Color Tour

I don't wanna go back to work!!!

I know, quitcherbitchin'. After a whole week off you would think I'd be ready to go back and face reality, but...I'm not.

We had such a great weekend up north, that's what makes it so hard. We got going around 9am Friday morning (our usual 30 to 60 minutes later than what we plan whenever we leave on a trip) and before we even got to mom's in Saginaw, we were already seeing brilliant colors on either side of I-75. I had to sign some papers again for mom. My signature along with Scott's needed to be notarized, so the first time we'd done this, it wasn't valid. It meant a quick trip to the bank, but it was really no big deal. We visited a while and I left mom and Ron the lefover fritatta from last week. I didn't think it would survive a weekend in the fridge or freeze very well.

We hit the road again, and saw some of the best color around the Gaylord area. Lots of maples in that area, as well as aspens. It had started sprinkling already in Saginaw, but the rain held off until we were nearly into the upper peninsula. We crossed the Bridge, and lunch was awaiting us at Lehto's, one of the many shops and stands where you can get that quintessential UP treat, the pasty. Tim had read about this little place in 'Michigan Off the Beaten Path' by Jim DuFresne, so out of all the pasty places on highway 2, we knew where to go. Not fancy by any means, but were they ever good, hot out of the oven and eaten in the car at a roadside park, watching the rain come down over a gray Lake Michigan. I must make these sometime this winter.

We took a detour through De Tour village *G*. Lots and lots of land for sale that way, along the Lake Huron shoreline. Not sure what's up with that, but from the one information sheet we managed to find in a box by a real estate sign, the prices aren't cheap. Every time we go up north, we talk about the possiblity of buying some lakefront property, but we probably missed the boat on that. Prices have skyrocketed in the last few years. But we didn't have any extra money back in the early 90's to blow on something like vacation property. Like we do now, but we are in better financial shape these days.

Lots of color along 134, and the back roads headed north toward Kinross. Sugar maples everywhere. By this time it was raining almost non-stop, so we wanted to find our cabin ASAP. It was quite lovely to pass all the prison facilities in Kinross (that's pretty much all the area is known for, other than the Chippewa International Airport), but we found the cabins (Countrywood Cabins )right on the main road and checked in without any problem . The place was pretty small, but we really didn't spend much time there over the weekend. Plus it had that funky, up north cabinny smell, which is not necessarily a bad thing. We found a local directory for restaurants (not many), and it had a menu for a place back up the road called the Malamute Saloon. We wouldn't have given this place a second look because it looked like a smoky local hang-out (which is exactly what it was), but the whitefish chowder sounded tempting. We probably were the only tourists in the place, but the chowdah was quite delicious.

Then it was time to head up to my old college ( Lake Superior State University ) to take in the hockey game. I've never been to a professional hockey game, but I've seen many, many third periods of college games. So this was quite a first: actually paying for tickets and watching the entire game, start to finish. Back in my poor college days, I and my friends would wait until third period when you could get in for free. This gave us time to drink plenty of beer, and we could still see the final outcome of the game. Listening to the band and sitting in the stands in the ice-chilled air and smelling all that concession stand food brought back a lot of memories. They still even sold the giant chocolate chip cookies the size of frisbees. I used to make and wrap them when I worked for the school bakery. I watched with amused fascination as a trim 20-something proceeded to devour one of these in less than 10 minutes. Oh, to have a metabolism like that...!

Anyway the game was something of a joke. The Lakers beat Toronto University 15 to 1. But it was still fun to watch and get into the excitement of the crowd. We had great seats, not right up against the wall, but still close enough to see the lower back tattoo on one of Toronto's players.

The next day, we left our cabin around 10am after a leisurely breakfast of smoked whitefish on bagels with cream cheese and green onions, along with some Alesmith Yule Ale. Smoked fish is usually another 'must have' item whenever we go to the upper peninsula. We drove north in the rain over the International Bridge and headed up Great Northern Highway (17) out of Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. I don't think Tim and I have never seen colors as brilliant as what we saw Saturday. Pale golds, deep scarlet shading to hot pink, and every possible shade of gold and orange in between. We saw the best colors as we were speeding along the highway, with no possible way to safely pull off and take pics. There is really a terrible shortage of scenic turnouts along this highway, and that's unfortunate. And the road shoulders are narrow, and usually right next to a steep dropoff. It was one spectacular view after another, with the best being a combination of maples and green pine trees. The contrast was like a beautiful bouquet of flowers.

