Summer Vacation Part II

The second part of our summer vacation was spent up north in the place where I grew up. We picked a really good week to visit. The summer weather had been cool and fall like (even where we live), but this past week was in the low 80's and sunny. :)

We left on Monday and decided to take a different route than normal. We went up through the Twin Cities and Duluth and then cut across northern WI and the UP of Michigan. We left at noon and were lucky to miss all the road construction back ups and heavy traffic. We almost got into a fender bender in the Twin Cities near dowtown St. Paul, but the brakes on our little rental car work well! We never quite figured out what caused the congestion there. One thing that is great about driving north is the changing landscape from open areas to miles and miles of tree lined highway. We saw a few deer on the way, but never came close to an accident with them. When we arrived at our destination on Monday we were greeted by my Dad and a happy golden/lab mix, old boy Cody.


The next three days were spent with slow relaxing mornings, a run each day, sightseeing, and visiting with family and friends...

Tuesday we ran along the lakeshore of Lake Superior. Marquette has been building up townhouses and condos along the lake and has created some really great trails.



Another great new addition to the downtown is the Food Co-op and Farmer Q's. Before leaving home I had checked Local Harvest to see what was available. We bought some granola, cashews, fruit, and milk from MN at the Co-op after our run. That evening we went to one of my aunt's houses to meet my mom and some of her family. My mom had planned a surprise get together, which was great!

Wednesday started much the same way as the day before. After some breakfast and coffee we went for a run along the lake again. This time in the opposite direction. We checked out Farmer Q's and bought some local blueberry jam and fruit. In the afternoon we went out to Presque Isle and walked a bit on the breakwall. There was a little family of ducks battling the waves to eat the algae caught along the wall. Those little ducklings seemed like they would just get carried away, but they managed just fine.






That evening was spent with friends and their growing families. It was so great to see everyone! I wish I was closer so I could watch the little ones grow day by day. I hope we can start a new tradition of getting together at least once a year.

Thursday was our last day in town. After our morning of breakfast, coffee, and a little frisbee with Cody we drove out to Presque Isle for our run. This was the first time I had ever done that and I'm kicking myself for not taking more advantage of the time when the island was closed for walkers/runners/bikers only while living in MQT. After the run we took more pictures of the lakeshore, of course, and caught a ship setting out from the ore dock.



That afternoon we went to the Marquette County History Museum. They have an exhibit titled "Anatomy of a Yooper". Ha! It was interesting to see the history of all the different immigrants and melding of traditions.

We ended our trip with an evening downtown for ice cream (Mackinac Island Fudge in a waffle cone! YUM!) and walking around with my dad. Here are some more pictures from our trip. Can't wait until we come back!



Friday we heading back in our little rental car (don't have a picture of that surprisingly). We drove through WI and stopped along the way to visit the in-laws. We spent about 4 great hours visiting with everyone. The last stop we made was to visit our uncle. He has been retired for a while and for fun he built, by himself, a little wood cabin in his backyard complete with stone fireplace. It had that great wood smell and was amazing to see.