The rain started around 4am...and continued throughout the morning. So it wasn't a good day for the beach. We were up early which was fine since we had all been in bed at 9pm and the coffee was strong. We packed the boys into the car and drove north to Alpena where we had heard a rumor of a ship museum. We got to Alpena at 9 and only the farmers market and the local coffee shop were open so we stopped in for a caffeine refill for Mom and Dad and donuts for the boys.
The ship museum was a pretty cool place - The Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary is its actual name. I don't have too many pictures from inside because it was fairly dark and I spent most of time chasing the kids through the hands-on exhibits. They even had an exhibit that was very much like an indoor jungle gym with a tunnel designed to give you the feeling of what it would be like to scuba dive through a shipwreck. I could only handle crawling through that for about 20 minutes. (Yep...I'm old.)
The ship museum was a pretty cool place - The Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary is its actual name. I don't have too many pictures from inside because it was fairly dark and I spent most of time chasing the kids through the hands-on exhibits. They even had an exhibit that was very much like an indoor jungle gym with a tunnel designed to give you the feeling of what it would be like to scuba dive through a shipwreck. I could only handle crawling through that for about 20 minutes. (Yep...I'm old.)
Graham steers the ship.
After the ship museum we drove around a bit to see if we could find the house that GDad grew up in. We probably drove by it but we didn't actually find it. :(
So we drove back to Alpena and stopped at a sports bar for lunch before going to the Besser Museum which had an interesting collection of art, cars (of couse), historical items...and...wait for it...a fossil garden where you got to keep any fossils you found!
There was a break in the weather and it warmed up enough so we could ditch the coats.
Found some fossils!
Fletcher was more interested in cleaning the fossils.
This sculpture, and the next few below, are near the entrance to the Besser Museum.
So sleepy!
The weather held when we got back from the museums so Graham and I went to the beach while Fletcher napped.
Graham really wanted to catch a bird. The birds were not interested in participating.
In the attempt to catch a bird we ended up walking about 2.5 miles up and down the beach. By the end of our walk, Graham was cold and tired and the rain clouds had rolled back in with thunder and lighting this time.
Think this is a turkey feather...
Lonely yellow flower
The weather being uncooperative and predicted to continue to be uncooperative through the rest of the night and into the next morning, we packed up and headed back to Ann Arbor. Thankfully, Fletcher slept through most of the packing and Graham was perfectly happy to get into warmer clothes and hang out in the car waiting for us.
We made it back in time to catch the Michigan game v. Notre Dame.
Despite the weather, we had a wonderful time and can't wait until next spring when we can go camping again!
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