Kayaking in the Caves, Munising!

After my incident of toppling down while kayaking in Door County, I was quite adamant about giving it another shot. This time I tried my hands on kayaking in Lake Superior at Upper Peninsula in Munising, Michigan. I was a bit nervous about it in the inside, but definitely wanted to give it another try. This time round, to my surprise the kayaking trip was just perfect. It felt like all the elements of nature including pleasant weather, calm water and mild sunlight encouraged me in my venture.

We started to kayak from Miners beach towards the Miners Cave and Miners Castle. The water was beautiful and quite clear to look at. Our guide was very friendly and kept an eye on us through out the trip. We took photo breaks in between to relax our hands and this time being very careful with the camera and phone, keeping it all safe in the dry bag. The caves looked phenomenal and I could clearly hear the water splash the rocks, and the erosion it has caused in the past years is the actual reason of the formation of these caves. I loved my kayaking experience this time very much and I definitely learnt one thing in life “Never give up”. Travelling does teach us things that we always remember. I would love to read your travel experience that helped you learn and grow. Do share 🙂

Miners Castle

Miners Caves

Right infront of the caves

Me and my buuddy

A Fairy Tale Island, Mackinac Island!

My trip to Mackinac Island over the Labor Day weekend was so exquisite that given a chance, I would go back to the Island and experience it all over again. The Island is located in Michigan and is accessible by a ferry from Mackinaw city that takes a few minutes to get to the Island. It is surrounded by Lake Michigan and Lake Huron which is cut across by the magnificent Mackinaw bridge. The moment I got out of the ferry, I could see tourists touring around the island in bicycles. The Island is just lovely and reminded me of the old days when there were no cars and the means of transport for everything including luggage/posts were carriages. The downtown of this little island was very extraordinary with horse carriages and bikes in both lanes, even the police was riding a bike. I was amazed to see the cute little Island which has a population of just 500 lucky people.

We headed towards the Mackinac Fort to learn more about the historical significance of this old town and enjoyed watching canyon and rifle firing with short description of how people survived during the wars. We then rented a bike to go around the Island that was a stretch of 8 miles surrounded by beautiful turquoise blue water on one end and forest on the other. I rode a tandem bike for the first time in my life and it was such an enjoyable experience. At a distance of about 2 miles, we parked our bikes to climb up and catch a sight of the arch rock. The view of the water from the arch rock was just breath-taking. We then continued to bike along the lake shore for 8 miles, the pleasant breeze and perfect weather made our ride very enjoyable.

We then reached back to downtown and started to explore the Island on foot. I enjoyed looking through shops with souvenir art shops and beautiful flower arrangements along the streets. The houses by the streets resembled farm houses with beautiful flower gardens and stables. We then walked towards the Grand Hotel which is the most famous hotel in the Island. We then made our way back to the market to enjoy some delicacies of the Island, delicious fudge and Mexican food. Over all I just loved my short one day visit to the Mackinac island and I would recommend it to all the travelers who are looking for an offbeat travel destination.

Day out picking the berries and apples, yumm!

I love fruits and the idea of picking them by myself in the orchards is just so so exciting. My parents visited me last month and since my dad loves farming himself, all of us decided to visit the fruit orchards in Michigan, which is about 2 hours of drive from Chicago. Mid July is the season of harvest for most of the fruits so the time was just perfect. We drove in the morning hours to reach the farms relatively early before all the fruits are gone.

The farm was just beautiful with yards of fruits flourishing and there was a farmer’s market right around the corner where the owners sold all their fruits and vegetables from their garden. Our host Chuck was just wonderful and offered us a short tour around the farm. We started to follow him towards the apple orchard where they had different kinds of apples including the Fuji and Gala. However since the apple harvest season is around August, it wasn’t ripe to pluck yet.

Chuck then walked us through the blueberry, raspberry (golden and red) and blackberry farms giving us brief knowledge about his experience in farming. My mom and I enjoyed picking them ourselves and the berries tasted just delicious. My dad brought a couple of fruits and vegetables including peaches and honey from the farmer’s market. Overall we had a wonderful day out exploring the orchard in a bright and sunny day. Have you ever gone for fruit/vegetable picking? I would love to read!

Raspberries

Blackberries

Blueberries

Apple