What is a Yooper?
The Upper Peninsula—or "the U.P." as locals call it—was the place we were most excited to visit. We spent twelve days taking it in, but twelve days wasn't nearly enough to see all that it has to offer.
Finally, days later, we asked the local grocery store employee what the word meant when we saw it on a candy bar by her check-out register. She said it's a nickname for the residents of the Upper Peninsula—they are "U.P.-ers," or "Yooper" (pronounced you-per) for short. Aha! Now, we know!
Speaking of that candy bar, it is a solid chocolate candy bar that's called Sayklly's Yooper Bar, and it comes in milk or dark chocolate. On top of the bar is a molded shape of the U.P., with each county outlined. Of course, we bought one, and we ate the whole U.P. in just a few bites!
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| It comes in milk and dark chocolate. It was yummy, so you could say that it's a super duper yooper! |
While in Marquette, we wanted to go back to Presque Isle to take more pictures because our previous ones did not come out as well as we wanted. We also wanted to wade in Lake Superior again, especially the section with the rocky beach, but this time with shoes on, and David wanted to swim in the very clear and chilly lake.
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| We could clearly stand the rocks now! |
We walked over to where we built a cairn earlier in the week and saw it was no longer standing, so we built another one on top of some of the famous Lake Superior black rocks.
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| Our 12 grands and 1 great-grand are represented, sitting on top of Lake Superior's black rocks! |
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Our "grand" tower!We Moved Over to the East Side of the UP |
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| Lake Michigan on a cloudy day. |
As we approached St. Ignace, we pulled off at an overlook for our very first view of the famous Mackinac Bridge. We could just imagine how different this view will look in the fall!
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| The "Mighty Mac" spans the Straits of Mackinac, joining Lake Michigan and Lake Huron. It's the longest suspension bridge in the Western Hemisphere by suspended length |
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| Such a quaint and quiet campground. We met some really nice people and a few of them were real Yoopers! |
Mackinac Island
On Wednesday, we drove to St. Ignace and booked two round-trip tickets on Shepler's Ferry to Mackinac Island. It was a quick 15-minute ferry ride, but sitting on the open top deck gave us an amazing view of the island from the water.
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| The Grand Hotel, It's the grandest on the Island. |
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| St. Anne Church, so beautiful and stately! |
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| It joins the Yoopers with the Mittens! |
For those who may not know, no motorized vehicles are allowed on the island. To tour it, you can rent a bike, take a carriage tour, rent a horse, rent a horse and small carriage to drive yourself, or you can even hire a carriage taxi. Or, like we regrettably did, you can walk!
We debated whether to rent a bike; however, when we got there, the streets were crowded with bicyclists and horse-drawn carriages. We were also a bit hesitant to ride after seeing that a few streets had some pretty steep inclines.
According to the island's map, everything we wanted to see seemed to be within a comfortable walking distance. WE WERE WRONG!
The island is stunningly beautiful—from its historic buildings and charming homes to the manicured lawns and vibrant, overflowing flower baskets. But honestly, if you've never been, you can see for yourself…
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| This locked gate leads to a private section of the beach, across the street from the main house. |
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| We could only stare at these stairs! |
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| This says, "Come sit a while and enjoy the beauty that surrounds you!" |
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| St. Anne Church |
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| Such a luscious garden. |
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| A variety of scent-sational flowers! |
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| The front of the house in the previous photo. |
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| This is one of MANY beautiful hanging baskets lining the streets. |
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| Inside Trinity Church. |
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| How quaint is this entrance? |
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| The Grand Hotel's carriage. |
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| We found another Lady Liberty! On top of the hill behind her is Fort Mackinac. |
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| These chairs were not made for the Yoopers; what's U.P. with that? |
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Horse rentals.
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| By walking, we were able to enjoy views like this one a lot longer! |
After eating lunch at one of the restaurants on Main Street, we started walking in what we thought was the correct direction to the famous Arch Rock. After we realized it was much farther than we originally thought, and we missed the shortcut road to it, we shifted our focus to getting our blistering feet over to the Grand Hotel, which is an absolute must-see on Mackinac Island.
