great lakes trip: pictured rocks

after departing marquette, we headed east toward munising (snow mobile capital of the u.s.a. [as far as i'm concerned]), the city on the western border of the pictured rocks national lakeshore.  we had reservations for a short (3 hour) kayak trip along the lake superior shoreline to get a good view of the majestic sandstone cliffs, known as the pictured rocks.  it wasn't easy to find a tour company that would let a 4 and 6 year old go out in kayaks (tandem kayaks, one kid-one parent), but we did.  upon checking in, we discovered that the tour group we went with had since changed their policy, and only kids over 10 could go out onto the big lake (gitchi gummi; lake superior).  however, our little guys were grandfathered in (yes!).

after a short bus ride from munising to the park...



getting outfitted with gear...


and a hike down to the beach...



we were ready to hit the lake.


the tour was a there-and-back. it was clear that the first half would be the easy half, with the wind at our backs.  oh well.  the adults did a good job of enjoying the scenery and the pleasant afternoon on the big water, and the kids did a fairly good job of keeping their comments about how boring kayaking is to a minimum.

 

the water and the cliffs were quite spectacular.  too few pictures were taken, given the need to keep the kayaks moving.

after an hour of so of kayaking along these massive cliffs, it was time to turn around and head back.  we had expected that the going was going to get harder, given the wind and waves we had had at our back for the first half.  what we didn't expect (and the guides didn't expect either) was the significant uptick in the force of the winds or the size of the waves.  by the time we made it around the point that revealed the beach where we would be making our landing, the waves had increased to 4-5 feet.  i wasn't ever really afraid for our safety, but it did a good job of revealing just how tiny and frail we are in comparison to nature. having the tiny body of your child sitting in front of you makes it all the more apparent.  i was glad to be back on the beach, instead of watching james' tiny body bouncing about in the high seas.