Marquette and the Upper Peninsula

Over the summer my partner and I went on a short trip up to the upper peninsula of Michigan. We drove up to Marquette first, and spent most of our time there. There were a surprising number of good restaurants and breweries to check out!

One of the highlights was the bookstore, Snowbound Books. It has used books and new ones! Despite the fac that the store is tiny, the shelves everywhere pack in a lot of product. There’s also a really cool spice and tea store, Spice Merchants. They have these lovely packs of pre-mixed soup spices that we grabbed a bunch of. And there’s a bagel place! With decent bagels! Incredible.

The best part, to me, was the couple of hikes that we went on. First was Echo Lake and then Presque Isle. Both are gorgeous, with lovely views of nature. At Echo Lake we even found wild blueberries! Presque Isle also has Black Rocks, which are these rocks that people jump off of into the water. We didn’t do it, it was freezing and windy the day we went, but it’ll be fun to do later.

We also took a short trip to Negaunee as well. Not as much there, but we found some caving grounds from old mine shafts and got pasties! It is interesting seeing how the town is incorporating mining and its history into how it attracts tourists.

Finally on the way back we went to Mackinaw Island. I had never been before, but my partner used to go every summer so nothing new for him. It was cool, I love a walkable city and this whole island doesn’t allow cars! If you want to see the whole thing you have to rent a bike or a horse. Having said that though, it does feel a little like Disneyland, with how cute and clean it is. Most of the shops are within a few blocks of the harbor and are crowded as a result. Beyond that there’s the fort (which we didn’t go to) and the Grand Hotel which is huge and fancy and all that. So really our visit only took a couple hours, but it was fun for that period of time. Any longer would not have been worth it.

All in all, I thought it was a good visit. We got to see nature, I got to see where my partner grew up, and we had a sprinkling of history and tourist sites throughout. Next time we go up I really want to check out Pictured Rocks so maybe we will make a dedicated trip.