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| For a mere starting price of $1,000 per night, you can have a Grand time here! |
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| This resort features the world's largest front porch, 660 feet. |
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| The Grand courtyard. |
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| That's a Grand pool! |
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| The road leading up to The Grand Hotel. |
Even though we regretted not renting bikes, walking gave us a wonderful opportunity to photograph so much more of the island's beauty. Besides, we already had one bike mishap during our travel; we didn't want to risk having another accident or having to navigate around all the horses and their droppings!
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| The downside of walking, you pick up on certain unpleasant odors!! Maybe that's why there is a potpourri of flowers lining the streets! |
After completely wearing ourselves out, we found a park bench in the shade where we enjoyed a cup of coffee and a smoothie. We just could not physically go much more, so we headed over to the Shepler dock to catch our ferry back to St. Ignace.
We Found a Pleasant Surprise!
While waiting for our ferry to arrive, we caught a glimpse of someone we went to church with years ago in a completely different area of Louisiana than where we live now. It's been over 15 years since we've seen this person, and there she was, walking with her husband to get in line for a different ferry than ours!
After a quick visit and taking a selfie documenting our surprise meeting, it was time to board our separate rides. What a wonderful gift to see a dear friend at a very busy tourist site over 1,200 miles away from our homes!
St. Ignace, Michigan
After returning to St. Ignace, we decided to eat dinner at a local restaurant before making our 30-minute drive back to our campground. We dined on the back patio of the Mackinac Grille, located in front of the lighthouse along the shore of Lake Huron.
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| Lake Huron Lighthouse |
Sault St. Marie, MI - The Soo Locks
Sault St. Marie, Michigan, lies directly across the border from Canada and is famous for having the Soo Locks, which allow freighters to navigate between Lake Superior and the lower Great Lakes.
An observation deck next to the locks allows you to watch the entire locking process. When we arrived, two tour boats were in the locks and were about to leave for their tour. After they left, we watched a pleasure boat enter and observed its locking process.
Wanting to see more than just a few small boats in the locks, we walked over to the visitor center to see when the next freighter would arrive. We were told one would arrive in about an hour.
We walked across the street, grabbed a bite to eat, then walked back to the observation deck where we saw a freighter from the Netherlands, the Volgaborg, carrying grain from Thunder Bay, Canada, to the United Kingdom, slowly making its way into the Poe Dock.
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| There are currently two locks; a third one is under construction; we were glad the ship entered the one closest to us. |
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| The height of the ship when it entered the locks. |
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| This is how it looked after lowering the water in the lock. |
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| Leaving the locks at a much lower water level. |
The Soo Locks are highly recommended to anyone visiting the UP, and we are so glad we made the 50-minute drive to Sault St. Marie to see them. Best of all, a little gas and a good meal were the only costs of the whole experience. After what we spent to see Mackinac Island, this free tourist attraction was a lagniappe experience for us!
Current Status
Yesterday, August 22nd, we finally left Yoopers' paradise and made it into the mitten of Michigan. Not long after crossing the Mackinac Bridge, we exited the busy interstate and took Hwy. 31, a more scenic route that brought us along the west coastline for more views of Lake Michigan.
We booked a three-night stay at a campground in Kalkaska, Michigan, where we will venture to areas along Lake Michigan's coast for sightseeing purposes...Petoskey, Sleeping Bear Dunes, and anywhere along the way that piques our interest.
Until next time...blessings from our neck of the woods to yours!
Isaiah 43:2
Bonus Photos:
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| The milk was delivered by a horse-drawn dray and left sitting outside. That would not last two minutes in the South, or they'd be wondering why they got cottage cheese delivered in milk bottles! |
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| Mackinac Island is famous for its fudge. There are several shops on the island, all claiming to be the best. At $18 a slice, you certainly can't fudge those numbers! |
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| The local post office. |
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| This is the point where we stopped and decided to turn back towards town. If not, we would have had to walk around that point just to see if we were anywhere near the Arch Rock. |
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