A day in the Upper Penninsula

It was time to leave Door County and head for Michigan's Upper Peninsula.  We left early in the morning and drove to Escanaba, again driving along the lakeshore and enjoying the scenery.
When we got there our first stop was another lighthouse!

This is the Sand Point Lighthouse and it was built in 1868.  It wasn't open on the day we visited, but we enjoyed walking around it and the beach.

This huge rudder was one of the displays,  It is from a ship that sank off the shore.



Next to the lighthouse was nice little park with a gazebo.

It was the perfect place to have lunch!

 We wandered a little in Escanaba - such a cute little town.  We thought this mural was pretty cool!

We had to stop and check out the local True Value and Bob passed on greetings from the Allendale True Value.
Then we were back on the road.

We saw more deer as we drove, this one didn't even move when we stopped.

Next stop was Fayette, MI.  It's the site of an industrial community that manufactured pig iron between 1867 and 1891.  When the business moved, there was no reason for people to live there and the whole place was abandoned. It's now maintained as a living museum, showing what life was like in the late 19th century.  It was really amazing to walk through!

The area is just beautiful, set in this bay with limestone bluffs.  Old pier pilings can still be seen in the water.

This is the building where the iron ore was melted.

This was the community store; now all that remains is the limestone exterior.

Many of the houses are gone, with just the foundation left.

This is the hotel, still beautiful I think!

This is the upper part of the hotel, a room that was used for work parties and entertainment.

This was in the corner of a room that was used for the kids schooling.

It's a strange thing to see what was once a bustling community, now deserted and deteriorating.  It's a reminder that all the things in our life are not important.


We then drove on to Manistique, where we would stay for the night.  After checking into our hotel and getting supper we went to the beach to walk the pier.

The pier wasn't easy to get to.  We had get across all these rocks...

Then we saw this sign, but we proceeded on!

I wasn't too excited to walk across this part and if it had windy, I wouldn't have done it.  It did get better though!

We made it to one more lighthouse, at the end of the pier.
And that was the end of another wonderful day!