Things to do with Kids in Alpena Michigan
Looking for a classic Michigan getaway for a long weekend, or longer, but not interested in a location that is over touristy and cliche? Like me, you might be surprised to find out that Alpena, Michigan is the answer to that question.
If I’m being honest, in college, I had a teammate who was from Alpena, and it colored my vision of the city before I had ever visited. She painted the picture of Alpena as a small town, that growing up, kids dreamed of leaving for the “big city.” Two decades later, I understand this was teenage rebellion, because I have kept in contact with her, and I know she has returned to raise her own child there. In fact, it was a comment on a Facebook post two summers ago that planted the idea of taking the kids to Alpena for a vacation as soon as Bubba was old enough to hold his own.
You see, two summers ago, Buddy was obsessed with finding Petoskey stones, which are fossilized coral that formed during the glacial period. After being tossed around in the great lakes, when wet or polished, the six sided pattern is the iconic distinction of this rock, only found in Michigan. We spent an entire day looking for these stones, and in the end only had a small handful to show for our hunt. {It was not lost on me that we could have easily popped into any of the gift shops that dot the Lake Michigan shore towns, and purchased a nice large stone for just a couple of dollars. This was more about the thrill of the hunt more than the actual stone.}
Que old teammate with intimate knowledge of her hometown of Alpena.
If fossils were our thing, or particularly the Michigan native Petoskey stone, she recommended that we head to Alpena to the Rockport State Recreation Area to find fossils. We are proud to now bring you our full review of Rockport State Recreation Area including where to find fossils!
The seed had been planted, and when it was time, I set out to figure out how to “make a weekend” out of this trip to a rock pit. Little did I know, we would run out of time before we ran out of things to do.
We are thankful to the Alpena Area Convention and Visitors Bureau for coordinating many of our tickets, lodging, and dining vouchers for our exploration. As always, I do my best to represent the opinions of each person in our crew that attended.
We rolled into town on a Friday evening before the dinner rush, but already hungry since our ice cream lunch, though fun and spontaneous, hadn’t stuck with us as long as real food might have. Our dinner could not have been more real!
Located in the heart of downtown, The Fresh Palate had indoor and outdoor seating. Since we were in the middle of the heat wave of the summer, and traveling as the solo parent with a toddler, indoor seating would be our choice tonight. You can read more about The Fresh Palate in our rundown of our kid approved Places to Eat in Alpena.
Just outside The Fresh Palate, there was a woman playing the guitar and singing songs. On Friday nights in the summer from 6-8pm the Alpena Street Performers entertain those choosing outdoor seating at the local eateries, as well as just passerbys. This woman was fantastic in reading the crowd. She could tell that Bubba needed a distraction, bless her heart, and she played a kid friendly, participation encouraged, song about a pirate.
Friday nights in the summer, you might also want to check with the Besser Museum for Northeast Michigan. From April through August, Besser Museum offers a special Family Night on Friday nights from 5-9pm. Family of 5 is only $15 ($3 per additional person). Listen up! If your community is fortunate enough to have a great museum, please, please, take advantage of these opportunities. When we arrived at 6:45, we were the first people to show up for the evening, and though my kids were spoiled with their own personal planetarium show by Johnathan, we were also the only family to take advantage of this great gem! Learn why you should visit by checking out our shenanigans at the Besser Museum in our full weekend review of Alpena.
Once we shut down the museum, piled back into the Suburban, and rebuckled everyone, I plugged in the address for the Ramada. This tired Mama was relieved to find out we were less than half a mile from the hotel! If it wasn’t around a slight bend, I could have seen the hotel from the parking lot.
The Ramada Alpena is not a new fancy hotel with all the contemporary styling of a New York City high rise. I guess it depends on what you look for in a hotel when you are traveling, but for us, safe area, clean rooms, comfortable beds are our top priorities. Pools and hot tubs are high on the wish list, free breakfast is a major plus, and anything above and beyond that really makes a location stand out to our kids. Well, stand proud Ramada. You checked off my “must haves.” Safe. Clean. Comfortable. You even met my wish, including free breakfast, but most importantly an amazing pool area for the kids!
