We ate at Dogpatch today. That's right, you heard me, Dogpatch. Lil' Abner anyone? Another fun quirky place in the Upper Peninsula, although their food was just standard fare. I went with an English Muffin and some sausage links at this place, while Grandma got the Sausage Gravy and Biscuits, which she said was only fair, and Jan and Mom got the regular breakfast plates that were pretty par for the course. Looking around at all the stuff inside distracted me from the food anyway though. We also stopped at a little antique store filled with books and odds and ends in the downtown area.
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| Picture at Dogpatch |
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| Dogpatch Restaurant |
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| Dogpatch motorhome |
Fully fueled we decided to check out some of the waterfalls around Munising before heading South. Just within a few miles of town itself are quite a few and we were able to see Munising Falls, Alger Falls, and Wagner Falls. You would think that seeing so many waterfalls would get monotonous after awhile, but they're all so different and beautiful, and the hikes to get back to them fun, that it really is an enjoyable experience. And on this trip we didn't even see a fraction of them, there's over 400 waterfalls in the Upper Peninsula alone.
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| Munising Falls |
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| Munising Falls |
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| Alger Falls |
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| Grandma at Wagner Falls |
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| Wagner Falls |
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| Stream at Wagner Falls |
I fell asleep in the car, but I'm told we passed through some heavy forests as we went South to Lake Michigan and Fayette State Park. There were also a couple turbine farms in this area as well. Me, I was dreaming of food probably while I drooled all over the car window.
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| Jan stopping to smell the roses.....er....lilacs. |
Fayette State Park is home to the town of Fayette. Once a thriving mining and refinery town, it is now a historic park with preserved buildings and roadways. No one lives there anymore, the town died after the need for pig iron was gone, but the buildings have mostly stood the test of time and have been made into a large museum. It is possible to walk around the town in a few hours, checking out some of the exhibits and restored buildings and wandering through the forest where the different neighborhoods were located. You can even hire a park guide to give you a walking tour of the place.
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| The Fayette Motel and one of the largest Lilac bushes I have ever seen. |
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| Fayette Bay. |
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| Fayette Iron Refinery |
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| Kiln |
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| Inside of the Kiln....it echoed. |
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| Another kiln. |
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| Grandma and Jan in Fayette. |
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| Middleclass homes in Fayette. |
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| The bones of a general store in Fayette. |
Manistique was just down the road and home to some fish houses, where we were able to pick up some smoked whitefish (yum!), have a visit with a certain lumberjack, and continue down the road to a small stop outside of the town limits called Dreamland Restaurant. This was all of the group except mine's favorite place to eat. They had a small salad bar and soups on special, and that's what Jan, Grandma and I got. Jan also got a pastie (U.P. specialty) for us to all try, which was the best we had on the trip yet, and mom got the Whitefish dinner, which was absolutely huge and absolutely delicious according to her. It was at this diner though that mom discovered her phone was missing. We trekked back to Manistique where we found in lying in the parking lot of the Visitor Center, luckily unhurt. We're still convinced that Paul Bunyan had something to do with it.
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| My new boyfriend, I like them tall. |
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| Mom's fish dinner at Dreamland. |
We stopped for the night in St. Ignace, on the outskirts of town and found a nice little motel called the Sunset Motel. They had chickens (although none would let me cuddle them) and it was a good sign that it would be a pleasant stay.
