My girlfriend’s family has roots in Michigan, a state I’ve never visited before. We visited some of Detroit’s cultural attractions, made a side trip across Lake Huron to Canada, and spent a few days at the family’s lake cottage. We packed a lot into a week, but it was great to explore a new part of the country.
Perhaps Detroit’s most famous attractions are The Henry Ford museum and adjacent Greenfield Village. Like much of Detroit itself, they owe their existence to Ford. Greenfield Village contains a number of replica artisan shops, including potters, glassblowers, and blacksmiths, all of which produce items for sale to the public. A working foundry allows guests to machine a small candlestick on a lathe, and guests can ride around the park on a steam train or in the passenger seat of a Model T.
We spent so much time in Greenfield Village that our time inside The Henry Ford was limited. I mostly looked at the aircraft on display, which include a plane Peary flew over the North Pole, but we also saw the Buckminster Fuller-designed Dymaxion House, a rotating home prefabricated out of aluminum. It has a large living area, two bedrooms, and a kitchen that seemed rather short on counter space.
The next day, we headed for Tobermory, a peninsular national park in the Canadian province of Ontario. The interstate crosses the St. Clair River via a large bridge at Sarnia, but we opted to cross on the ferry at Algonac instead. The small ferries hold only about nine cars. On the Canadian side, the ferry lands on Walpole Island, which belongs to the Walpole Island First Nation, a tribe that never ceded this land to outsiders. Signs, tribal buildings, and even the water tower proudly read “Unceded.”
US and Canadian Customs each have a small hut on their respective shores. The Canadians seemed mostly concerned about whether we were bringing cigarettes and alcohol, purchased at lower prices in the US, into Canada for sale. After a quick scan of our passports, we were on our way north to the nearest Tim Horton’s.
Tobermory is a popular destination, even in rainy June. The only reasonably-priced accommodation available was about an hour south in Sauble Beach, a small resort town on the shore of Lake Huron. The people were friendly and welcoming, but the weather less so. It rained all of that first afternoon, and it continued as we drove to the park the next morning.
After a lunch and a beer, the sky began to clear, and we drove to the trailhead for The Grotto, one of the park’s main attractions. We didn’t know that the park required reservations in advance but were lucky enough to get a two-hour slot to visit the park. Even on this dreary day, the park was nearly full of visitors.
A natural arch with Lake Huron behind 
A rocky beach along the lake 
We hiked out to The Grotto along the “expert level” trail that had nothing more than steps and a few slippery spots in the wet conditions. The view was pleasant as we walked along the edge of a few small lakes, emerging from the forest onto a rock beach and then following Lake Huron’s shore to The Grotto. This cave was formed by wave action and is filled with turquoise water. On warmer days, it is a popular, if hazardous, swimming spot.
While some climb all the way down to the water for a cold swim in the lake, it’s also possible to climb along the limestone cliffs for a better view of the shoreline.
After our pleasant day in the park, we returned to Sauble Beach for our last night in Canada, and we started the drive back to Michigan the next morning.
Kayaking on Lake Orion 
Evening on the lake
After dinner in Detroit, we went to the family’s lake cottages on Lake Orion for a few days off relaxation at the end of the trip. We paddled kayaks, held onto tubes, and drank a few beers. The atmosphere was a great way to conclude the trip, and after two days, we flew back home.
