Our drive to Paradise had recharged the car battery.  Sylvia and I each had a bowl of delicious chili at the restaurant.  The friendly waitress had let us use a wall outlet to recharge the camera battery.  We took our time, sitting, talking and eating our chili.

After lunch, we made the short drive to the lower Tahquamenon (rhymes with phenomenon) Falls.  As you enter the state park, you are greeted by a sign that says, “Take nothing but photographs.  Leave nothing but foot prints.”  That should be our attitude.  Not only when we visit places of great natural beauty, but always.

Silly tourists

As we examined the map of the lower falls area, Sylvia noticed the reflection of a couple wearing John Deere caps in the glass.  I like the effect that she captured there in front of the sign.

The reason we look so happy is that we are well fed, and our batteries are charged.  Oh yes, and it’s the two of us together and enjoying every minute of it.

Enjoying the view

A friendly fellow tourist offered to take a picture of both of us.  I asked that she put us on the right side of the frame.  Wouldn’t you know, she centered us.  You can barely see the interesting part of the river on the left side.  I hope she likes the shot that I took better.  I was a step to the right and framed her on the right.  I held the camera above my head so that the falls are near and slightly above her right shoulder.

The camera battery was not completely charged so we enjoyed our visit and took few pictures.  We knew the best would be the upper falls.  We headed there next.

Caught at the map yet again

A bit longer walk this time, but not bad at all.  The rain had stopped and the skies were clearing a bit.  While the air was cool, it was a great day for getting out and hiking (a little bit).

Upper Tahquamenon Falls

The water has a brownish tint.  This is caused by drainage from surrounding cedar and tamarack swamps.  We had seen pictures, but photos don’t compare with being there.  This is what we had driven so far to see.

Sylvia at the upper falls

We could have walked down 98 steps to the river level, but elected not to do that.  We had an excellent view from where we were and we were both a bit tired.

As I was taking the above shot of Sylvia, a tourist couple from down our way came into the observation area.  The man offered to take a shot of both of us.  He very carefully framed the shot, shifted and reset.  Finally he captured this:

What a beautiful day

Didn’t he do a great job?  I cropped the image a bit.  He had asked me if I could do that before he took the shot.  He had to hold the camera as high as he could above his head to get all of the falls in the frame.  He could have moved closer, but that would have made us appear larger and the falls smaller by comparison.  Good guy!

We took our time and enjoyed the sights and sounds.  Then we left.  Sylvia was behind the wheel as we made our way back to Paradise and turned south.  It would take about four hours driving time to reach the family cottage at Glen Lake.  She wanted to sleep there that night.  I’ll tell you more about that tomorrow in the final part of this account.