Heading Up Michigan's Upper Peninsula

Near the end of our trip to Michigan we packed in the van and headed to the Upper Peninsula to Soo Junction to ride the Tooneyville Trolley. The train runs through a marsh and ends at the Tahquamenon river.

The Upper Peninsula begins a journey that we would like to take the boys on ... maybe even next year if we don't go to Europe. We'd like to circumnavigate Lake Superior, and roadtrip into Montreal. Jonathan wants the boys to experience a culture where English isn't the predominate language.

We still haven't finalized plans for 2011, but our Michigan trip in July made us want to explore more.

We left first thing in the morning to make the 12:30 pm train. We didn't plan for a radical temperature drop, but that is what we got. When we arrived at the Tooneyville Trolley store we not only got our tickets, but we bought blankets and sweatshirts for the boys.

The train itself was a whole lot of nothing. In fact at first we thought the little green engine would shunt the real engine into place, but that was not the case. There are two trips to select from, one that leaves at 10:30 am and returns at 5 pm and includes a riverboat ride to Tahquamenon Falls. The falls have definitely been recommended, but at $45 for adults, $29 for kids age 9 to 15, and $20 for kids age 4 to 8 that was a very expensive way to see it (kids 3 and under are free). It would also mean getting up and ready early and we were not prepared to do that.  We opted for the second ride where prices were more reasonable -- $15 for adults, $9 for kids 9 to 15,  and $7 for kids age 4 to 8 -- the ride was a one hour and forty five minute ride back and forth from the marsh to the river.

In the marsh we saw cranes and bears. The train operator actually feeds the bears (far from civilization I was assured), so that the mother and cubs know to make an appearance. I'm still not sure how I feel about that.

The boys loved it, although their favorite part was the train table at the store. Go figure. They slept on parts of the train ride. But Xander did get to sit in the engine, Caleb wasn't interested.

After the train ride we stopped at a small friendly family restaurant on the way back for fish, we picked up smoked fish to go. Which was wonderful. The kids fish and chips was excellent as well. 

We also did a last stop by the Point Iroquois light house, before crossing the Mackinac Bridge and heading back to Cheboygan. We packed a lot into the day, but still made it back by 6 pm.