Tahquamenon Rhymes with Phenomenon

We had such a fun day today!  We started with a tour of the Kilwin's kitchen in Petoskey, Michigan.  Petoskey is where the original Kilwin's (a chocolate/ice cream/fudge shop) is and they do very short tours of how their sweet treats are made.  We wish we had more time in Petoskey because it seemed like a really cute town.

The chocolate on the right is used for truffles

Taffy

125 pounds of marshmallow

Eating our chocolate at the end of the tour

After Petoskey, we drove a few more miles until we went across the Mackinac Bridge (pronounced "Mackinaw" for the non-Michigan folk).  This is supposed to be one of the scariest bridges to drive over, but Steve said it wasn't that bad.  Here's the video of us driving over it!

Our first stop on the UP was to Oswald's Bear Ranch in Newberry.  This is a black bear rescue and they have 47 bears, 4 of which are cubs.  For an extra $10, you can get your picture taken with a cub while you pet it.  This literally lasts about 30 seconds, but it was still cool to say I've pet a bear.  So there!  :-)  This is a pretty quick stop, but definitely a fun one.

Feeding and petting a bear cub!

Bear cub who posed for the camera

One of the bigger females

Another female

After the bear ranch, we went to the upper Tahquamenon Falls (where we saw the phrase that is this post's title).  There are several viewing platforms for the falls and then if you feel like going up and down 94 steps (which I recommend), you can get up close and personal with them!

Upper Tahquamenon Falls

Us at the falls

We had an early dinner at the Tahquamenon Falls Brewery.  They only had 4 beers on tap and I really liked the red and Steve really liked their stout.  I also enjoyed their root beer!

Tahquamenon Falls Brewery Sampler

After dinner, we drove out to the lower Tahquamenon Falls.  They were not as impressive as the upper falls, but definitely very pretty!

Lower Tahquamenon Falls

We ended the evening with a quick drive to Whitefish Point to go dip our toes in Lake Superior, and take pictures in our new Michigan shirts.  ;-)  Tomorrow we finally get to our first National Park site of the trip, and we're so excited!

Whitefish Point Lighthouse

I'm in Lake Superior - excuse the goofy pose, it was quite painful walking on rocks.

We couldn't pass up these fun Michigan shirts!