Lake Superior Circle Tour - Day 1

We embarked on our 9 day Lake Superior Great Circle Tour driving from Toronto to Michigan via the Sarnia border crossing.  The plan was to drive along the Lake Superior shores of Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota before returning to northern Ontario via Thunder Bay.  There were lots of clouds along the way and even what looked like thunder clouds, but fortunately by the time we crossed the border, it was sunny and we were able to make several stops before we got to our destination for the night, Bay City.

We stopped at Stepping Stone Falls, which turned out to be a man-made structure but still quite impressive.  No surprise, one of our first encounters was with a Canada geese family with goslings.  But you can see thunder clouds in the picture, so it was a short visit. 

Stepping Stone Falls, Flint, Michigan

Hurry up, kids, it's going to pour!

We drove through Flint, Michigan's Vehicle City - the downtown area was smaller than we expected and we almost missed it.  Our aim was to get to Tobiko Marsh and spend a couple of hours there, hoping to see some migrating birds.  

It turned out there were not a lot of birds at Tobiko Marsh although we did see a few yellow warblers and some red-winged black birds. We ended up hiking through the marsh to stretch our legs after the long six hour drive.  

Tobiko Marsh

The staff at dinner suggested the Friendship Shell at Wenonah Park by the waterfront for sunset and we've found that it is nearly always wise to listen to the locals.  The Friendship Ring was very photogenic and made for great photo ops with the sunset and the beautiful clouds that day.  

The walls of the Delta College Planetarium caught the sunset 

Friendship Ring

Friendship Shell at Wenonah Park

An American sunset, a fitting end to our first day in the United States