Around the Corner and into Michigan

I have to tell all friends who travel about the restaurant where we ate on Monday night.  If you are headed to Duluth, you really should check this place out.  It is called Scenic Cafe and is about 11 miles west of Downtown Duluth on North Shore Drive.  We had the special appetizer - figs simmered in maple butter with walnuts and blue cheese.  I could have ordered a second round of that for my dinner - it was sensational.  Then I ordered a salad of freekeh, haloumi and heirloom tomatoes.  It was delicious and light.  I was full but not stuffed - a perfect meal.  Really, if you are going to Duluth, stop there for a meal or a glass of wine and an appetizer! 

We left Duluth heading south and then east into Wisconsin.  Superior WI is the "twin harbor" of Duluth.  The road we took showed us a very industrial side of Superior.  We drove through a tiny corner of Wisconsin and then into Michigan at Ironwood.  I was feeling sad because it was very cloudy and rainy and cold.  I wanted to stop in the Presque Isle campground of the Porcupine Mountains State Park to take pictures of the rapids and falls there.  When we arrived, the rain stopped and it started to clear a bit.  We headed down the trail that told us the falls were 100 yards away.  Not exactly.  The 100 yards took us to the boardwalk and dozens of steps up and down to various overlooks of the falls and rapids.  I walked both ways to get as many good shots as possible.  It was nice to see the falls and the rapids and the river out to Lake Superior.  There were several other folks walking and taking pictures, but it was not jammed.  We also drove through the campground where I noticed that there is a small "generator use" area and a much larger "no generators" area.  It made me glad that we have a solar battery instead of a generator for our trailer.

 Presque Isle Falls

 Flowing through the rapids

 and out to Lake Superior

 We followed the Boundary Road through the park and out the other side near Ontonagon.  When we began our trip we were not sure exactly when we would reach Michigan, so I did not make any reservations.  I figured it was after Labor Day so we may be able to find rooms in the various small motels along the way.  We passed three small motels and noticed that all had vacancies.  We stopped for gasoline and turned back to the one motel that was right on Lake Superior - Superior Shores.  We took a cottage room for the night for a really reasonable price.  It had a stove and refrigerator and kitchen with all the utensils I needed to cook a meal!  Our next stop was the grocery store.  It was great to have a home-cooked meal complete with vegetables.

The thing we loved most about Superior Shores was that we were right on the water - and it was wild!  We had seen so many parts of Lake Superior that were in quiet harbors and had not yet seen a stormy lake.  That all changed on Tuesday.  It had been rainy and windy off and on all day and this section of the lake is very open.  The waves were huge and crashing onto the rocky shore.  The lake was our "white noise" at night and we slept soundly.

Loud winds and pounding waves from the Lake

Wednesday morning we fixed our own breakfast and headed off to Copper Harbor after a stop at the post office to mail Emily a birthday card.  Ontonagon has a cute little post office with a very nice post mistress.  Cities are fine, but I really like small towns.

We wanted to stop in Houghton to check out the A. E. Seaman Mineral Museum - what a great place.  It is part of the university (Michigan Tech) and has an incredible collection of minerals from around the world, but especially from Michigan.  The information about copper and iron mining (and the Detroit salt mines) was fascinating and the samples of copper were stunning.  If I didn't care about copper and silver, I could spend all my time looking at the crystal samples and the gems.  I realized how woefully ignorant I am about geology and the uses of the various minerals and mineral salts.  One of my favorite displays was the flourescent mineral display.  There are several cases of rocks and the lights go out while the narrator tells you about the flourescent properties of the rocks and highlights each display.  At the end of the presentation, you can study the glowing rocks until the lights come back on and they return to their normal appearance.

 This sample wouldn't fit in the car





We left Houghton and wound our way up to Copper Harbor taking the Brockway Mountain Drive and getting some pictures of the surrounding area from that very high vantage point.  We were once again able to find a room at a small motel.  We also found a new brewery in town and had a beer and a fun conversation with a guy from Indiana who is camping at Fort Wilkins.  The lake is still riled up and we are expecting more rain and wind for the next few days.