Michigan: Munising & Grand Island

When I began researching the Pictured Rocks area, one of the suggested things to do with kids was a shipwreck tour. Since Lake Superior is so cold, things don't decay they do in regular waters and the visibility is very clear. And since Lake Superior can be incredibly treacherous at times, there are lots of shipwrecks.

So, I signed us up for a glass bottom shipwreck tour the morning after we arrived in Munising, figuring if the weather was too rough we could reschedule for the next day. But man, we really nailed the weather these days in Munising. The water was calm & the skies were clear as we set sail on our 2 hour tour.

To be honest, I didn't have terribly high hopes and figured this might just be kind of a kitschy outing, but I do love to explore a new place via water, so if nothing else we could do that. Much to my delight, it turned out to be incredibly cool.

The captain steered us over a variety of shipwrecks -- including pointing out a Captain's toilet that remains easy to see at the bottom of the lake floor. Surprisingly I laughed about that more than the boys. The Captain gave more details about the history of the area and we also got close-up views of the cliffs.

One of the more amusing things was the unexpected drowsiness that hit Everett after I gave him some Dramamine in case the waters were rough. About 20 minutes into the trip he started getting really snuggly, which these days almost always means he's tired. Then he started leaning really hard. Finally we found a quiet spot on the front of the ship and he snuggled up and took a series of catnaps. He rallied and picked himself up when the captain announced something of note, then immediately found a new spot to semi-doze. The worst of the fatigue diminished before the trip was over, but it did give me some laughs remembering a time when my mom conked out on a boat tour we took of Lake Superior outside of Duluth decades ago.

We spent the rest of the day exploring Pictures Rocks area.Read more