Thirty five years ago Dave and i got married. We loved camping and the Great Lakes and had very little money for a honeymoon, so decide to take a driving trip around all the Great Lakes. We were raised by blue collar parents in the Midwest and thought of a honeymoon as not an exotic destination but rather as just some great time spent together. So our decision for affordable camping and some place close to home was not a big decision for us. We had two weeks before Dave started his last year of college and i took two weeks off from my job. I had a year left of college too but we decided that since my job was in my field of college study i would wait to finish college and Dave would go on to finish his last year first.
We paid for all our own college expenses after we were married( i paid for all but $200 of my full college expenses by working part time 30 hrs a week while taking 18 credits each semester!!). It did take me three years part time to finish that one year/2 semesters of study but we were very proud of the fact that we both finished our degrees and with NO COLLEGE DEBT even though we both had a year left when we got married at the end of our Junior year. Back then state colleges would not offer loans to newly married couples until they had lived away from home for at least three years to i suppose prove themselves really financially clear of their parents help? Looking back although we were angry about this "stupid rule" at that time (as we were self supporting in every way except hand me down furniture), it was a blessing in the long run, as it made us stay financially repsonsible about all we did even finishing college.- a great way to start our marriage!!
Anyway back to the honey moon...
Neither of us had camping equipment so we asked for camping equipment on our "Bridal Registry". Funny huh??? Well we were 21 yrs old and china and other typical wedding gifts
seemed not very important to our young lifestyle. So we got a stove, sleeping bags,lantern, cooler,fishing poles ,swim fins and bikes. We also borrowed my dad's aluminum canoe. But we still needed a tent. I had a cute little green and yellow canvas "play" umbrella tent (that i had used in my back yard as a kid playing house) that we took with us as we couldn't afford a bigger tent at that time. Dave slept on an angle with his feet out the door ( as he was 6'1")and i got one of the corners- but heck it was our honeymoon so we snuggled anyway. (A few years later we bought a 3 man lightweight canoe tent that we used to go camping with my brother Dale.)I remember eating alot of field corn on the cob and fresh tomatoes from farm stands as well as fish we caught occasionally for our suppers as well as lots of campfires with marsmellows and beautiful starry night skies.
This whole trip was such a fun and relaxing adventure of spending time with each other, and althought I only remember glimpses of each lake I will try to share some of these memories as they come to mind.
We took the car ferry across Lake Huron on a very windy night and I remember the crew saying as we boarded that "we would get our money's worth tonight". Sure enough , this two decked ferry had waves splashing over the 2nd deck as we crossed that evening( by the way filling up the cups of some of the beer drinking brave young men passengers that held on the railing for dear life as the waves hit and splashed them to their delight) and in the inside cabin, people were sliding from one side to the other often reaching to "lose their lunch" into the large garbage cans at each door entrance. Dave and i knew we could fight seasickness better if breathing fresh air and looking out into the lake( something we learned sailing on Lake Michgan), so we opted to stay out on deck even if it got a bit soggy and wet. Lake Huron is a big lake with beautiful Maine like harbors with small coastal towns- one of my favorite Great Lakes.
Lake Erie although the smallest and shallowest of the lakes, has a beautiful wetland area called Point Pelee State Park, that had a series of board walk bridges throughout the wetlands and beautiful sand points of beach to view the lake. It is a great place for a peaceful walk and great bird watching.
The giant sand dunes at Sleeping Bear Dunes on the Michigan side of Lake Michigan were so much fun. They have signs that say "it will only take you 5 min to go down this dune but 60 minutes to climb back up!" and that is after a 30 min walk through the woods or over open flat dunes to reach the coast. Maybe that was to save parents from having to retrieve their spontaneous kids back up the dunes!! It has nice areas for lakeshore hiking and to get great views of Lake Michigan. Holland ,Michigan ,is another neat place to visit and is known for its "Blueberry Season" and "Tulip Festival".
The drive around Lake Superior was spectacular, especially in Canada. There are so many road side waterfalls along the main "circle route". We starting with camping at Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore in Michigan, where we recently bought our winter retirement home, and where the views of the rocky cliffs and deep clear blue water bays was breath taking and very different from the mostly sandy shores of Lake Michigan. The only mishaps were a logging spike in our then flat tire from a sandy logging road in the park and a bad day of black "horse" flies on the beach( we actually had to leave the beautiful, sunny, sandy beach as the fly biting really hurt). I also remember taking a coastal hike on a rocky trail before sunset to swim off the rocks but when we got back to the car Dave realized he left his car keys out on the flat rock we swam off ! So as i sat crying at the unlocked car, Dave ran back in the now dark evening through the somewhat difficult lakeshore trail to retrace our hike(bordering on dangerous footing at night as lots of rocky areas to cross on the trail hence my crying).I was so worried he would fall, hit his head on the rock or injure an ankle and i would be left alone with no way to help or find him. (Hence my first "over- worrying" married experience-- I still "over-worry" things sometimes but now mostly for my girls). Dave was fine, found the keys and we were on our way back to camp. Silly me!! We still have a sandstone "face" rock we found on one of our hikes.
I don't remember seeing the area around Lake Ontario so maybe we missed it or we just had too many miles to drive in a 2 week vacation. But, I remember seeing Niagara falls and had camped with family many times in Ontario, Canada which is both beautiful and wild. Canada is especially beautiful and undeveloped, i think my favorite area of the trip was the Canadian side of Lake Superior!!
Well 35 years and we are still going strong, thanks to the help of God at times to see us through "for better or worse". He is a faithful God that is always with us if we simple ask him to be. Dave has been the greatest help mate and my best friend for life of that i am sure. That to me is the definition of a "great husband" and we are still enjoying our times in God's nature places as something we still have in common as a passionate pastime.
It was a great trip and great honeymoon. I will always remember that silly little tent with Dave's feet sticking out but ahhhhhhhhhhhh we were young and in love and probably didn't even care!!
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