U.P., U.P., and Away!

Well, we’re on our way home from our trip to the U.P.  No internet though so I’ll post this next time I’ll connect.  Yes Brandon, LiveWriter is better than using the web-based editor that Blogger provides.  So what have we done the last couple of days?  A lot!!  Maybe not as much relaxing as Tom would have liked, but it won’t get much slower for a few days.

So, let’s backtrack and see what we’ve done:

Monday
Grant and Bobbie came up to Munising to meet us for the Picture Rocks Boat Tour.  Before we headed out we went out to see a waterfall (Munising Falls??)  That was only a short walk in from the parking lo and it was neat because the water had eroded a little shell or bowl behind the falls.  Next stop: the boat tour.  Oh, did I mention the temperature?  A scalding 57 degrees.  When we came back 3 hours later, it was still 57 degrees (or 56, I don’t remember now).  [on a side note, I might kill Tom because he won’t stop singing “Exercise those chompers, chew chew chew” while I’m trying to type this.  now he’s pouting because I asked him to be quiet]  So anyway, normally you want to get to the docks early so that you can sit on the top of the boat for the tour but today you wanted to be there early so you could sit inside and out of the wind.  They made an announcement that the waves were 1-3’ so once we got out of Munising Bay it might be a bit choppy so people prone to motion sickness should get off.  At first no one moved…..and then 1 guy got off.  That started a cascade of people flowing toward the exits; probably 1/3 or so of the boat got off and went for a refund.  It took a while to take off because there were the indecisive ones who waited and waited and then trickled out (including one when we’d just pushed away from the dock).  OK, so we’re finally on our way (the waves weren’t that bad, especially (as Tom pointed out) if you’re used to being on a smaller boat in bigger waves).  Sophie was OK for the first part of the trip and then a real big stinker for most of the trip.  We pretty much had to take turns holding her for the whole ride.  I finally went outside when we were on the way back in and wrapper her up in a big blanket and she fell asleep out there.  The boat ride was pretty cool – I do wish we could have heard the tour guide better (they didn’t have speakers where we were sitting) because like Grant said, that’s the main reason for taking the tour.  It was neat to see and the boat pulled right up close to a couple of the formations (and right into one of the coves).  All and all, it was a worthwhile tour but I wouldn’t mind doing it again in 5-6 years on a nicer day when Sophie might be easier to handle.  After the boat ride we headed down to Escanaba and dropped our stuff off at Chez Fox and headed out to dinner with a couple of Grant’s friends from barbershop.  Then it was back to the house to start the bedtime routine and get ready for the next day!

Tuesday

More stuff to do today!  Went to Fayette, an old foundry town where they made pig iron for 25-50 years.  It has a really protected harbor and there were a lot of boaters who had stopped by for the day or so.  Maybe some day we’ll have a big enough boat to take tours like that.  Wildlife alert:  we saw a big yellowish-brown snake (probably 4-5 foot by the old hotel at the town…turns out it was a Fox snake.  Nope, not making it up, that’s what it’s called.)  The buildings were in good shape there and they’ve done some work restoring and rebuilding different parts of the town.  The exhibits in the houses were neat too – one chronicled the work by EMU students to study the history of the house (and how they found morphine in the walls that were lowered down by ribbons).  I really like going to old towns like that and just picturing the people going to and fro and kids running around or on their way to school.  You know, now that I think of it, there wasn’t a church in the town (unless it has crumbled) and that’s an odd omission for those kind of historic towns.  Maybe it wasn’t around long enough.  After some ice cream we headed down the road to Kitch-iti-kipi (Big Spring).  This was an unexpected find – I wouldn’t have planned on it if Mendy had mentioned it when we were telling them of our planned stops.  Just past Indian Lake there’s a water hole (no bigger than a pond really) that stays a constant 45 degrees and is crystal clear with some really large trout.  The color can best be described as that chemical blue/turquoise that you see when people dye/chemically treat their ponds.  The have a large raft that is attached to a rope and you pile on there and someone propels it across with a large wheel and then back again.  It’s nice on the raft because it has an opening in the middle and the roof blocks out the reflection that you normally get when you try to look in the water.  The main feature (in addition to the clarity of the water) is the spring at the bottom of the Spring which “erupts” ground water out of the sand.  It is reminiscent of the hot springs in Yellowstone (even kind of sulphury smelling) but for a completely different reason.  After this stop we headed back to the apartment in Escanaba where I proceeded to whip Tom’s butt at pool and we played some Bid 500 with Grant and Bobbie.  Late night to bed but we’ve got one more day until we head home.

Wednesday
Last day in Escanaba.  Played some more pool with Tom (and won…again…) and a little Bid 500 during the day.  Sophie was not a happy camper today.  Her second tooth must have been making a run for the surface and it was not doing wonders for her disposition.  Bobbie volunteered to stay back with her so that Tom and I could see the town and head out to the Escanaba Country Club to see the course that Grant has been slaying.  All in all, we didn’t golf that great.  Tom really turned it around at the end but I was as inconsistent as ever, especially with my putting.  I don’t know what my deal is with that.  It was a nice course but the “trees are 90% air” theory doesn’t seem to hold up in the UP, it’s more like 60% or less because it seems like we all had our share of tree hits.  After getting back we had another nice dinner, played a little more pool (may be the best use of a dining room ever), a little more Bid 500 (Tom and I won the vacation series 8-7), and then off to bed for our 4:30 wake up.

Thursday
Sophie’s being good so far today.  Her tooth broke through the surface and is now trying to catch up to its neighbor.  Hopefully now that they’re both through she’ll feel better.  Poor kid.  She slept until the bridge or so, which is what we'd hoped for.  After hanging out at Burger King for an hour or so we hit the road again and she’s back to sleep so the hope is that she’ll nap until home.  She could use the extra sleep because she didn’t sleep as well at night (or naps even) while we were on the trip.  We were able to time most of our stops around her schedule so that she would nap in the car in between wherever we were going. 

It’s crazy to think how much she’s grown already (I swear her legs grew an inch or two in the last couple of days).  She’s a big fan of grabbing for things.  An addition to my “Babies are like…” post I’d like to add that kids are like puppies (not sure if I mentioned that) because they both have chew toys and we put them in “cages” to go to sleep.  Oh, and sharks, they’re like sharks too.  Watch the Discovery channel and they’ll tell you that sharks don’t really mean to kill people, they just take a “test bite” (not the term they use but I’m drawing a blank now) to see if that surfer is food or not.  Well, Sophie puts most everything in her mouth…but just for a “taste” and then she usually leaves it out after that.  She has been reaching for her mat toys when she’s on her belly (which helped her roll from belly to back yesterday) and she’s still kicking non-stop on the ground trying to crawl somewhere.  I have a feeling that she is going to be a tough one to contain once she starts moving.

Once we get back today we’re going to mow, unpack, clean and that kind of general stuff.  Then I think we’re going to go see the garden and Grandma Vikki and pick up the Zeker-dog.  Then we’ll swing by to see Grandma Ingrid and then back home to start getting things ready for Friday-Saturday.  Tomorrow we’re heading down to the Tigers’ game with Jamie and Keri and staying over at their place.  Saturday we head back and go to Charlie’s birthday party.  But Sunday, that day should be a piece of cake!