift bridges were fine but the Sault Ste Marie International bridge was miserable. It's 2.8 miles long and the entry point into the USA was very slow. It took an hour and 45 minutes to cross it in over 90 degree weather. We would move up 2 car lengths then shut the engine off for 5 to 10 minutes. I was afraid the car would overheat so we opened the windows and sky roof and hoped for the best.

I have other pages—sand from the beaches we visited glued in a wave pattern—french candy wrappers—and I sent for a certificate of completion for the trip that will go on the last page.