Rooms are always more interesting when you can look out into the pool area! Not only did they have a nice pool and hot tub, but also some mini-golf. Clubs and balls were available to borrow for free at the front desk. What a fun way to wind down after a long day of traveling! Buddy made a new friend, and played mini golf while Buggie and Bubba swam in the pool. Let’s face it, it was nice for them to have a little separation before heading to bed. Keep in mind that they pool is open one hour later for adults only, which can be difficult to explain to kids why not everyone needs to leave.
After a free hot breakfast the next morning, we were off to the Friends of Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary for a glass bottom boat shipwreck tour. Check out the amazing half day experience of the glass bottom shipwreck tour, museum visit and tech hour at NOAA that you can have around the Great Lakes Maritime Heritage Center and NOAA, which is the launch site for the shipwreck tour in case you are confused like I was. They are both located at 500 W. Fletcher Street.
You will hear me say my travel mantra over and over, “Have a solid plan, but remain flexible.” I was repeating this to myself over and over as the skies opened up, the severe thunderstorm warnings appeared, and parts of town lost power.
We were supposed to camp. In a tent. First, I called the campground, and confirmed that I could move my reservation to the next night. Then I got to work trying to find a hotel for the night. I struck out. There was an art festival, motorcycle rally, and fishing derby in town, and everyone was booked solid. This left me few choices: tent camp anyway, give up and go home, or boondock in the Walmart parking lot. If you are getting a good read on my level of crazy, you might know which choice we made. So, check out my post on exactly how one goes about sleeping in a Walmart parking lot.
To kill time before tucking the kids in their carseats for the night, we decided to have a late dinner at JJ’s Steak and Pizza, because Buddy will eat steak every.single.meal if you let him, and they seemed to have a little of everything for Buggie and Bubba, including a salad bar.
Before heading to dinner, I realized that I was running on a coffee deficiency, and we came across the smallest Biggby Coffee I have ever seen. Buggie now compares all coffee shops to this cute little coffee drive thru. (Isn’t it funny the “important” things that kids remember about their travels?)
See these smiling faces? They were not quite as enthusiastic in the morning after sleeping all curled up in car seats. 
After a restless night of trying to sleep only slightly reclined in a car seat, we started off right away with, you guessed it, more coffee. This time we check-in at the local Cabin Creek Coffee downtown before observing the drawbridge that opens to let the shipwreck tours out into the bay, which we didn’t notice while sitting inside on the way out the day before. I don’t care how old you are, watching a drawbridge, is a sight to see!
With our bellies full, and the caffeine drip officially started for the day, we were off to Cedar Panning Co. just a little out of town at 4820 French Road. Yes, it will look like you are pulling into someone’s front yard, because you are! This is the true sign of a family run small business. Just keep driving to the back where you will find the panning tables. Maybe it was poor planning to go to this easy panning opportunity before heading to a natural rock quarry later in the day. Possibly had we done them in the opposite order, the kiddos would have enjoyed the hunt at the quarry just a little more. Check out my little miners – Bubba would have cost us a lot of money if he was along for the gold rush – he was enjoying picking out the “good stuff” and throwing it back into the flowing water until it was swept away, and gone.
With their treasures tucked into small bags, and still a small argument around fair trades, we were on our way to our next fun spot, Lee’s Miniature Golf Course. Lee’s is the oldest continuously running mini golf course in Michigan. With this thought in your mind, you can imagine that it isn’t the most modern of courses, but as you can see, it has some charm that you just won’t find in a modern miniature golf course. (Also, do I have the only kids who can suddenly not count when they are mini golfing? Yeah, I am that mom that makes them start over if I don’t believe their score.) Winners never cheat, and cheaters never win. Life lessons right there on the artificial grass strips.
Because at this point, Bubba is desperately in need of carved out nap time, so we made the hour long drive north, up to Ocqueoc Falls. Ocqueoc falls is the only universally accessible waterfall in the United States, which gave me all the confidence I needed to feel that I could tackle this attraction as a solo parent this week. You could make a quick stop with a picnic lunch like we did, or you could easily spend a half-day enjoying this natural wonder. To park in the parking lot, you will need a Michigan Recreation Pass on your vehicle, and parking will be slim at best. There were many cars lined up along the road outside the parking lot, either because they didn’t have a pass, or they couldn’t find a spot. There are a couple of outhouse type bathroom stalls to change your clothes in, but I would recommend arriving in your suites ready to go, because the lines were long. The kids had a ball. The water felt cold at first, but quickly became quite refreshing. I know Buddy and Buggie would have jumped off the falls if I had let them, but I had too many fears of broken bones in a remote area to let them chance it.
