Angie found a campground on the shores of Lake Superior in a bay created by nearby Grand Island and the contours of the mainland shore. We arrived on a sunny day with a bit of wind. The beach was white sand. The water was clear and mid-60s in temperature. The air temperature was in the mid-70s. There was no humidity. The only bugs were an occasional biting fly. Between the islands, the white sand, the blue hues of the water and the moderate temperature, I felt I could have been in the British Virgin Islands. What a wonderful surprise!

We settled on the beach for the afternoon. We set up a canopy on the beach to protect Hank from further skin cancer damage. Charlie was in heaven. She swam off and on for about four hours, leaping and paddling over the one-foot wind-driven waves to retrieve her floating toy. She would lie down and rest for a couple of minutes before charging back to the waterline in excited anticipation of another throw. She was so tired that night, she slept through a thunderstorm.

It was cooler the next day, so we didn’t bother setting up the canopy. We enjoyed a couple hours on the beach before heading into town for lunch at a rooftop brew pub, where Charlie enjoyed a bowl of egg, rice and peanut butter. Hank and Angie enjoyed their meals, too.

After a few more hours of beach time, we headed into town for a sunset boat cruise to view the famous Pictured Rocks. This is the one site that everyone who talks about the UP mentions first. The Pictured Rocks is one of only three National Lakeshores in the US. I didn’t know there was such a thing. It is a 12-mile-long stretch of sandstone cliffs that have been sculpted by wind, waves and freezing. There are multiple colors mixed in the sandstone from underlying minerals – red, orange and brown from iron, blue and green from copper and white from calcium. There are caves, arches, sculpted formations, beaches and a couple of waterfalls. Well worth the two-hour boat ride.