U.P., U.P., U.P. and Away...Day Four...

Friday, June 29^th we woke up in Marquette with the Keweenaw Peninsula as our destination. This is the very most northern tip of Michigan and is surrounded by Lake Superior. 

Nissa and Todd told us they were going to stop at the ‘Yooper Tourist Trap’. We asked them to explain what it was and they couldn’t find words for it. Once we arrived we understood why. Todd asked us if we knew the song “Gramma Got Run Over by a Reindeer”. We knew this song well and even own the CD. Turns out The Yooper Tourist Trap is owned by this musical group. That should give you a sense of their interesting take on life.

The first thing to catch our eyes was the wooden carving, life size, of a cowboy.

Then I saw the big Adirondac chair. That was a must photo op.

Here are a few of the other interesting items on display. These great woods are the home to lots of deer and lots of hunters. If you don't understand that, you may want to skip thes next picture. If you do understand that, look closely and enjoy.

After walking the grounds we went inside to the store and shopped. You can’t take pictures inside but the interesting take on life from a Yooper perspective is seen in abundance.  We purchased a few of the fun items before continuing our journey.

Todd pulled into a rest area on the side of the road. There was this huge snow thermometer. It measures the snowfall each year. Claude is standing at the bottom pointing up. The red arrow part way up on the side where Claude is pointing marks the snowfall this past winter. The top of the snow thermometer shows the most snowfall ever. That the winter of 1978-1979 and was 390 inches. Amazing.

Our next stop was at Eagle River where there are two bridges and a waterfall. The original bridge is now a foot bridge for tourist to walk across and take pictures. I’m sure the locals use it as well. Right next to it is a newer bridge made out of timbers that has an amazing construction.

Into the car and off to Jacob’s Falls. Since Jacob is our son's name, we were curious about these falls.

Next to the falls were lots of little wild flowers. I tried to get a picture the bee on one of them but he flew off. You can see him behind the stem with his wings a whir.

While we looked at Jacob’s Falls, Todd moved the car and we walked to where he was from the falls. He was at the Jam Pot & Bakery. Yum!!

The Jam Pot is run was The Society of St. John, Eagle Harbor, Michigan. This is an order of Eastern Catholic monks.

This experience added two new wrinkles to my brain.

The first was while perusing the many, many, many flavors of jams and jellies. I kept seeing ‘thimbleberry’ this and that. I never heard of a thimbleberry. In all of my nearly 62 years, I’ve never heard that name given to any berry. I asked the monk at the counter what a ‘thimbleberry’ was. He grinned from behind his very long beard and said, “You’ve never been here before have you?” I assured him that was correct. Then he explained it is a berry something akin to a raspberry with more seeds and less juice. It is tart and has a pulp center just like a raspberry. It grows wild up there and, when it begins to ripen, must be picked each day. You just gather the ripe ones which will fall into your hand when touched leaving the others to ripen another day. He said they would start to ripen pretty soon. Outside the Jam Pot all around the edge of the building were thimbleberry plants. There was a picnic area under the trees in the parking area and it was overgrown with thimbleberries.

The second wrinkle I added to my brain had to do with the name of this order of monks. They has the word ‘skete’ in their name. I never heard that term in a religious context before. My only frame of reference was skeet shooting and I was pretty sure that did not apply in this situation. Once again I approached my new favorite monk and asked him what the word ‘skete’ meant. Again he grinned and explained carefully that it simply means a small monastery. In the case of the Society of St. John there are only 6 monks. Now you also have a new wrinkle in your brain.

We purchased lots of baked goods and some candy and jams. It was a delightful visit.

We continued our drive to Copper Harbor at the end of the Keweenaw Peninsula. We stopped at a stretch of beach to check out the view of Lake Superior. People were actually playing out in that cold, cold water. There was even a para-sailor enjoying the water. It was very, very windy and he was often lifted completely out of the water.

Nissa and Todd promised us the best views from our next stop. We drove up a rough road to the top of Brockway Mountain. From here we had excellent views of Lake Superior, Lake Bailey, Medora Lake and the Copper Mountain Resort & Golf Course. There was a huge freighter crossing Lake Superior. It was simply gorgeous.

Once off the mountain we found a nice place and enjoyed a wonderful lunch in Copper Harbor. I had the sweetest salad I have ever eaten. Lots of mixed greens with fresh fruit in them. The strawberry dressing was one of the restaurant's own recipes. I loved this salad but it definitely could have passed for a dessert.

After lunch we found the Lighthouse Lookout and took pictures. Nissa decided she needed to walk across where water flowed into the little bay. The point was to get to a rock outcropping from which she felt she could get better pictures. The concern was the rocks covered with moss in that water. They were all well rounded and very slick with moss. Nissa took off her shoes and proceeded across. The water was about knee deep at the deepest point. She made it across and back and seemed to enjoy her picture taking opportunities. The closest she came to falling was on the walk back through that water.

Ft. Wilken’s has been restored at the tip of the Keweenaw Peninsula. It is a State Park. We went there to tour the fort. The fort sits on Lake Fanny Hooe. By this point in the day it was sunny and as warm as we had been the entire trip. We enjoyed the fort grounds, sitting on the porch of one of the buildings and just feeling that great breeze.

Then we headed back to the park Visitor’s Center for an ice cream treat to cool off.

Todd drove us to the where the road ends on the Keweenaw Peninsula. Well, it is actually where the US Highway 41 begins.

From this point we would start our journey south to Hancock-Houghton where our hotel was located for that evening in Hancock. We had a side trip planned during the drive to the hotel but events occurred which negated that side trip. I'll blog about that in another post.

We would not finish this vacation. We headed back to Muskegon Saturday morning with a stop in Munising to purchase freshly caught and smoked white fish and trout. Todd would get us back to Muskegon at 5pm. Claude and I would transfer our luggage and purchases into my truck and head immediately to Kentucky.

Even though our trip was cut short, it was a most delightful adventure. We saw so many beautiful things, learned some new things and, most importantly, loved being with Nissa and Todd. How sweet that they invited us and how profoundly grateful we are for these days of fun on the UP with them. Thanks Nissa and Todd!!