Travel Post: Chicago & Great Lakes

So this is my first travel destination post! I love to travel, and am beyond lucky to be in a family that likes to do the same. We tend to be busy during the summer or school breaks, either exploring new spots or revisiting our favorites.
I just want to share my experiences in different places I have traveled to, in order to give fellow travel-lovers ideas or advice on which spots to go to, etc.
This past summer we flew to Chicago, Illinois and did a road trip up through Wisconsin, the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, and down through the Lower Peninsula of Michigan back to Chicago. We basically circled Lake Michigan.
I'm debating how far in depth to go into this ... Anyways, the 1st thing that pops into my head is the architecture of the city. It was like a competition between the buildings and the respective companies on who could make their building the most unique/coolest. It was pretty awesome. Another cool thing about Chicago was that it was right on Lake Michigan, but it didn't look like a lake ... it looked like a whole ocean! You couldn't see land on the other side. This is how most of the Great Lakes appear. There is also a river that ran near the area where our hotel was, and you could walk down staircases to it (Chicago has multiple levels of walking/driving, which can get confusing at points!) A cool building I want to point out is the Tribune building, which has many pieces of other famous buildings cemented in it, like the Taj Mahal, Alamo, etc.

Crazy Chicago Architecture

Chicago River

THE BEAN!!!

And, of course, I can't leave out food experiences. We went to this amazing Italian place called Gino's East. It was awesome - every inch of wall space, and table, AND seat space was filled with graffiti. Except the bathroom! We didn't bring markers, so we couldn't write anything, but its now on my bucket list to go back. Another cool feature of Chicago was the Magnificent Mile, a long stretch of stores to shop at. And of course we made it over to Wrigley Field and watched part of a Cub game. (Sorry for so much info on this city, I promise the next will be shorter!)
From there we drove up to Ephraim. It was a really cute town on a peninsula of Wisconsin that stuck into Lake Michigan. Life is so different there. So green, different types of building, lots of fields & cows. It's amazing that just a few states away can seem like a different world.
Next, we took a detour to Green Bay (not a lot to tell), and then went to Munising, Michigan on the Upper Peninsula. The highlight of this place was Pictured Rocks National Park. This was on lakeshore of Lake Superior (the coldest, deepest, and largest of the Great Lakes). Although it took a decent amount of driving time from our hotel to some of the sections of the park, this was my favorite part of the trip, namely because I am one for outdoors/nature/beautiful landscapes :) We took a kayak trip bordering the red stone cliffs plunging into the greenish blue of the water. It is so stunning. 12 Mile Beach and the Sable Dunes were awesome as well. The next morning we took a boat ride to explore more of the coast.

Kayaking!

boat ride

12 Mile 

from lookout, Pictured Rocks Lakeshore

Next is Mackinac  (pronounced Mac-in-aw) Island, which sits between Lake Superior, Lake Huron, and Lake Michigan. There are no cars allowed on the island, so that was cool although we used a horse and carriage in order to get our bags to the hotel, which I am opposed to because I always feel bad for the horses. The hotel we stayed at, Mission Point Resort, was old and everyone there was all uppity. But we had a nice dinner and the next morning we rented bikes and biked the 8 mile trail around the whole island! That was pretty and nice.

Lastly we drove to Traverse City on Michigan's Lower Peninsula. It was probably my least favorite place, although the downtown was nice and had plenty of lake "beaches" where I finally got to swim in Lake Michigan. On our way back from there, we stopped by Notre Dame in the middle of nowhere before we returned to Chicago and flew home. 

All in all, it was a great trip, and I recommend it if you like road trips and exploring different areas. If you are one more for really warm, beach vacays with lots of downtime perhaps this isn't for you. 

Has anyone ever been to these places? If so, let me know your experiences!

Also, Happy Veterans Day! My thanks and respect goes out to all the brave and patriotic individuals who serve our country.