Our 2023 Great Lakes Road Trip Involved Football, Foliage, Freshwater, Ferries (Oh, and History too!)
Kate and I enjoyed an amazing “Great Lakes” road trip this Fall that took us to all five Great Lakes, and saw us explore Michigan and Wisconsin (mostly) on an adventure that included plenty of foliage, football, freshwater, ferries, and – of course – history.
This part of the country was crucial to America’s defense during the War of 1812, from Captain Oliver Perry’s USS Niagara, which engaged in the Battle of Lake Erie in 1813, to Mackinac Island where Fort Mackinac looks over the strategic convergence of Lake Michigan and Lake Huron (the fort’s control switched back and forth during the American Revolution, and in July 1812, the British captured the fort in the first land engagement of the War of 1812; it reverted back to American hands after the war).
Then, we ventured to the locks at Sault St. Marie, Michigan, an incredibly strategic point during World War II, when ships carrying iron ore from Canada and the Western U.S. crossed from Lake Superior to Lake Huron, where their cargo was then delivered to factories in Detroit, Western Pennsylvania, and Ohio, and transformed into steel for the war effort.
We enjoyed some great “football history” too, with stops at the “Big House” at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor; Lambeau Field in Green Bay; to the wonderful Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio. Canton is also home to the First Ladies National Historic Site and the President William McKinley Museum and Burial site.
Scenery is amazing too – from Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore in the northwest part of the “lower mitten” of Michigan – where the water is the color of the Caribbean! – to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, where we visited Whitefish Point and the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum (contains an exhibit on the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald in 1975); and cruised alongside the magnificent Pictured Rocks on Lake Superior in Munising, Michigan. On the way home, we visited Indiana Dunes National Park and Cuyahoga Valley National Park in Ohio, each with its own splendor and beauty; and General George Washington’s “headquarters on the Hudson” in Newburgh, New York. We even made stops to see a great friend at Penn State and to visit Little League International headquarters in Williamsport, PA!
Kate and I love our road trips – what a special way to see all this great country has to offer!
