If we pitch a tent, it rains. We pitched a tent; thus, when we woke up this morning, it was raining. Ipso facto. We went out to breakfast. (Tim commented that any more there doesn't seem to be a reason even to bring breakfast food with us.) We found Joe’s Friendly Tavern in Empire (the only gig in town, apparently), and Tim ate oatmeal cherry pancakes (this is Michigan, land of the cherries, after all), and I ate eggs and bacon. By the time we finished, it had quit raining and cleared mostly up, so we embarked on seeing the park. We went first to the visitor’s center (also in Empire), which neither of us recognized. We asked the ranger if it was here the last time we were (in 1991), and he said yes, so we figured our memories are just completely unreliable. (Not an unusual occurrence.) Then we set off on the 7-mile Scenic Drive, which is very nice indeed. There are a good many overlook spots, and the weather was cooperating beautifully (unlike when we were in Acadia). At the Lake Michigan Overlook (where I took most of the appended photos), the wind picked up and by the time we left it was howling a gale. We experienced first hand dune building, as we were pelted by blowing sand. We both had grit in our teeth for the next couple of hours. We were highly amused by one family who took off down a VERY steep dune to the lakeshore—the drop is 500 vertical feet, and while the sand dune is not vertical, you can see from the photos it is VERY steep. We figured 20 minutes down, an hour and a half up. Ugh. (Note: You will see in the photos that I got some sand on my lens [I wonder how that happened???]; I can’t clean those spots up with the little travel computer. Will edit when I get home—wonders of modern computer technology!)

After the scenic drive, we went to the old Coast Guard station and maritime museum . By this time, we concluded that when we were here in ’91, the only thing we did was climb the big climbing dune and take the roughly mile and a half hike out to the lake (through sand). I remember that clearly—it is tough going and the round-trip took most of the day. We know we stayed only one night (we were doing the circle tour of Lake Michigan—north through Wisconsin, east across the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, south through Michigan), and so we just didn’t have time to do what we normally do in national parks. Tim climbed the dune again; I did not. Too hot.

Conclusion: We didn’t come all the way back here JUST to get the stamp in the passport (which we didn’t have in ’91); we came all the way back here to actually see the park.

En route back to the campsite, we checked out the local drive-in. It hadn’t figured in our planning as it was previously advertised as being open only on weekends, but it turns out that in the summer it’s open 7 days a week, so we’re planning on checking out the Cherry Bowl Drive-In later this evening . Double feature: Cars 2 and The Green Lantern.  It’s GOT to be better than what we got in PA!

Update: Having now been, I can say that the Cherry Bowl Drive-In is a hoot. They have gone out of their way to ramp up the retro 50’s, including the pre-show music, décor in the "diner," and funky signs on the fences. The Cherry Bowl is the first drive-in I’ve seen that has a miniature golf set-up (19 holes—buy your tickets in the diner!). We had checked the place out from outside the grounds in the afternoon, in part to see what time the box office opened (too early: 7:30, about 2.5 hours before the show begins) and in part to take some photos in case management here is as jumpy as management at the last place. We needn’t have worried: there were at least half a dozen other people wandering around taking pictures, and this management has set up some of those figures with cutout faces so people can take pictures of their kids being Marilyn Monroe in Some Like it Hot and so on .

Can’t beat this place for friendly: the man (the owner?) who makes the announcements about come and buy snacks and “the movie will start in a few minutes,” and “drive carefully, we have lots of children here!” is hyped up on more steroids than all of major league baseball put together. (If you want a taste, call their automated movie schedule line: “Come on out for family fun!!!! We don’t show R-rated movies!! We just don’t show 'em!!!!!!!!!   Check us out on the Internet!!!!!! We even have a Facebook page!!!!!! Can you believe it???!!!!!”) The girl we talked to in the afternoon (who gave us a whole sales pitch about why we should come this week AND next week) saw me in the “diner” and chirped: “Oh! You made it! Yay!!!”  I swear she actually hopped up and down. It is not so easy to make people that happy most of the time. Before the movie begins, they do announcements—first time visitors, birthdays, anniversaries, and so on. Then everyone honks their horns . Had we but known, we could have gotten a “Cherry Bowl Horn Honk for Tim and Carrie, first time visitors from Virginia!”

Having failed to win a free coke, cotton candy, t-shirt, or other prize with our (as it turned out not-so) Lucky Numbers, we settled for drinking bottled water (hot and humid still at 9) and checking out the miniature golf. (We did not play.) Movie started about 10 when it wasn’t quite dark.

This theater, like the Goochland, offers not only a double-feature, but also a cartoon AND vintage commercials for the snack bar, including a minute-by-minute countdown for intermission time remaining. If you are old enough to remember the drive-ins of the 50s and 60’s, you would recognize the films of the dancing hot dogs, soda cups, and ice cream cones; these are the very same films used then.

Neither movie struck us as cinematic genius, but neither was either repugnant, as Transformers was . Cars 2 (probably you know this if you saw Cars, which I personally never heard of) is aimed directly at young children and has very little comic relief for adults. The bad guys are Gremlins and Pacers, though; as we lived through the very short-lived era of Gremlins and Pacers, we got a chuckle out of that. The main character is called Tow Mater, which, after I got the pun (when the movie was nearly over, since they only called him “Mater” through most of the film), I thought was cute. Other than that, straightforward story of good guys beat bad guys; underdog becomes hero.

Despite our having heard from two different people we know that The Green Lantern was “awesome!” we were not that impressed. It, too, was fine; middle-of-the-road Hero’s Journey/Comic Book Hero story with no extras, no twists, and nothing particularly original. (I have to admit, though, that one is working at a disadvantage when one has to start with a hero who dresses in a skin-tight Kelly Green jumpsuit .) Writing average, acting average, enough drama in the fight scenes, and NOT too much—climactic scene in this one lasts about 10 minutes, not 60, praise the lord and pass the potatoes. Bad guy is destroyed, earth is saved, boy gets girl. Don’t think I’ve spoiled anything for you there.

Conclusion: a nice night at the drive-in. Two inoffensive movies, pleasant weather (after the sun went down), and fun atmosphere. Money not wasted. If you’re only going to see one comic book hero story this summer though, we recommend Thor. More wit.