UP Adventures

Yikes, where did June go? Life got super busy, this kept getting pushed to my back burner, and now I'm madly scrambling to keep our streak of two posts a month alive. 

The humans recently took a whirlwind roadtrip to Michigan's Upper Peninsula, so this is basically going to be a photo dump with minimal explanations. It's kind of cheating, I know, but I plan to come back and flush it out when we finally have some downtime this holiday weekend.

Day 1: evening drive to the top of Michigan's Lower Peninsula

the car rental place was all out of SUVs, so this was their chariot for the trip, a Jeep Wrangler

they passed lots of interesting scenery before night fell, including multiple Christmas tree farms. =)

Mom's bed for the first night at a cozy Airbnb.

Day 2: St. Ignace and Marquette

On the fam's last UP trip, they only made it as far as Munising. This time, they were determined to explore farther west and north!

the rental by the light of day

Wawatam Lighthouse in St. Ignace

It may look picturesque, but clouds of mosquitos and gnats descended the moment they approached the pier, killing the mood. Needless to say, they did not linger. 

Fortunately, this was the worst of the bugs the entire trip, and the next stop was a museum.

Quillwork masterpieces on display in the Museum of Ojibwa Culture

a Jingle Dress

The story behind these is worth looking up if you aren't already familiar with it.

sampling of the sculpture garden outside the museum

Lake Michigan views

they knew they were in the UP now

The fam had pretty much perfect weather on this trip: 60's and usually a breeze, which helped with bugs. Our aunt, fearless driver of the Jeep that day, drove the narrow, unpaved, sometimes high incline road to the top of Mt. Marquette. We're not entirely sure full-sized motor vehicles are allowed on it, but they saw no signs against it, and hardly anybody was around. It saved them a lot of time and arduous uphill walking. 

The view from Mt. Marquette. That's the city of Marquette and Lake Superior off in the distance.

Next stop: a far more pleasant lighthouse visit. 

Presque Isle Harbor Lighthouse

They only walked out as far as the smooth cement slab went: even though Lake Superior was quite calm that day, climbing on potentially slippery, unstable boulders seemed like a bad idea.

Back on the beach, they enjoyed skipping rocks, building cairns, and (in Mom's case) just enjoying the wide variety of pretty rocks

these top ten made the cut and came home with Mom

Their next activity, a hike up scenic Sugarloaf Mountain, had to be done on foot. Our Aunt's fiancé found everybody suitable walking sticks for this endeavor, which Mom says did help on uneven ground.

the view from the top

It was worth the hike!

The final touristy stop of the day was to another lighthouse, which was perched impressively on a hill. Sadly, by the time they arrived, tours were over for the day. 

Marquette Harbor Lighthouse

Mom's bed in Marquette. Sketchy hotel, but she slept great! 

Alas, the pool was out of order.

Day 3: Heading West

On this day, they made it just about as far west in Michigan as you can go... and even briefly crossed over into Wisconsin. Fun fact: the four far west counties of the UP have chosen to be on central time to be in sync with neighboring Wisconsin. The rest of Michigan observes eastern time.

The fam conveniently arrived at this old lighthouse just as tours were opening for the day.

Ontonagon Lighthouse

the views were shrouded in mist

they toured the inside, which was restored to look like it would've in its heyday

On to the Porcupine Mountains!

First stop: the visitors' center, where they saw the only bears of the trip: two stuffed ones. 

(We don't want to know how either one passed. So sad!)

They drove on and made their way to the Lake of the Clouds overlook. 

so much forest!

the main attraction: Lake of the Clouds. Aptly named, right? There were a few fishing paddle boarders putting a little damper on the untouched wilderness vibe, but some majestic gliding birds of prey made up for it.

