Michigan’s

Upper Peninsula

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A six-day family visit around Lakes Michigan and Superior.

My first time to the U.P. and Wisconsin involved a visit to picturesque Door County for wine tasting, cherry picking, squeaky cheese, mountain and marina views; plus a three-day outdoors trip to Munising to kayak Picture Rocks National Lakeshore, hike in Hiawatha National Forest, and see the ship wrecks of Lake Superior.

— August, 2020 —

Highlights

Been there, done that

And Highly Recommend!

 

Locations

  • Menominee, MI

  • Marinette, WI

  • Fish Creek / Door County, WI

  • Marquette, MI

  • Munising, MI

  • Lake Michigan, Lake Superior

  • Hiawatha National Forest

  • Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore

Attractions, Shops & More

  • Seguin’s Cheese (Menominee, MI)

  • Hide Side Corner Store (Fish Creek, WI)

  • Door County Rock & Gem (Fish Creek, Door County, WI)

  • Fish Creek Moccasin (Fish Creek, WI)

  • Menominee Marina & North Pier Lighthouse (Menominee, MI)

  • Holy Spirit Catholic Church (Menominee, MI)

  • Pictured Rocks Kayak Tour (Munising, MI)

  • HorseShoe Falls & Gift Shop (Munising, MI)

  • Glass Bottom Shipwreck Tours (Munising, MI)

Eateries

  • Jozwiak’s (Menominee, MI)

  • Door Peninsula Winery & Distillery
    (Door County, WI)

  • Hyline Orchards (Door County, WI)

  • Bayside Tavern (Fish Creek, WI)

  • Micky Lu’s (Menominee, MI)

  • Rail House (Menominee, MI)

  • EJ’s! Dine-or-Dash (Munising, MI)

  • Big Boy Burger (Marquette, MI)

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From Tree to Cobbler

Cherry Picking in Door County

In the Northeast of Wisconsin, where cheese squeaks and the beaches are free of salt or sharks, lies a peninsula called Door County. I’ve had my fill of wine tastings when my boyfriend, his parents, and I venture to a cherry orchard planted between green hills graced with flocks of black and white cows.

 

 

Pictured Rocks

Kayak Tour

We pass a series of giant pockets hewn from the side of the cliffs by ages of water erosion, creating the appearance of Swiss cheese. Water gurgles, erupts, sloshes, and spurts as waves push white bubbles in and out of the holes. The slapping surf echoes in a sound like animal-skin drums as the wave’s wax turns to wane.

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Shipwrecks of Lake Superior

Glass-Bottom Boat Tour

I lean against the railing and watch the transparent floor below me with bated breath. Bubbles settle like washing machine suds against the glass, and I tip a little on my sea legs. Veins of sunlight penetrate the turquoise deep. Then, suddenly, the curved bow of a ship slices into view: a ship directly below our own. She is drowned, frozen in a moment of tragic time, her pain preserved to indulge the morbid curiosity of my eyes.

 

Feeding Trout at Horseshoe Falls

We cross the creek on a pretty array of pedestrian bridges beneath tree branch archways, and I feel the temperature change as we leave the trickling falls. Their fresh smell lingers, and I can taste icy cold droplets in the air. As the sound of the waterfall dissipates, it is replaced by the melodic splashing of a nearby water mill. It draws us deeper into the diverse garden community, where there live sweet-smelling apple trees, paper birches, weeping willows, purple-leaved ferns, and pine trees with long draping arms that reach for the water of a pond filled with rainbow trout.

 

Day-By-Day Journal Accounts

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Up Next:

Autumn in the Hudson Valley