UP.

If you read that title as the word "up" then you are a regular person.

If you read it as the letters "U" and "P", you most likely are a Michigander.

A few weeks ago I saw the word "up" in a headline and read it as "U" "P".

It was a rite of passage.

When we arrived in Michigan, we made a "Michigan Bucket List", listing all the things we wanted to do in our 4-ish years here. Also around the time we arrived in Michigan, we looked at the schooling that awaited us and I decided we would go on a little kidless getaway after Chris finished comps. Then we had two more kids and I REALLY decided we'd go on a getaway after he finished comps. And voila . . . three years later here we are. 

We had been planning on going to downtown Chicago for our trip, but my Penguins made it to the Eastern Conference finals and we made a new plan to go to Pittsburgh and watch games 6 and 7 on the outdoor big screen and soak up the atmosphere. I was SO excited. Alas, the Pens got swept in 4 games, so we reverted to our Chicago plan B. But thanks to the Chicago Blackhawks also being in the NHL playoffs, there were literally no (affordable) hotels available. Not to mention the city would have been more expensive and complicated than we were totally thrilled with. So with a few days to go, we reevaluated, and went back to our bucket list. The Upper Peninsula stuck out to me, and as it was 6 hours away, we figured it was something that would be hard with kids. A few conversations and advice from native Michigander friends . . . and we had a vacation.

Fact: Six hours in a car with no kids is WAY BETTER than two hours with kids.

We had a beautiful drive north through the Mitten and crossed Mackinaw Bridge to the UP.

We headed to the north side of the UP on Lake Superior. Our first item of business was a sight-seeing cruise to see Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. I was prepared for a slight chill, but it was freezing and rainy. It worked to our advantage though, because the rain chased some people below deck so when the sun came out shortly after, we had moved into prime seats. I didn't even know Pictured Rocks existed until a friend mentioned it at church a few days before. I'm really glad she did. It was incredibly gorgeous. And our "three hour tour" (literally . . . it was three hours) was amazing. Our tour guide Leo totally made the experience, filling the hours with interesting facts and truly awful jokes. My favorite fact: at 100 feet down, Lake Superior is the same cold temperature year around. Since it is so cold, when a ship sinks (as ships have several times in the past) the cold water preserves the bodies. Since the bodies don't decay, they are never light enough to float to the surface. Therefore, Superior is known for "never giving up her dead", or as Leo said, "When you go down, you stay down." Isn't that totally cheery?

And now I'm going to bore you with scenic pictures from my big camera. The water was such an amazing color. I wish I could really capture the beauty. But of course, this doesn't come close.

The Grand Portal was good to us.

After our cruise we hopped back in the car another hour east along the Lake Superior shore to the town of Marquette, where we stayed the remainder of the time. We frequented Donckers, a chocolate, soda, and candy shop. We spent entirely too much money on chocolate, but I'm not even mad about it. We also ate at Aubree's, a pizza and sub place that had a ton of GF options. I wish we would have gone there 5 times.

The evening of our arrival was so foggy. Our hotel was right on the lake, and you couldn't see anything out the back windows. We went to Donkers that evening and the girl working informed us that was not the norm. The next morning we woke up to an incredibly beautiful view. Our one full day was warm and sunny and we could have not ordered something more perfect.

There was a massive structure behind our hotel, and after some research we learned it was a no-longer-functioning ore dock. I initially found it a bit too industrial, but by the time we were set to leave it had a special place in my heart and I thought it was pretty dang beautiful.

The nice thing about not having kids on a vacation is you can go go go without catering to naps or moods or meals or snacks. So our full day was packed with about 3 days worth of activities. A whole week of activities if we had our kids.

It started with a hike to see some waterfalls. It was way shorter than expected, but it was fun to find the falls. But it happened to be some sort of breeding ground for mosquitoes, especially thanks to the hot day. We only had a few minutes to enjoy the views before we were forced to retreat.

Next we headed back to town and rented two 21-speed bikes. We biked 5 miles up the trail on the lake shore from our hotel to Presque Isle. At the risk of repeating myself, it was so beautiful. You can see a new functioning ore dock from the Isle, and we watched a ship move out from it. Then we headed up the hill to more incredible views and aqua blue water. Then we journeyed the 5 miles back. It was quite the work out but so much fun. I love biking and we just don't get to very much right now. It was the perfect morning. We headed back to the hotel totally exhausted.

After power naps and getting cleaned up, we headed out on the "town", checking out the local bookstore, a little Michigan themed shop (ornament time, of course!), getting more Donkers chocolate, and enjoying a barbecue dinner.

Then it was back to the hotel to change into comfy clothes. During our bike ride we scoped out a place to watch the sunset and watch the stars come out. We walked along the shore toward McCarty Cove, and found some big black rocks to sit on. And there we sat, for two hours watching the sunset and eating Donkers chocolate and talking. I mean talking. There is a lot of organization, planning, chit chat, and discussion that goes on as we run this crazy family of ours, but real talking often falls to the wayside. This was one of the best conversations I have ever had with my husband. In all the fun we had on our trip, that two hours with the sunset to our left, the lake to our right, and the little red lighthouse blinking behind us . . . that was unanimously voted the best part of the trip.

We checked my phone to find it was nearly 11 o'clock.

And the sun had still not completely set. 

A hazard of being so far north we had not considered.

Public parking ended at 11, so our stargazing wasn't in the cards.

But that was perfectly ok.

We slept in the next morning and packed up to make the trek home.

Our trip was just the right medicine. As I gathered stuff in the hotel, I thought about Chicago and Pittsburgh and what those trips would have been like. They would have been lots of fun, but they would have been noisy, busy, and hectic. We have a lot of noise in our life, a lot of busyness. And while I don't think Heavenly Father micromanages every second of our lives, I do know He places blessings and opportunities before us, and I think this trip was exactly that.

We needed quiet. We needed peace. We needed to see the beauty of the world and we needed to be reminded that life can be simple, that life should be simple. We needed to reconnect. We needed to explore together. We needed to talk.

As far as trips go, this was an absolutely perfect one.

Thank you, Superior.

You'll always have a special place in my heart.