The Great White North

 Here we are, in the middle of Owen's senior year of high school.  It really is true what they say: The days are long but the years are short. Owen's freshman year went on as planned, then there was this whole pandemic business, and yadda, yadda, yadda, we are approaching graduation.  

Back in October, Owen applied to his top three choices for college.  After taking every high school computer class offered, and teaching himself even more on his own time, he has made the choice to go into a Cyber Security Program.  I know there are different avenues you can take in this field, but I'm not going to go into specifics, mostly because I don't know a thing about it!

Anyway, back to applying to colleges.  Applications were sent to Baker College, Eastern Michigan University, and Michigan Technological University.  These three college and campuses are all quite different but they are all excellent choices for Owen's field of study. Within two weeks, he had been accepted to all of them.  Now he had a choice to make.  

Originally, he was most interested in Baker College.  Baker not only has a great program but also has a Red Team.  What is Red Team?  It's a national competition centered around ethical hacking.  Again, I'll leave it at that, but Owen is highly interested in being a part of Red Team.  Unfortunately, about two weeks after being accepted to Baker, the admissions counselor called to tell him that all of their computer-based programs were being moved to online only classes, permanently.  This immediately took Baker off the table for Owen.  He really was looking for the full on-campus college experience and was not at all interested in a virtual experience.  That left Eastern and Michigan Tech.

We decided a campus visit to Michigan Tech was in order.  Our family had been to Houghton on our way to Copper Harbor in the past, and Jason had snowmobiled in the area, but we really didn't know anything about the university or everyday life in Houghton.  

We chose a Friday in January, and crossed our fingers for good weather.  With a yearly snowfall average of 202 inches (that's more than 16 feet) in Houghton, we knew that traveling to this city eight hours from home might be a challenge. 

To break up our trip a bit, we decided to head to the cabin in Gaylord on Thursday night.  We stopped on the way in Fredric at the Swamp Bar II. Owen indulged in a Shirley Temple and we made quick work of the giant-sized nachos they offered.

Bedtime came early, with our alarms waking us Friday before 5am.  Orientation began at noon on the campus and we didn't want to be late!  By 6:30am, we were crossing the Mackinaw Bridge, glowing with multi-colored lights.

The McDonald's in St. Ignace was our only breakfast option at that hour, and I think one lady was running the entire operation on the inside!

We made our way through the Upper Peninsula, passing through Seney and Munising, Marquette and Ishpeming, and then heading north through L'Anse and Baraga before arriving at our destination.  The day was bright and sunny but the roads were just a little iffy.  I guess that's as good as they get when snowfall seems almost constant throughout the winter!

Compared to many colleges, I'd have to say Michigan Tech has a much smaller footprint.  You can walk anywhere on campus in less than ten minutes, and several buildings are connected by sky bridges.  This Friday was sunny, but the temperature was hovering right around 0 degrees and I think they consider that to be quite nice for January!  

One of the first things I noticed, was how welcoming everyone was. Staff and students alike stopped to greet us and there were little welcome signs everywhere!  Owen asked if I was going to take a picture of every one.  YES, yes I am.

After three hours, we had been through an orientation meeting, a one-on-one meeting with the advisor in his field, a classroom visit where Owen got to check out crazy behind the scenes computer things I do not understand, and a campus tour led by a fellow student.  Aside from how nice everyone was, one of my very favorite things was how they keep things interesting on this campus in a remote part of our state.  Students at Michigan Tech travel 8-10 hours on average from their hometowns to attend school.  The distance combined with often treacherous weather means that quick trips home don't happen all that often.  Because of this, included with tuition, all students can use the golf course, ski and snowboard hill, snowshoes, tennis courts, attend performances in fine arts, and attend hockey games as much as they'd like without worrying about purchasing passes or paying daily fees.  Students had also cleared every available place to put Broomball Courts in outside.  Apparently this is a huge sport here in Houghton and everyone we talked to was hyping it up!  We definitely left the campus very much at ease if Owen chose to attend school here.

Next on the agenda was FOOD.  Our campus tour guide recommended a Mexican place right over the bridge in Hancock, and we had to check it out.  I mean computers are great and all, but Mexican food is really the way to Owen's heart.

After inhaling wayyyy too much food, we hit the road.  Jason had reserved us a room in one of his favorite spots to stay the night when he's touring the UP via snowmobile.  Before it got dark, we found a spot to trudge through some deep snow and check out the frozen Keweenaw Bay. 

