I must say July was a wonderful month filled with plenty of adventure and stunning beauty. Before departing for the UP (upper peninsula of Michigan) we spent some quality time with family in southern Michigan. This included a 4th of July weekend with the kids, Drax (the Boxer), and our sweet grandson visiting. And yes we all stayed in the RV for the extended weekend and had a blast!

Shane has talked about making his grandmother’s meatball and baked macaroni recipe for several years now. There was talk of doing so during our stay in Indianapolis but time ran out. So July 4th weekend the cooking plan was on. With Amanda, Triston, myself and dad Benson to help out it quickly became a family affair.

After several hours of cooking the sauce, rolling the meatballs, and assembling the macaroni dish to be baked, it was time to bake it all and wait. An hour later the dish emerged looking scrumptious. It delivered! The meal was delicious and a hit with everyone. Even little Ryker man shoveled that Italian meal into his mouth. Success! And finally the “Benson Balls” were a reality. Note: Amanda commented she had been hearing about this recipe for years and was starting to doubt it would ever happen!

The only problem with this meal, there might have been a slight over calculation on the amount of sauce it would make. Needless to say we had leftovers for us and to give away. After eating we all looked like Drax in the last photo.

After the kids left it was time to get things cleaned up and stocked up for our departure. While cleaning up we found one of Ryker’s toy cars left behind. It is traveling with us until we return to Indianapolis and every time I see it I smile, thinking of him playing with it. The cars were a gift from his uncle Andy in Michigan and he loved the bin full of cars.

As for stocking up I must say I am getting good at fitting a lot of food in our RV fridge. The Aldi (my favorite grocery store) meat stock up lasted us longer than I expected. Meat, groceries, liquor, everything really is more expensive in the UP, thus my frugal minded self stocked us up before departing.

In case you are curious there are 2 gallons of milk and 2 dozen eggs among many other things in that fridge. I call it the Tetris fridge game and I am on the advanced level.

July 14th we hit the road and headed north. In an effort to save time I have been putting together a lunch pack for us to eat as we travel. Thus saving us the stopping time to eat lunch parked. Not to mention trying to find a place to park the RV while we eat. We were excited to get to the UP and therefore made our way across the bridge on day 1 with an overnight stay at the Straits State Park. I attempted to get a night photo of the Mackinac Bridge but for whatever reason they did not turn out. Day 1 we were officially “Yoopers” for the summer! (Note: not technically Yoopers as we were not born in the UP but who is keeping track.)

Munising and Pictured Rocks

We love the Munising area and had to return for a short stay before moving on to our favorite camping spot of all time. Last year we stayed here on our way back from Copper Harbor. During that stay we made it out to Pictured Rocks and were blown away by how beautiful it was. (As you may recall I fell behind on blogging last year and never had the chance to share those photos). This year we knew we had to do a return trip on our boat, because it is worth seeing more than once.

Before picking a good Lake Superior day to explore the Pictured Rocks coastline we enjoyed eating at our favorite pizza place and exploring Munising. I love the flowers lining the outdoor patio at Pictured Rocks Pizza. If you ever find yourself in the area, this is a must stop. The pizza is delicious!

In the last photo, the beginning of Pictured Rocks off in the distance.

For the second year in a row we stayed at Bay Furnace Campground. A lovely Hiawatha National Forest campground right on Lake Superior. Most of the sites are tucked back in the woods and are private. This is a nice basecamp for exploring Pictured Rocks, Grand Island, Munising, and the surrounding areas.

I loved this low lying fog hovering over the eastern side of Grand Island and the Pictured Rocks area. Within minutes it had dissipated. Just goes to show you how ever changing Lake Superior can be.

Now for our second tour of the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. I’ll let the photos tell the story, with some interjection here and there.

Miner’s Castle pictured below.

Miner’s Beach, our lunch spot.

Love the vibrant colors (no color correction or enhancement needed)!

Lover’s Leap

Thanks to the lovely couple for taking our picture at Lover’s Leap. We reciprocated by taking photos of them on their paddle board. Phones were carefully handed over the water.

Chapel Rock & Chapel Beach Falls.

Spray Falls (we did not make it to this one last year due to fog rolling in).

12 Mile Beach, our turn around point.

Look at that water! Is it any wonder why Lake Superior is my favorite.

Now for the bad news, we had to tour down the same coast on the return trip. Oh damn! (Might be a bit of sarcasm there.)

Loved the layering of rocks in this small cave.

A fond farewell to a gorgeous day on Lake Superior taking in the wonder and beauty of Pictured Rocks.

3 Weeks Camped on the Shore of Lake Superior

A favorite we will continue to return to year after year. I wrote about this spot last year in October but it’s good enough to share a second time. This spot is outside of L’Anse Michigan and it is remote. No hook-ups here only the sounds of Lake Superior. We love this spot so much we stayed for 3 weeks! At times we had the place practically to ourselves but on the weekends this place filled with others here to enjoy this gem of a spot.

The photos tell it best, so here is what three weeks camped on Lake Superior look like.

This spot is amazing with the expansive sky views not to mention views of both sunrise and sunset here.

However, it is not always this beautiful. During our stay we had a solid 5-6 days of smoky conditions from the Canadian wildfires, dramatically changing our views. I was beginning to wonder if we would have the gorgeous views again we had our first couple of days.

It is lake Superior and sometimes she can rage. Someone had their pontoon boat anchored on shore when the weather shifted. They had to wait until the water calmed down to get it in.

During our stay we had beautiful, sunny skies; wildfire smoke; stable flies (when the wind is off the land they are plentiful); all the severe weather notifications in one day; and temperatures reaching 90 for a couple of days (unusual for the UP). If you don’t like the weather or flies, stick around it will change, sometimes in the same day.

I tried my hand at some beach art.

The wine project is doing well. I bottled my second white wine here, a Chardonnay that turned out delicious. The plant project is also doing well. Everything is growing and thriving.

I read Project Hail Mary here and I highly recommend this book! Excellent!

There is no water at this spot but there is a campground with a hand pump within 15-20 minutes.

We mostly stayed here for the three weeks, leaving once per week to explore and pick up supplies. At home base we spent a lot of time on the water. Sometimes simply hanging out at a sandbar and enjoying the warm sunshine and cool water of Lake Superior or motoring up river a bit.

We explored miles of coast from here in our little boat, making it to Abbaye Point and completely dodging the storms and rain that came through. They went around us both to the north and south.

Made it out to the islands again this year. The wind was from the south so the north end of the Island was actually calm this time. After a short hike up to the lighthouse, we enjoyed lunch in a protected bay and admired the beauty all around us.

Oh the sunsets here are amazing. I could not stop taking photos of the beautiful sky.

Words cannot fully describe how I feel about this place. It is magical. It comes with its fair share of crazy weather and bugs but wow I adore this spot.

Note: Forgive any errors in my writing. With so many photos to share it took me longer than usual to compile it all and get this one posted.

Up next the summer adventures continue as we explore familiar favorites and a new spot!