Next stop: Summit Peak. This one involved a hike and lots of stairs.

the trail ended in a tower to climb

360 degrees of green and blue beauty from the top made it worth every step

Their final stop in the state park: a trail with lots of boardwalk portions along the Presque Isle River, and a good look at some picturesque little waterfalls and rapids

Manabezho Falls

They kept heading west after that to Ironwood, where the restaurant they'd picked out ahead of time turned out to be just a food truck. 

great food, cute pig, and home of the classiest port-a-potty Mom has ever been in

Also in Ironwood: the world's tallest Native American statue, the 52-foot Hiawatha.

it's not historically accurate (wrong garb for Hiawatha, and Hiawatha/the Iroquois did not inhabit the UP), but it is impressively huge!

On the way back east to Marquette, to the same sketchy hotel, they tried to stop at 3 different waterfalls. They couldn't find Root Beer Falls, the trail to Agate Falls was closed, and they almost gave up on finding the third, Bond Falls, because their GPS lead them to someone's house, definitely NOT waterfalls.

they persevered and made it to Bond Falls before sundown. 

This late, they had it pretty much all to themselves

Day 4: Going Up

the Jeep really got a workout again!

It was too chilly for swimming (Lake Superior was in the 50's, and air temp was in the 60's), but they started their morning with a short stop at a beach. 

Squaw Beach

The rocks on this one were mostly just out of reach unless you wanted to get your feet wet, which Mom did not feel inspired to do this early in the day (facing the rest of the day with gritty socks and toes? No thank you!) but she still ended up finding some cool rocks.

the first to catch her eye was the big two-tone sandstone-y one in the middle. 

They then embarked on their most exciting portion of their trip, driving to the highest point in Michigan. This was described online as a drive "not for the faint of heart." We're not talking scary precipices or insane inclines, not really. It was more that your average little sedan was definitely not going to make it, because the "trail" was really rough, confusing, and crisscrossed with lots of sketchy "water features." If they'd just followed the arrows on the physical trail signs, it probably wouldn't have been nearly as exciting, but thanks to inaccurate GPS directions, they did some serious unintentional off-roading. We're talking big rocks, big holes, branches scraping against the sides, enormous puddles, and at at least one point, driving across pretty big stream with a current running through it. Mom had visions of getting stuck for hours out there, as there was zero cell reception and no other humans around, but the Jeep really did do what you see it do in the commercials!

The Jeep after the rough ride up Mt. Arvon. Mom honestly thought it would look a lot worse. XD

at the very top of Michigan!

Technically, Michigan's mountains (be it Mt. Arvon, which is part of the Huron Mountains, or the Porkies they saw the day before) are not quite tall enough anymore to be mountains. They are super old and once were, but they've eroded down over time. Even so, they are quite impressive and make one's ears pop on the way up, so they count as mountains in our eyes.

no road noise from here, that's for sure!

The adventure continued on the trail back down - everybody cheered when the Jeep finally reached a paved road again! They then journeyed up the UP's fancy "crest," the Keweenaw Peninsula.

Sand Point Lighthouse in Baraga

In contrast to the other lighthouses they saw on their trip, this one had the feeling being sad, neglected, and slowly crumbling. The big green dumpster next to it did not help. We sure hope somebody takes an interest in preserving/restoring it!

aptly named: lots of sand in the vicinity

The final lighthouse site they visited had been turned into full-on museum. Regrettably, they didn't arrive until a half hour before it closed for the day, so they had to speed their way through. 

Eagle Harbor Lighthouse

The children's bedroom area in the lighthouse included these. =)

a tranquil Lake Superior

They drove in and out of lots of rain on their way back south, which wasn't all bad. It washed some of the mud off the Jeep and didn't interfere with any outdoor plans.

and they saw a vibrant rainbow! <3

They stayed in a much more upscale hotel room on their final night in Manistique.

the rooms themselves get an A! 

However, Mom chose not to go in the hotel pool because it involved a long walk outside in the cold, and the hot tub was out of order. She lounged on the deck with her Kindle instead. So boring, Mom!

