First thing in the morning, we set off for St. Ignace to see the bridge. On the way there, we stopped at a spot on Whitefish Bay, Lake Superior to look for moose ... supposedly a common place for sightings, but we weren't so lucky. The Mackinac Bridge is, at 5 miles long, the longest suspension bridge in the country. While taking pictures of it, some old luddite wouldn't leave me alone, claiming his Pentax film body and Tamron lens were far superior to my digital hunk o'junk, which could never be as artful as his ebay "finds". We finished off the day at the Upper Falls of the Tahquamenon River, which, due to dry conditions, was not at it's peak beauty.


Mackinac Bridge, from St. Ignace, Upper Peninsula

After setting up our tent in gale force gusts, we hiked to the Lower Falls of the Tahquamenon River, which empties into Whitefish Bay on Lake Superior.


Lower Falls, Tahquamenon River

On day two, after several hours of brain-rattling dirt roads, we made it to a spot on 12 Mile Beach in the eastern portion of Pictured Rocks. We also spent some time at the Log Slide, where you can see Au Sable Lighthouse to the west and 200 foot tall sand dunes/cliffs overlooking Lake Superior. We ended the day at Grand Sable Lake and Sable Falls near Grand Marais.


12 Mile Beach

On our first full day in the UP, we spent most of our time in the western portion of Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. We spent time at Miner's Castle, Miner's Beach, and Munising Falls. There are also pictures from our campsite on South Manistique Lake.


Miner's Beach

I'm working on just about 200 pictures from our trip last week to Michigan's Upper Peninsula. I'll be posting them as soon as I'm done, but I thought I'd show some of what I've finished from just our first day. Lake Superior and the surrounding lakeshore and rock formations is one of the most picturesque and beautiful places I have been. It's possibly even more beautiful in the fall.



Sunrise over South Manistique Lake. This is the view from our campsite.



Miner's Castle in Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore.



Miner's Beach in Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore.

Tags: Nature

Amber and I spent the day in Chicago doing the typical touristy stuff. We walked all over the city, from the Sears Tower to the Hancock Building, and of course the Navy Pier. We also ate Chicago-style deep dish pizza at Uno's Pizzeria. It was also pretty cold, so I wasn't so eager to take a bunch of pictures. We can't wait to go back ... next time, we'll have to stop by and see Wrigley Field.

Tags: Chicago

On our way to Germanfest, I took some pictures of the Milwaukee Art Museum on Lake Michigan.

Tags: Photography

I posted some of the pictures I took on our drive to Milwaukee. They are mostly in chronological order, and start in southern Tennessee (I was too lazy to photograph anything in Georgia). If the picture is boring to you, it's probably in Illinois somewhere. I also included a couple of shots of the wood floor in the bedroom after the refinishing, along with the beautiful hallway linoleum. And yeah, that's a rabbit in our yard.

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UPDATE: Mar/21/06
I've processed and uploaded all the pictures from the trip, so they're actually online now.

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We just got back from a weekend at Hillsborough River State Park near Tampa. I took lots of pictures of Eric, Dana, Am, the mutts, and there's even some of me in the Camping galleries. For more scenic shots like the one above, go to the Florida galleries. I will be putting these pictures up within the next week or two.

Tags: Camping

Over the next few days, I will be putting up my favorite pictures from my honeymoon in Antigua last year.

Tags: Antigua