Up in the UP

Hello to All,

After surviving Sunday Chicago traffic (the worst day to drive in/out of the Windy City) Jason arrived bright eyed and bushy tailed (not so much) and we started our end of the summer vacation. I worked Monday morning so Jason could spend the day helping his friend, Ben, pack and move to Las Vegas, but the real vacation part started Tuesday morning when we left for Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. And much to Jason’s chagrin we left early and drove through Wisconsin (adding another state to my list) reaching a Culver’s for lunch. Culver’s is similar to Braum’s (family owned and lots of meat) just not as good, and as seeing it is a meat lover’s dream I had just had some cheese curds, when in Rome do as the Roman’s, right?

We arrived in Escanaba, Michigan in the late afternoon and set up camp. Although not as crunchy I would have liked, we settled in next to our RV neighbor watching Oprah (no, really) and made our way down to the beach. Jason collected some drift and grumbled about the cold water (I think he was expecting the Caribbean warm water) and I took some MI pics.

Jason standing over his camping domain: tent and beloved camping stove

Pictures to the lake and by the lake.

After, we made our way in to town to get a few “supplies” at the Super Wal-mart, we live big, we headed back to settle in for the evening. Jason loves outdoorsy stuff, and so in preparation for our vacation he got himself a cooking stove, dishes, silverware and head lamps. We are so hard core. We were somewhat limited to what we could make so I grabbed some mac and cheese but forgot the milk and butter so it had an interesting taste.

Jason and all his gear: headlamp, silverware, flexible bowls and camping pot

And post dinner I kicked Jason’s butt in scrabble and we made S’mores (my one requirement for the camping trip).

The next morning we headed across the peninsula to Mackinac. For those of you have never been it is so pretty and we had the most PERFECT weather. So we reached the Mackinac Bridge and stopped for a few photo opts.

We spend the afternoon in the little town eating dinner and avoiding the touristy shoppes and that night we returned to the campsite for another out of control Scrabble game (I won!)

You might notice Jason's jolly face because if you look closely behind him you will see our neighbor who serenaded us with his accordion. He had all the camp boppin'.

A view from our campsite.

The next morning we took the ferry to Macknac Island.

I love Mackinac Island, it is like taking a step back in time because there are not vehicles allowed on the island so everyone uses horse drawn carriages or bikes.

Our choice of travel was a tandem bike. We rode the 8 mile path around the island, stopping to capture the hilarity of us on the tandem on film.

Afterwards we grabbed an early lunch and drinks at a café right on the water

and took a stroll the more residential part of the island.

We stopped for a cat nap at the park and then explored the back roads of the small island and stumbled across the Grande Hotel.

These would be my illegal photos of Grande Hotel.

After dinner at the same restaurant I ate with Don, Mom and Mary on our trip there in 2002, we got the 5:30 ferry back to main land and back to our camp site.

And like all vacation this one had to come to an end so we packed it up Friday morning and headed back to the Windy City.

xo

Amber