Hi Friends.
If you’ve never been to the midwest, I highly recommend exploring it, particularly the upper midwest region. As I mentioned the last time we went through this area, it’s simply beautiful and there’s so much to do and see. I’ve truly started to fall in the love with this region. When I lived in Chicago (which remains my favorite city in the world), I spent my time exploring all that the city had to offer and didn’t really get to explore much else. This trip has been so great for getting to travel to areas we probably wouldn’t have traveled to on a vacation as east coast residents..
Last week, the major places we explored were Madison, WI; Minneapolis, MN; and more of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan – specifically Houghton, Eagle Harbor, and Copper Harbor.
We drove to Madison from Dubuque, Iowa which isn’t too far away. I’ve been hearing good things about Madison for years, so I was really excited to check it out. When we drove in, we stopped briefly to watch a high school football game which drew in quite a crowd. After we realized PepperJack wasn’t supposed to be around there, we left to go to the University of Wisconsin Madison. It’s a beautiful city campus, right next to two lakes. We walked along a lake front path and around the city for a while, exploring. There were so many people that were out on the lake, riding their bikes, walking around, or even laying in hammocks. It was just so nice to see. Coming from Northern Virginia, at least in our experience, you didn’t see that as much. Though that could also be because we lived in a suburb, not a city. We did notice one small thing about Wisconsin that we weren’t fond of – basically the weird rules about dogs being in restaurants – even outdoor patios. We haven’t had too many issues with this before, but Michigan and Wisconsin both have weird rules about it. While it wouldn’t mattered if we lived here and were able to leave Pepper Jack at home, we don’t like leaving Pepper Jack alone in the van for long periods of time. Luckily, we were recommended The Great Dane Pub & Brewing Company by a friend and certain locations of theirs allowed dogs on the patio. We split cheese curds & a harvest bowl (basically a quinoa bowl with a bunch of veggies & added grilled chicken) and they both were absolutely delicious. In general, Wisconsin is a beautiful state and we loved getting to do a little bit of hiking and exploring. Certain parts of the state remind us of what we love about the north east.
After leaving Madison, we took a few days to head over to Minneapolis. We were excited to head to Minneapolis area because we missed out on going here earlier in the summer, when it was going to be too hot to stay in the van without air conditioning. One of our first stops was to Bald Man Brewing Company to have a beer and hang out, when we happened upon bar trivia. Bar Trivia is always fun and we haven’t done it since before the pandemic, so it was really fun to be back at it. We also walked around Lake of the Isles, a beautiful park and lake area, and took Pepper Jack to a nearby dog park to run around. We also went to another brewery that had a ton of sour beers on tap to meet up with a few of Travis’s friend’s from Magic the Gathering. They talk online a lot, so it was nice to get to meet them in person.
We ended our trip to Minneapolis with going to the George Floyd Square to see the memorial that people had made for him. A woman came up to us to explain they have meetings every night to talk about activism and ways to positively impact the community. She also directed us to a “Say Their Names” memorial a few blocks away that honor many victims of police brutality.
We left Minneapolis and started heading back to the U.P. of Michigan. Last time we were here, we only spent a few days in Marquette. This time we are planning on spending a full week. Before heading to Marquette, we decided to check out Houghton and Copper Harbor. Houghton ended up being a really cool little town right on a lake. We got some tea and walked around the area for a while, before making our way to Eagle Harbor. Travis had looked up a decent hike for us, about 6 miles long that would take us to a nice view. It was a perfect day for a hike, a little chilly and windy, but beautiful. When we reached the top – we both stopped in awe of just how beautiful it was. On one side you can see Lake Superior, on the other side was a ton of trees that just started changing colors in fall. The Upper Peninsula of Michigan has blown us away and we’re really excited to spend the next week here.
Thanks for reading.
Leece.
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