A Fall Tour in Northern Michigan

On Sunday we checked the weather and it was promising to be a beautiful day so we made quick plans to head out for an afternoon drive to tour some of the countryside.

 The fall colors were fabulous.

We ran across this Michigan Historical sight called the Rugg Pond Dam located in Rapid City that we'd never seen before.  

These children came running to the water's edge probably looking for turtles.

Such sweetness!

The dam is nothing exciting to see other than the fast rushing water.  It was created back in 1904 by the founder of the local light and power company. 

 He reportedly had local farmers bring in wagon loads of stones to construct it.  It was abandoned some time ago and was restored and upgraded a bit. 

These two trumpeter swans were gracing us with their presence!

  Apparently this species has become endangered but are starting to make a comeback. 

 It was a pretty sun filled day and it warmed up into the low 60's which felt great!

Not far away I spotted this old barn.  I love taking pictures of barns- I need to do more of it.  So many barns are on the decline and ready to collapse these days.  The trees in the background were a beautiful mix of wonderful fall colors!  

I believe this is called a combine/harvester from the early 1900's.  I like to capture some of the pieces of old equipment like this that people put out for display.  It almost looks like a face on the left with an eye and mouth!

We crested a hill and I spotted this windmill. 

I turned around and saw this view and had to take a picture.  It was my favorite shot of the day. 

As we headed north we took a minute to visit and walk out on this scenic area overlook area.

This was the view we had when we got out on the overlook area. 

We headed up to Mackinac City but didn't go cross the bridge because there is still some bridge/road construction going on and they've got it down to one lane on the north bound side.  We just didn't want to get into any travel delays.

We slipped into Mackinac City and had dinner and purchased some pasties (pronounced pastee(s) with a short "a")  from Cunningham's restaurant to take home for some future meals.  

In case you don't know what a Pasty is 

  It's a small hand sized pastry full of meat (usually beef) potato, onion, carrot and rutabaga.

They were used by the miners as an easier way to eat their food.  My father grew up in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and this was a staple food.  My aunt used to make them and so far this Cunningham's restaurant is the closest I've tasted without going way up north!  The owner told me she sold 700 of them since the Wednesday before to people taking them home!  We also got the breakfast version which we love on a weekend!

Our trip home was sped up by taking I75 for a while.  Where we live there is no close expressway so it's back to the county roads.   

It was a nice day and I'm glad we got out because there is rain predicted for this whole week, again!!