Central UP

We've completed 17 weeks on the road, including two weeks in Michigan's Upper Peninsula.

Our home base this past week was in the central region of the Upper Peninsula, Our cottage was on a narrow peninsula in Bass Lake, so we had docks on both sides. It was very peaceful, and we enjoyed eating meals out on the deck and watching ducks, and boats, and sunsets.

Steve enjoyed having a real kitchen this week, and cooked some great meals. We went out for dinner one day in Marquette, about 30 minutes' drive from the cottage. Marquette is on Lake Superior and is the largest town in the UP (population about 21,000). We walked around downtown and the waterfront.

The massive structure Marquette's lower harbor was an iron ore pocket dock. Ore from nearby iron mines was processed into taconite pellets and then brought to the dock via train. The pellets were unloaded from the railcars to bins ("pockets") on the dock and then loaded onto freighters via the steel chutes. The dock could hold 250,000 tons of iron ore! It would be nice to see this historic dock transformed into a park, like the Highline in New York City.

After a delicious meal at a German restaurant downtown Marquette, we visited a sculpture park nearby called Lakenenland. The artist, Tom Lakenen, created over 100 sculptures from scrap iron and keeps them in his "junkyard" for all to enjoy. The park is part art gallery, part science museum, and part political commentary.

As we drove home, the sun was a big red ball setting behind Lake Superior. Another glorious sunset in the UP!