"Port Austin, MI....."

My "daughter in law", Julie, is originally from Port Austin, MI, which is located near the very "tip" of Michigan's "Thumb". The wedding was held there last Saturday.

Don and I left Madison early (6:30) last Thursday morning, planning on arriving in Port Austin 10 hours later. Unfortunately, it took 12 hours that day, due to I80/94 being flooded south of Chicago, IL/Gary, IN. The detour was a bumper to bumper scene from Hell! That was the main obstacle, but along with that, the many road construction sites, took their toll in time as well.

We stayed in Bad Axe, MI, which is about 17 miles south of Port Austin. The rehearsal dinner was held in Bad Axe and the reception was held south of Bad Axe.

On Friday morning, we drove up to Port Austin to find the church and also to have a look around the little resort town. It was very nice and the view of Lake Huron spectacular! If we'd have known how nice it was, I think we'd have stayed in Port Austin and just done more driving. :) It would have been wonderful to sit with our coffee in the morning and have that lake view........

We walked the boardwalk along the public beach and took a few photos.........this one faces the west shoreline.


And this towards the east.......


And this looks north, towards the breakwater.


The breakwater with the renovated lighthouse in the distance. It is actually 2 1/2 miles out from the shore. A number of years ago, the Port Austin Reef Lighthouse was to be torn down and replaced by a solar light on a pole, but a group of local volunteers were able to stop its being torn down, and they painstakingly renovated the lighthouse with local contributions, ferrying all of the construction materials out to the site on a pontoon boat. It was quite an accomplishment, to say the least!


Can't keep a kid from playing on an interesting piece of playground equipment. ;)


I'm not sure that it is easily seen (double click and enlarge for a better view), but all along the shoreline are rock formations (small islands), some of which have trees/vegetation growing on them.