After a good swim, and now that the harsh sun and heat had passed for the day, Rockport State Recreation Area was up next on our adventure. Now if you remember, this was the activity that set this whole trip in motion. It would quickly become clear that I had not done quite enough research prior for this trip. Upon arriving, Buddy and Buggie scattered up into the tall mounds of rocks that were easily within view from the parking lot. Bubba had woken from another nap in a terrible mood, and was not interested in walking all over uneven rocks, so he treated them as if they were small explosives, and kept falling down dramatically, and I don’t trust myself enough walking on uneven rocks to pick him up and carry him, so while the older two explored, we took our time debating whether or not he was going to walk on the rocky path.
He did finally agree to walk with us, but only if he could drag the empty bucket behind him. We made it to a path along the lake. I think Buggie and I were admiring some barges off in the distance when Bubba decided to hurl a rock into the lake. Now ordinarily, I would say, “have at it” but, Bubba has yet to hone in on his accuracy skills when it comes to throwing, and the next thing we knew, Buggie dropped to her knees screaming in pain. Bubba had chucked a large rock and it had connected directly with her temple. Please, don’t ever get the idea that my travels are perfect and uneventful, though we are always trying to invent new ways to make our travels run smoother, we are not immune to a two year old tantrum (or a 6 or 9 year old tantrum), or a two year old not understanding what will happen when he hurls a rock forward.
If you are wondering what we did, since we were far from the car, and without cell phone service when this happened, I kept having her pick new rocks out of Lake Huron, and putting them to her temple like an ice pack. Yeah, that’s right, I was once trained as a wilderness emergency first responder, the things you get to experience as a Girl Scout Camp Counselor at a high adventure camp!
Once we crawled back to the car, retracing our steps over the massive rock piles (poor Bubba), it was clear that we needed to go set up our tent, and then find some dinner. The bummer was that we never really found the payload of fossils. We found a few rocks, but not the motherload as promised. We also crossed paths with a few other families who were also seeking the fossils with no luck. {Spoiler: keep reading to see how the fossil story ends, or click over to the article on how to actually find fossils at Rockport State Recreation Area.}
We pulled into the Long Lake Campground, which is operated by the county parks system. What a hidden gem! Located just north of Alpena, off US-23, this campground can accommodate big rig RV’s with 30 amp electrical service, but also has 24 rustic sites, which is all we needed for our little backpacking tent. We had a site that was right on the lake, and yet right across from the playground and brand new modern bath house with showers and flush toilets.The kids played while I set up the tent, and used the electrical in the bathroom to blow up the air mattress. {Side note, if you are wondering how 4 people slept in a 3 person backpacking tent? We slept across the width of the mattress. Was it ideal? No, but was it worth the hassle to bring our big tent for a one night camp out? Also, no.} Rates for 2020 range from $25-35 per night, which is an outstanding rate for lakefront with water and electric! There is a service fee here to use a credit card, so if fees bother you, be prepared to use cash.
We do try very hard to eat local during our adventures. We have stumbled onto some of the most amazing food in the world this way. It was a Sunday night however, and based on the reviews, even the best restaurants in Alpena didn’t get great ratings for Sunday nights in the summer, when they must be short staffed by people taking off the weekends to enjoy some of the amazing nature around town. I had one child wounded, one who clearly needed a third nap, and the oldest was hanging in there for the most part. I was not up for a food adventure. I contemplated gas station hot dogs…but compromised with Applebees, which in all honesty, my kids have eaten at exactly one time before in their life, also on a road trip when I was too exhausted to explore good local options. Nothing wrong with Applebees, in fact I was pleasantly surprised that they happened to be having a half off appetizer special, and since the chicken wings are both an appetizer and gluten free, cheap dinner for me! Did I mention that they also have tablets on the tables? Did you know that you CAN request one for each child? Yes, you might get an eye-roll from the server, but they will bring them to you. I am certain that as I sat there with my laptop finishing vacation plans for one of my clients, while all three of my children were heads down into a tablet, I was being judged by all of the armchair parents around the joint. That is ok. My kids had not had access to technology in almost four weeks, and I really needed to get a little bit of work done, so really, everyone was happy. I’m sure we looked like the poster family for dysfunction. Good reminder that you might not have the whole story when you think you know what you are looking at.
