Destination Bay Furnace National Forest Campground, Christmas, MI - July 11, 2023

We awoke this morning to find that we stayed dry during the night. Well, not exactly dry...... Everything was soaking wet from the rain the day before but we did not get any new rain.

We stayed very dry and toasty in the camper but everything else - tarps, screen tent, potty tent - were soaking wet and covered in dirt and a green snot-like substance. Something dropped from the trees during the rain and turned into green slime - yuck! Using a whisk broom, we got off as much as we could before folding and packing everything away.


Green "snot" was all over everything after the rain.

We headed east toward Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore near Munising, MI.

Along the way, Marquette, MI seemed like a good place for lunch. We decided to drive through the downtown area to find a restaurant but pulling a camper made parking almost impossible. We ended up parking about 6 blocks away and walked back to find a place for lunch. We ate at Donckers and had the best meal Rob has had so far on this trip. We shared a Scarecrow sandwich - turkey, bacon, avocado, and roasted red peppers on sourdough bread. After topping off lunch with ice cream from the shop, we then had to walk back up a very steep hill to get back to the car. The area was full of beautiful homes and a gorgeous lakefront.

We set our sites on Furnace Bay Campground in Christmas, Michigan just five miles west of Munising, and found one of the best campsites so far. Only 100 yards from Lake Superior and an interesting historical site that gives the campground its name.
Campsite at Furnance Bay Campground

Of course, there are mosquitoes but they didn't try to carry us away and left us alone in our screened tent.

We were surprised to see people swimming at the beach here. The outside temp was only about 70 and the lake water was probably about the same temperature. We aren't even tempted to try it!

"Wild life" we saw near the beach - painted turtle

Lake Superior near Furnace Bay

Lake Superior near Furnace Bay

These "Yoopers" are made from some hardy stock. A Yooper, by the way, is someone native to or residing in the Upper Peninsula. They were often referred to as UP-ers. This began to be pronounced U-Pers then transitioned to Yooper. This was even added to Webster's Dictionary 
on Monday, March 24, 2014. You can read about the announcement here. 

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