Then we headed toward Marquette.  The daylight was fading but a sound was increasing.  What was that noise?  Jason asked if I could hear it. Yes, sometimes.  Maybe it's just ice rubbing.  As we came into Marquette and navigated a zillion round-a-bouts, we could hear a not-so-quiet noise coming from somewhere.  Uh oh.  We pulled into a Target parking lot to check things out.  What was that noise?  Forward, backward.  Forward, backward.  Jason got out and I drove.  Forward, backward.  He was searching everywhere but couldn't pinpoint the problem.  We decided it had something to do with our back left tire.  For some reason, Jason remembered that there was a Discount Tire in Marquette.  I quickly googled the location.  .3 miles away and they closed at 6pm.  It was 5:56pm.  And GO!  We hurriedly pulled back out onto the main road and found our way to the tire shop.  There was someone inside!  Jason ran in and explained our situation.  The man came out, checked out our vehicle and then asked us to pull around.  Upon further inspection, it was found that the lugnuts had come loose and our tire was literally about to come off.  

How did this happen, you ask?  Well.  Let's rewind to the previous weekend.  Jason had cut down some trees on our property and instead of taking the tractor to gather them, he decided to take my truck.  The day after that, I was driving and a brake alarm came on on my dashboard.  Apparently I was low on brake fluid.  Easy fix, right?  So with my brake fluid topped off, the next day I drove Emerson and her boyfriend an hour away to go dress shopping for the upcoming school dance.  And there was my brake alarm going off again!  Thankfully, Alex knows about cars and we were able to find an auto parts store and get brake fluid and fill up the tank again.  When I had made it back home, I pulled into the garage so Jason could check things out.  Promptly, the remainder of my brake fluid spread across the garage floor.  Jason had damaged the brake line picking up the wood from the back property.  To fix it, he had to take off my back left tire.  I don't know if you know this, but when you put tires on your car and tighten everything up, you're supposed to re-tighten them in 50 miles or so to make sure they're on there appropriately.  Well, that part got skipped.  AND THEN OUR TIRE ALMOST CAME OFF.  

The service man had us pull the truck into a bay and while we waited in the warmth of the lobby, had made sure the tire was on there securely and that we hadn't caused any damage to the tire or any other parts of the truck.  

I really have to give a huge thank you to the staff at Discount Tire in Marquette for staying open late on a Friday night and charging us zero dollars to fix our mistake.

Now that the truck was back in tip-top shape, we headed off along the Lake Superior shoreline, west to Big Bay.  The drive was dark and quiet, and I think we only saw one other car on the road.  I was so thankful we had taken care of the tire issue before we were on this remote stretch of road!

We pulled into the Thunder Bay Inn at 7pm that Friday and were surprised to find we had booked the only reservation of the night.  A little bit of backstory on this hotel: "The Thunder Bay Inn was built in 1909 and housed a barber shop, bank, stores and the mill warehouse. In the '40's, Henry Ford purchased and renovated the building into an executive retreat.  The film "Anatomy of a Murder" was filmed here in the '50's."

We were warmly greeted by a staff member who gave us a quick tour of this historic hotel.  Guest rooms are located on the second floor and outfitted with period items. Our room was a suite with a queen and single bed, a sink for each side and a small shower and toilet closet.  There are also community bathrooms in the hallway, and every room is different-much like staying at someone's home!

After settling in, we wandered down to the bar/restaurant, which was filled locals.  Owen, of course, got a Shirley Temple and after some light snacks we all shared a piece of lemon berry mascarpone cake which was sooooo good.

After dinner we decided to check out the lounging area.  This room was filled with artifacts from the hotel and from when the movie was filmed here, and there was so much to take in.  I, of course, was drawn to the piano, and the owners actually recorded me playing and posted it on their Facebook page!

And then, much to my delight, the owner met us to give us a behind the scenes tour of the building.  Although not all in working order, many original items from the Inn still remain there, and the owner has big plans to renovate and restore this place to even more than its original glory.  Of particular note, was the 36 inch thick walls of the stone foundation and full basement under the entire building.  

Before bed, we lounged by the enormous fireplace while Owen entertained us on his kalimba.  He has really become quite musical since the pandemic began, also teaching himself how to play the piano!

Our room was slightly chilly, and we found it a little eerie to be the only residents on this floor of the hotel, but we still had lots of fun.  Owen decided to see if this lounge chair might be more comfortable than his twin bed.  I don't think he fit!

We met the owner back in the restaurant for coffee and hot chocolate in the morning.  Just to the west of this hotel is 800 acres of private land with private membership for some very prominent families of old money in our state.  We were tempted to borrow the offered snowshoes and explore the property owned by the innkeeper, but we had big plans for this day!  We said farewell with promises of returning soon for another visit.

