First, a digression-slash-confession. If you know me at all, you know that I read. A lot. For work and for fun. ALL THE TIME. And in reading, I fall in love with a lot of places, and then I suggest that we go to those places so I can see in person what I've seen in my mind's eye. And I don't always tell Mike that I'm suggesting a place because I read a book or series set in that place, but it's usually the case. It was why I first suggested Ocracoke. And Tybee. And Jekyll. And yeah, I'm kind of at it again this week.
But back to our story. My brother and his girlfriend just happened to be in the UP for a long weekend, staying with her family in Brimley, about 2 hours from us, so we made plans to go on a shipwreck tour together. And if you know my brother at all, you know that he's a lot like my dad in that if there's a way he can improve/complicate a plan, he will do it every time. Sometimes that works better than other times, but this time it was perfect. We were planning to go out to lunch before we met J and Carleen at the boat place, but he messaged me in the morning to say we were going to cook out instead. So I searched for a park with picnic tables, and we met him there. He rolled up in his truck with a small propane grill, burgers, dogs, and chips, and we had a feast right on the shore of Lake Superior. It was darn near perfect.
A little story about my brother: He is unfailingly kind to people. When we were still setting up, a traveling evangelist gave me a pamphlet about the 100th anniversary of the national parks and how that relates to the word of god. (Sorry, I didn't read it, so I can't tell you the connection.) I didn't have a long conversation with him, but I took the pamphlet and bid him luck in his quest. And then we ate, and at the end, we had some food left over, so J found the evangelist and invited him to have some lunch. He made him a plate and talked to him and offered him a drink. The man was pretty amazed, but I didn't find it too surprising considering that when he was 8 or 9, J convinced me to buy tennis shoes with reflective strips, "so you will be safe crossing the street in Chicago."
The shipwreck tour itself was really interesting! The boat had large glass panes in the bottom, and the water in Lake Superior is so clear that we could see the two wrecks in amazing detail (including a bathtub and toilet in one of them!). The boys loved being out on the boat (the tour lasted 2.5 hours) and seeing things above and below the water. We even caught a glimpse of the Pictured Rocks and saw a waterfall! Along the way, we passed Grand Island National Recreation Area, getting a good view of the lighthouse and a bald eagle up in a tree. These are just some of the great pictures we got:
And now, back to my weird little obsession with seeing places I've read about: I somehow convinced Mike that we should go see Copper Harbor, a tiny town at the tip of the Keweenaw Peninsula at the tippy top of the UP. The side trip had a dual purpose: letting me see Copper Harbor, and possibly seeing the northern lights. The forecast is for clear skies and cooler temperatures, so we polled the boys, and they all voted, so I booked a last-minute room at a motel, and we headed out on our side trip right after the boat tour.
I suppose if you look at my penchant for side trips in the same light as my brother's penchant for last-minute plan adjustments, it makes sense that sometimes it works better than others. This time ... I'm not so sure yet. The drive was LONG. I mean, it was 3.5 hours, but by the time we got here, we were all totally wrecked. I felt terrible for dragging everyone along basically on a whim, so I volunteered to procure dinner, which is no easy feat in a town that basically shuts down at 6 p.m. But after a very long wait, Liam and I managed to get some decent pizzas, AND I went to this dusty little general store in search of bottled water and found HopSolution, a beer Mike has been trying to get for a long time (my mom tried to get it through my grandpa's liquor store, but apparently the distribution is VERY limited, so she had no luck). The pizza, beer, and drinks went a long way toward restoring goodwill, but we'll see how everyone feels in the morning.
One other amazing thing: the view from our motel room. Check this out:
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