Independence Day in Paradise

Yea sun is out, wind is down and we are unloading the car so we can set up the Fold Cat. Packed lunch and launched into the river right from our camp site. We headed up the Tahquamenon River to see what the river was like and it was as spectacular as we had hoped. Threw in our fishing lines and we were happy! We floated and met some folks in a canoe and talked for a while. They told us about this place called Copper Harbor further west in the UP We may change our route and go across the UP instead of dropping south to the "Dells" in Wisconsin. We stopped in a cove on the river and had lunch. Suddenly on the opposite shore a beautiful deer appeared and was watching us. We all stared at each other for a while and then he moved away into the weeds. We left the cove and headed back down the river to camp. STOP! whispers Sandi - there in a pine tree on the opposite shore was a Bald Eagle. We have never seen one in the wild before. He was gorgeous and when he left the tree he flew right over us. Awesome!

Back at camp we started the camp fire and cooked steaks over the open fire pit.. our grill broke again so we improvised.

Ok now we are ready to celebrate. Went to Paradise for fireworks. The waitress where we had breakfast this morning told us that people come from all over for the fireworks. We kind of chuckled and wondered what "from all over" meant. Well let me tell you 1 hour before the display you could not find a place to park anywhere. We finally found a place to park and walked to where they were setting off the fireworks next to Whitefish Bay. What a crowd! They started at 10PM and went on for about an hour. They were fantastic and had fireworks we had never seen before. It was really special and it was a great day.