26 Aug 2013 – Goodbye Canada, Hello USA

Sat: 0930hrs continued from SSM/Canada across to International Bridge where there was a line and took nearly 30mins before reaching the border, nice good looking immigration officer in MI on the US side 🙂

Another interesting experience with the Soo Locks and this time on the US side which are bigger and a more commercialised than for leisure like that on the Canada side. Soo Locks on the US side have a traffic of 11,000+vessels caring up to 90mil tons of cargo annually. From here cargo can be transported thru’ Lake Huron, Erie, Ontario (the Great Lakes including Lake Superior), St Lawrence River and out to the Atlantic Ocean. Amazing engineering and construction with these locks.

Trout Creek, near Harbour Springs app 2hrs drive from south of SSM, thanks to May&Lock’s for driving and putting me up in their condo. Exploring the area to discover…

Bay View app 30mins drive south of Trout Creek, where history comes alive in these Gingerbread houses when The Bay View Association of The United Methodist Church, a Chautauqua on Lake MI, is a National Historic Landmark community founded in 1875. It is situated on 337 beautiful, terraced acres in the northwest portion of MI’s Lower Peninsula. Bay View is home to more than 30 public buildings, nearly 450 cottages and two inns. Every summer they offer superb music, worship, lectures and seminars, all open to the public.

Petoskey is a small city and coastal resort community in Emmet County MI with a pop of 5,670 and the surrounding area are notable for being the setting of several of the Nick Adams stories by Ernest Hemingway.Delicious chicken lunch at Twisted Olive**** in Petoskey, a delightful little town.

Continuing south to Charlevoix, another charming small place, pop of 1,697-year round and has a significant seasonal tourist population in the summer!

Also held the record of the largest cherry pie in the world some years ago. And the black cherry ice-cream here is to die for, usually a chocolate or coffee ice cream fan but seemed to be addicted to the black cherry ice cream the past few days. A fresh fish market here where the delicious lake trout cost US$4per pound.

The world breaks everyone and, afterward, some are strong at the broken places – Ernest Hemingway