Just Another Day in the U.P.

Saturday was epic. For lunch, an Upper Peninsula favorite: the pasty (pass-tee). A crusty pastry pocket filled with beef, potatoes, onions, and rhudabega, local miners used to take this with them to the work site.


This was followed by a trip to Walmart to buy groceries (as per the usual). Then the ladies of M4 headed into town to explore. We tried out a local coffee shop and perused some souvenir stores, where I debated purchasing this magnet:


Then we passed a Cajun food restaurant. Being that I am mildly obsessed with crawfish, Hillary and I headed back later that night to make our dreams come true. After a delicious meal, we took a stroll over to the visiting tall ships.


Still up for an adventure, we decided to check out a lighthouse. From afar it looked as though we could just drive the van down the jetty to it. As we got closer I realized that you actually have to park your vehicle, traverse a narrow cement walkway, then climb through a ridiculously long stretch of treacherous boulders to reach the lighthouse. For real, people.


It looked unsafe, but Hillary and I gave it a try, our initial logic being that it couldn't be that dangerous if there were no warning signs. As we got farther out, the real panic set in for me. Hillary seemed to be pretty comfortable other than her fear that the Coast Guard would come out and yell at us. I'd describe my state of mind as sustained terror.


I was wearing flip flops (not great for traction) and yelling a lot of concerned phrases like, "Holy Hell," and "Please don't die!" We were about to turn back halfway, when a 12-year-old kid ran up out of nowhere, bounding over the rocks. His family followed, and let me tell you, they were some serious Yoopers (U.P. locals). We asked the kid's dad, "Are we allowed to be out here?" and he responded "This is the U.S.A. you can do whatever you want, eh!" It was at this point, trying to race after them so we didn't look like lame tourists, that I knelt down too far on a rock and scratched the sunglasses I had just purchased 3 hours earlier. Obsessing over this helped to get my mind off the fact that I could slip to my death in the coldest, deepest lake in the U.S. at any moment. When we eventually got to the the lighthouse, we had to climb up a sketchy ladder to get to the platform and this 8-year-old kid behind me made it look like the easiest thing he had ever done.


Then of course there was the walk back, which was equally frightening. Afterwards, in the van on our way to Walmart to look for eyeglass scratch remover, my heart was pounding a mile a minute. This was definitely scarier than cliff diving and I don't plan to do it again any time soon. Made for a great photo op though!