After a great night with Lesley and Brenda, we hit the road for Michigan around 10:30am. We knew we had a long day ahead of us, but weren’t quite prepared for how long it turned out to be. We blindly followed TomTom’s instructions as he wound us west through New York, dipped us briefly into Pennsylvania, and then took us up towards Buffalo and Niagara Falls. Before we knew it, we were waiting in line to cross into Canada.
And we kept waiting. Finally, we got to the end of the first line where a New York State Trooper informed us that the wait to cross the Peace Bridge into Canada was at least an hour. He suggested an alternate bridge, just outside of Niagara. We gladly took his advice and rerouted ourselves to the Rainbow Bridge.
On the bridge to Canada looking out over the gorge
The wait here didn’t seem much shorter, but we caught a view of Niagara Falls as we crossed and finally made it safely into Canada around 3:30. The trek through Canada was uneventful – lots of beautiful farmland – until it was time to cross back into the States. As we waited in line, we enjoyed a beautiful view of Lake Huron to our right.
Lake Huron
Once we finally crossed into Michigan, we began the home stretch. TomTom guided us through Flint then Lansing and took us just south of Grand Rapids. He also found us a great place to stop for dinner – Castaways on Lake Nepessing in Lapeer, MI. The view was great and the food was good, though I can’t remember the last time I was asked, “Smoking or non?”.
We made it to the Lakeshore Resort in Saugatuck just before midnight. Too excited to go to bed, Dave and I walked down to the beach for our first glimpse of Lake Michigan. It was a spectacular night and we finally felt like we were on vacation.
Total Driving: ~600 miles; 13 hours due to delays at the border
Dining:
- Castaways on Lake Nepessing, Lapeer – Casual, nice views, not too pricey
Lodging:
Additional Photos
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Crossing back into the States |
Lake Nepessing |
Moon over Lake Michigan |
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