We stopped to grab some breakfast sandwiches to-go from the local gas station/cafe and then we were off!  We had decided to climb to the top of Sugarloaf Mountain.  I had done this in the summer during the Marquette 50k, and I was excited to see it in wintertime.  The morning was still quite chilly-just a couple degrees above zero-but we were layered up and ready to rock.

The first section of trail took us along Lake Superior and I was a little nervous as it was quite cold.  I knew as we went up in elevation it would be even colder.  Soon the trail turned away from the lake and we started heading up.  We were starting to warm up a bit now and we were all in good spirits.

We came to a split in the trail, and followed the signs to Sugarloaf.  Here is where we really started to climb, and get very warm.  It wasn't a super difficult climb, but Owen was grumbling a bit and we were all starting to slightly overheat.  As we headed up further, the trail turned much rockier.  I knew we were getting close. 

I was really glad we were all wearing crampons over our shoes.  This trail would've been very difficult to navigate without them.  Soon we were above the treeline and it was immediately so windy and sooooo cold.  We zipped up our jackets and pulled up our neck gaitors and kept on trucking.

And then we were there!  After mildly complaining for the last few minutes, when Owen finally got to the summit and took in the amazing views, he said it was all worth it.  

Despite it being an overcast day, visibility was quite good.  We could see the world below in every direction, as well as several other high points in the area.  This climb did not disappoint!

We headed carefully back down the mountain and were thankful to get below the treeline.  We did have to navigate a couple snow-covered staircases, and Owen decided to treat them like a slide, squealing the entire way down as we laughed!

We made quick work of the downhill hike, our reward for the more strenuous uphill climb to get to the top. 

Once we got back along Lake Superior, we had to take a closer look.  The last time I had been in the spot, I had been halfway through my race and had snuck down amidst the rocks to splash the cold lake water on my face and arms.  Today, though, the shoreline was a frozen tundra, with icy waves crashing against huge walls of frozen snow and ice.

Once back to the car, we stripped down a little to cool off.  We had a bit of a drive before our next destination.  We had planned to explore the Eben Ice Caves, but our timing wasn't ideal.  We arrived midday to the spot and there were no less than 50 cars parked in the lot and along the road, with a steady line of traffic following us in.  We decided this wasn't the place for us today, and hit the road again.  

We headed to Kitch-iti-kipi, located near Manistique, Michigan.  Surprisingly, we were the only visitors at this time.  We had stopped here in the summer and opted to not wait in the two hour line for a raft ride.  Today, though, we had the raft to ourselves.

Kitch-iti-kipi is fed by  natural spring.  The 45 foot deep "pool" is a constant 45 degrees year round. The beautiful green water was even more beautiful in the wintertime than in summer!

Jason was a good sport and "drove" us out across the pool with all of his might.

It was pretty cool to look down through that green water and see the huge trout way down below!

It was just a quick little stop, but Kitch-iti-kipi is great little place to check out on your explorations through the Upper Peninsula!

We had one more stop to make before heading for home: PASTIES.  Heading east towards St. Ignace, the weather became increasingly bad.  Snow and wind made the road quite treacherous.  I may have told Jason to slow down once or twice...

Finally, we arrived in St. Ignace.  No fancy restaurant for us-we headed for the truck stop.  Jason informed me that I needed to order a pasty and fries, smothered in gravy.  It did not disappoint.

After sufficiently stuffing ourselves, it was time to hit the bridge.  There was a high wind advisory posted and we definitely took our time getting over the Mackinaw Bridge.  As we crossed, we could see the slight break in the ice were large boats were still occasionally passing through.

The snowstorm that had hit northern Michigan that morning kept sticking around, and our drive from the bridge to Gaylord was slow and sketchy, with snow-covered roads and high winds blowing us around.  Actually, the right lane of the freeway was pure ice, so we opted to travel in the snow-covered left lane.  Ugh.  As we approached Gaylord, we were forced off the freeway.  Police had closed the road for a stretch due to the number of accidents in that area.  Since we'd be driving right by the cabin now, we stopped in to check out the new snowfall.  I just love seeing everything covered with a fresh coating of snow! There had been enough snowfall that you couldn't tell we had just been there the previous morning!

The weather continued to be awful the entire trip home, which wasn't even in the weather forecast, but we all know that's how it goes here in Michigan.  We sure were thankful when we finally pulled into our driveway and saw the four smiling faces of the rest of the kids!

Somewhere along the way, Owen decided there would be no need to visit Eastern Michigan University.  I am pleased and excited to announce that he has chosen to attend Michigan Tech next fall!  I think this is a great choice for Owen and I am so proud of all of his hard work in getting to this point.  Say hello to a new Husky!