Day 4: Kitch-iti-kipi, Petoskey, and home

back to Lake Michigan again

first look at the eerily green waters of Kitch-iti-kipi

they got to observe it from this floating platform

swirling sand and meandering fish 

Mom's overpriced but irresistible souvenir =)

Goodbye, UP

The beach at Petoskey State Park was surprisingly sandy without many rocks. Too many people were around for it to be especially picturesque, hence the lack of photo. Mom only had about 15 minutes there - the fam was eager to move on - but she lucked out and found the big Petoskey stone at the bottom of this photo in the first 5 minutes!

One last stop to refuel. A+ on the decor, Culver's!

Riding in Style

Star Stable is eager to launch into summer. Their Summer Daze Festival is already kicking off tomorrow, June 3. Before we get to all that, let's recap the end of May! Summer's great and all, but we're in no rush to leave spring behind. 

Speaking of things left behind, one evening recently, Mom arrived home, went to pull her car into the garage, and discovered this:

Despite the scariness of the garage door opening and a car rolling by, he/she did not move from this very exposed, uncomfortable spot in the landscaping rocks. Why did the mother think this was an okay spot to leave her fawn for hours? No idea. The fawn was still there when Mom checked later, but he/she was gone by morning. We hope that means the mother came back, and all is well! 

Nothing this cute has come up in Star Stable recently, but we did enjoy the debut of Style Riders Week. These two fashionistas, Daphne and Simone, hosted it out in the grassy expanse between the Pony Championship and Fort Pinta.

We neglected to take a screenshot of our official entry on Day 1: Fae Kingdom. Oops.

We'd already lost our elf ears by the time we took this screenshot, but other than that, this is what Clara and Star looked like. XD

On Day 2: Legendary Hero, we did our best to dress up Clara and Snowy as the Lone Ranger and Silver.

We were dedicated enough to buy the mask and shirt for the occasion. Not sure if we'll ever use the mask again, but the shirt's cute enough for regular-life wear.

Day 3: Magical World of Witches, was probably the easiest sub-theme, since we already had witch gear from Halloween. The hardest part was deciding on a horse. As you can see, we went with Garnet in the end.

Many players dressed like the Marchenghast witches or used the other newer witch sets, so at least Clara looked unique. 

On Day 4: The Villain of the Story, we didn't have any great inspiration so just dressed Clara like a pirate and paired that with our "scariest" horse, Kitekey. 

We weren't the only ones with the pirate idea, but we were - in our opinion - one of the better-dressed ones. XD

We made it into the top 15 in our group with all 4 entries. Good job, everybody!

Here is our entry for the finals, the Druids sub-theme:

Clara and Honey tried their best!

If all that wasn't exciting enough, another horse bazaar set up shop in Moorland this week as well!

From left to right: Solas and Dorcha, the Appaloosa, and the Irish Cob

Solas's bay pinto non-magical form

Dorcha's non-magical black pinto form

These guys are really cool, and apparently they haven't been available to purchase in over 3 years. We prefer our non-magical Irish Cob, Panda, however, so we are not especially tempted.

We are all set on the Appaloosa front too (love you, Evie!), but if we were ever to get another, it would be this one:

Whew, I'm relieved we're unanimously passing on this bazaar. Star still has a ways to go with her training. 

More Star Stable news to come soon, since Summer Daze is going to last 5 whole weeks and will no doubt be quite entertaining. 

The last thing I wanted to talk about: Mom's Breyer collection! Mom received two new riders and an Arabian horse on her birthday this year. She also had some other new, unopened horses and riders from Christmas and even gift-receiving occasions before that! It was well past time to free them from those yellow boxes.

What better way to celebrate than a ride out in the backyard?!

Some of the reins are still wonky from being all folded up in the box, and the English saddles' stirrups are too small and short to be practical for the riders. Other than that, we're loving all of it!

Now to come up with names for everybody. Oof.

After the ride, the horses had some time to roam the backyard on their own before heading to the basement to meet everybody else. <3

Aw, Breyer horses of all sizes are so beautiful! We're the biggest fans of the 1:12 scale ones like these: they take up less space and are less expensive than traditional 1:9 scale ones without being quite as fragile as the even smaller ones. It's also great that they are the same scale as Mom's Grand Champions so that they can share the tack and riders. =)

Until next time!