My son likes to plan trips. One he had planned that we just returned from was a 3-day trip to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. My wife, son, and I had never been to the UP. Being from Minnesota, I have made many trips to the North Shore of Minnesota enjoying views of Lake Superior and other sites in the area. I assumed the UP would be very similar, and for the most part it was, but there were some differences.
I'm going to write about some of the highlights of the trip, and I'll point out some differences that I observed.
The first day found us traveling through Wisconsin. Our ultimate destination was Houghton Michigan. Let me tell you about Houghton.
HOUGHTON:
Right outside our hotel is the visitor center for the Isle Royal National Park. We visited the visitor center but didn't go to Isle Royal. That would be a fun trip to take but if we go we will leave from Grand Portage in Minnesota because you can just spend the day on the island and you don't have to camp.
We learned a little bit about the history of Houghton through an adventure lab we did. An adventure lab is a type of geocache except instead of finding a container you are instead finding a location and answering a question and educating yourself on that location. We do these whenever we go to a town and there is one available. In fact we did 4 of them. Besides the Houghton one we also learned about Hancock, Calumet and Fort Wilkins. It is a fun way to learn about places you visit.
Another thing we always like to do is eat at a local restaurant. In Houghton there is a restaurant called The Library this is so the students attending Michigan Tech can tell their parents they spent all night at the Library. The food was really good and the layout and decor was like an old library with books everywhere.
CALUMET:
Calumet was probably my favorite city we visited because of the preservation of the old buildings. Here is a picture of the type of buildings they are preserving in Calumet.
Besides admiring the architecture we also did an adventure lab and it told some interesting stories about the old buildings. One story you can read about at this link Italian Hall Disaster.
COPPER HARBOR:
Copper Harbor is a cute little town almost at the end of the Keweenaw Peninsula. We had stopped and had seen a lot before we got here. We decided to eat lunch at The Tamarack Inn restaurant that closed at 3. Everything in the town closed at 3. Fortunately, we got in there about 2:40. I had Lake Superior Whitefish for lunch (delicious). Because everything closed at 3 I wasn't able to get dessert at Jamsen's Bakery, a donut glazed in thimbleberry.
OTHER SITES:
Before we got to Copper Harbor, we stopped at several waterfalls and lighthouses. We drove up the Brockway Mountain road to one of the most picturesque views you will ever see. These pictures don't do it justice. One side you see this valley with the lake and the other side you see Lake Superior.
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