Upper Peninsula, Michigan

No trip to Michigan would be complete without a trip to the Upper Peninsula, or the UP (pronounced YOU PEA, not "up"). The UP is where the Yoopers live (those who live beneath the Mackinaw Bridge, which connect the upper and lower peninsulas, are referred to as the Trolls). So, two summer trolls (that would be Dan and I) decided we would take a short trip to the UP for possible hiking, to see Lake Superior, and enjoy the gorgeous scenery. Our fist mistake was to make this a "short" trip. There was just too much to see and do for a three day trip, half of which was spent driving. But since the drive itself was quite beautiful, with just a touch of autumn in the air turning the tips of the trees yellow, red, and gold, we really couldn't complain about that too much.

Our first stop was to Big Spring, also known by its Indian name, Kitch-iti-kipi. Two hundred feet across and forty feet deep, this is Michigan's largest spring. 10,000 gallons of water a minute gush from its fissures in the underlying limestone, and is absolutely crystal clear from the surface to the floor. By means of a self-operated & tethered observation raft, visitors are guided to vantage points overlooking fascinating underwater features and mysteries. Tiny swirls of sand on the bottom of the spring are kept in constant motion by gushing waters coming up through the fissures.

After Big Spring, we wound our way to the town of Marquette, a major port on Lake Superior and home of Northern Michigan University. Because Lake Superior is so big (it even has waves like you see on some ocean beaches), it has quite a coastal feel to it, with beautiful beachfront homes all along the shoreline. This was a fun town that we only planned to spend one night in, and we wished we had allocated more time (next year!). We stayed the one night, then started moving towards Whitefish Point the next day.

On our way we stopped for a guided boat tour to Pictured Rocks on Lake Superior. These awe-inspiring cliffs are shaped by wind, ice and pounding waves. The cliffs are colored in shades of brown, tan, and green by the iron, manganese, limonite and copper in the water. As the water trickles down the rocks or mountains, and waves slam into the cliffs with a vicious suddenness, the sandstone Pictured Rocks are formed and changed.

Turned out we had to head home after this due to problems with the truck, so we never made it to Whitefish Point. Next year, next year…

The picture above that looks like it is upside down (trees on the top, water on the bottom) is actually a picture taken of the reflection on the water at Big Spring.

Visit From a Friend

In August, Jim Esarte, a good friend of ours from Sacramento, flew to Michigan to spend a couple of weeks visiting with us. Jim had never been to this part of the country, and since we were here, it gave him a good reason to make the trip. We tried to cram as much activity as possible into those two weeks! We played a lot of golf and made several day trips to nearby towns and tourist destinations. We also attended one of the Elk Viewing Rides & Gourmet Dinners, as well, so Jim could get a feel for Thunder Bay Resort. When Dan and I had work obligations, Jim struck out on his own and explored surrounding areas.

One of our visits took us to Traverse City, "The Cherry Capitol of the World", and the second most popular tourist destination in the state behind Mackinaw City. After spending a couple of hours shopping in the quaint downtown area, we drove on to Petoskey to the Odawa Casino for dinner and a little gambling. On another day we drove to Mackinaw City and took the ferry to Mackinac Island where we spent the afternoon walking across the small Island, exploring and looking for the perfect fudge shop.

Another outing took us to Sault Ste Marie in Michigan, where we stopped by the Soo Locks, then crossed the international bridge into Sault Ste Marie in Ontario, Canada for a quick tour. The Soo Locks allow ships to travel between Lake Superior and the lower Great Lakes and pass an average of 10,000 ships per year in spite of the locks' being closed during the winter (January through March) when ice shuts down shipping on the Great Lakes.

The three of us played several rounds of golf here at Thunder Bay, and Dan and Jim went to two other golf courses in the area as well.

We very much enjoyed Jim's visit and are very happy that he took the time to come all the way across the country to spend time with us this summer.

Comerica Baseball Park, Detroit, Michigan

Attached are some snapshots of Comerica Park, home of the Detroit Tigers.

As anyone who has followed our blog already knows, one of our goals as we travel the country is to get to all the Major League Baseball fields for a game or two. So whenever we find ourselves in close enough proximity during baseball season, we build a trip to the nearby park into our visit. Since this summer we have been in Michigan, we made our way to Detroit for a couple of days to watch the Tigers play against the Seattle Seahawks. We drove north to Detroit, about 225 miles, on Wednesday, August 19th in time to catch the evening game, which Seattle won (Seattle 3, Detroit 1). The next day the weather was touch and go with a big storm forecast for the afternoon game, but with only a 6 minute rain delay, the game was played to completion, this time with Detroit the winner (Detroit 7, Seattle 6). Since we aren't from Washington or Michigan, it was easy to root for both sides (although, if truth be told, I am a little partial to Washington State).

It was fun touring Comerica Park, where the Tiger theme is everywhere you turn. Comerica is located in downtown Detroit, and you can see the high rises as you sit and watch the game. You can find a tiger Merry-Go-Round and a baseball Ferris Wheel for the kids to ride, and all the usual assortment of ball park food. We were lucky enough to find veggie burgers (vegan, even!) and veggie dogs to choose from, and fruit bowls and stir fry vegetables and rice were also available. After we had a beer and gorged ourselves with peanuts, we could have stopped right there, but we went with the veggie burgers anyway. We want to do our part to keep the veggie options available, haha!

Next year if we come back to this area we will try to make it to either PNC Park in Pittsburg, or Progressive Field in Cleveland - or maybe both!