Bedtime, right? Nope. Did I mention that Buddy was the proud new owner of a brand new telescope, and had a new appreciation of the night sky? Did you also know that Alpena has three dark sky preserve parks? Negwegon State Park, Thompson’s Harbor State Park, and Rockport State Recreation Area. I promised him that we could drive back out to Rockport State Recreation Area since it was a clear night to see what he could find through his telescope. For safety, I called Hubs to tell him where we were going, and when we would check back in since we would not have cell service at the park. In retrospect, this freaked Buddy out, and once we got out to the pitch dark park, and the frigid air whipped off the lake, he lasted about 5 minutes before asking if we could go to the campground and maybe he could look at the sky from there.
{Let’s get real for a moment. I try not to live my life in fear, but even I was sort of freaked out by the fact that we were in a pitch dark park, with no cell phone service, and when we arrived there was a large van with no windows that had the name of a random church on it, but no people could be heard anywhere around. Maybe not the best choice for a mom and three kids to venture alone. If you are looking for a safe feeling family sky viewing experience, see our review of the Headlands International Dark Sky Park.}
Our last morning in Alpena, I felt a strong desire to go back to Rockport State Recreation Area, and figure out for your sake where the actual quarry filled with fossils was! I needed to be able to tell you so you don’t wander only to be disappointed! So, even though the kids thought they had had enough of this park, I promised we would keep it quick, and hopefully painless today. Good news is – we had success! I would suggest that you check out our story about Rockport State Recreation Area on exactly how to locate this quarry on own.
I rewarded their tenacity, or at least their ability to humor me on my quest for the land of fossils, with a lunch at Nick’s Southside diner. Based on the reviews, they made special shaped pancakes, and I thought they would enjoy that. If you read our in depth food review, you will see that the cook who used to make these famous pancakes is no longer with them, but the food was good, and they did humor us, emphasis on the humor.
Even though their lunch at Nick’s ended with surprise ice cream sundaes, our next stop was Downtown Scoops – YOLO! Buggy and Bubba got standard ice cream – some sort of rainbow rainbow and bright blue per usual, and Buddy got a hand dipped root beer float with local root beer!
From there it was a race to Dinosaur Garden just south of Alpena in Ossineke, before Bubba fell asleep, or he would think that this cat nap counted for his nap for the day. This roadside attraction that began in 1935 is certainly something that multi-generations can enjoy together. Some will enjoy the beautiful natural landscaping, and others will enjoy the lifelike size dinosaur sculptures, like Bubba did, and he ran from one to another shouting, “Mama, take my picture!” Check out some of his pictures with the rest of our review of Dinosaur Gardens. We spent about two hours playing, and could have stayed longer, but this mama google mapped how long it was going to take to drive home, and as the solo driver, the four and a half hour drive after an already eventful day, was motivating to get a move on.
As you can see, they didn’t make it very far down the road. It is not very often that all three of them fall asleep at the same time, but before I could stop to get gas, I could see six eye lids. 
Out of time, but not even close to out of things to do! Would you look at this? All three kiddos asleep as I stopped for gas on the way out of town! I can’t wait to go back when Bubba is a little older and can appreciate (and help out a little) with some outdoor adventures such as kayaking, biking, paddleboarding, etc. The amount of outdoor activities to be found in Alpena was impressive. Next time maybe Hubs can come with us. I know he would have really enjoyed the glass bottom boat the most. Until next time Alpena! Thank you for your hospitality!
If you are considering a vacation or a long weekend trip to Alpena, Michigan, I hope that you will take the time to dive into our other posts that go more in depth into specific topics of our stay:
Kid Approved Places to Eat in Alpena
From Shipwrecks to Underwater Technology with Kids and NOAA
By the Hours – Alpena with Kids: 1, 2, 3…
Rockport State Recreation Area: Where to Actually Find Fossils with Kids
Dinosaur Gardens: Not another dead roadside attraction