We found a place where a rocky beach formed a tiny bay close to the highway, and saw several other cars pulled off on the shoulder. We pulled off too, and scrambled out of the car and ran across the highway like excited kids. I've only been on the ocean shore a few times, and if I hadn't known this was a large freshwater lake, I would have sworn this was the ocean. The waves were that big. They curled over just like in those cheap oil paintings, complete with white foaming caps and aqua tint underneath. And the spray when they hit a small bluff must have shot 30 feet into the air. The whole beach was made up of multicolored granite cobbles, so how could we resist picking a few up? It was raining and blowing again, so we were getting a little damp, but when a wave almost caught us off guard, we nearly got soaked. We both backpedaled and ended up falling on our asses and laughing like loons.

We drove for a few hours, stopping here and there, wherever we could. Naturally the best views were impossible to photograph. The whole area is unpopulated and unspoiled. Once you get north of the Soo, there really isn't a big population center until you hit Wawa. And nothing to really support a lot of jobs in that whole stretch. In the states, there would be cottages and cabins built on every available bit of shoreline, but there you see no such thing. It was a nice, refreshing sight.

We turned around somewhere north of Montreal River Harbour and returned to the Soo. We stopped to get a couple of cans of beer Tim couldn't get on the US side, and some of Cadbury and Nestle's chocolate products that don't get marketed on this side of the border either. If anything, it was raining and blowing even harder by now. Odd, considering the forecast predicted all this stuff was supposed to blow out by this time.

After a long line at the border and the usual surly US customs booth officers, we decided to have an early dinner at the Antlers restaurant . It's an oddball local place, and a tradition to eat there every time we are in the Soo. Much green beer was consumed there on St. Patrick's Day parties back in college. The burgers are always great, but we couldn't say no to the broiled whitefish.

That evening, we had tickets to another oddball local thing, a musical/comedy group called Da Yoopers. They were playing at the college as part of Great Lake State Weekend. I guess there's no real way to describe the humor of this group, but if you've ever spent any time at all in Michigan, especially upper Michigan, or southern Canada, you'll understand. I knew they sang songs about deer camp and compulsive fishing habits, but they really have some ribald songs in their repertoire. Quite an interesting show.

The next morning, we decided to drive a little more along the St. Mary's River and see if we could catch any more colors. We finally headed south late in the morning, and enjoyed the spectacular colors along I-75 in the eastern UP. We wanted to visit Mackinac Island one more time this year. The weather was by now clear and sunny, so I needed to pick up some sunscreen from Rite-Aid. I forgot to pack some at home. Well, who'da thunk I would have needed it, with the weather the way it was the two days before?? We boarded the noon ferry, using coupons we'd gotten from our May visit. One of our purposes for going all the way over to the island was to use up a restaurant gift certificate we'd bid on from Restaurants.com . We'd forgotten it in May.

We did a little walking, and I do mean a little. Normally we'd have walked the whole 8 mile road around the island, but Tim is having some persistent, painful ingrown toenail problems right now. I'm sure he'll thank me for sharing that, as will everyone who reads this, too. Anyway, it kept us from really walking far, but we managed to get 2 miles out and back. We did a little shopping at the many gift and junk shops, and found our restaurant, the Village Inn. We were told by the hostess and a manager that in order to use the $25 voucher, we would need to spend a minimum of $35. Nowhere on the voucher does it state that condition, and we never had to abide by that rule when using these before. Now we intended to have ourselves a very nice lunch, but even accounting for the island's inflated prices, $35 would buy you a VERY nice lunch. After some half-hearted debate with the staff which got us nowhere, we decided to stay. After my $17 salad (yes, a frigging $17 salad...but it was gourmet baby greens topped with a sliced Angus steak *G*), Tim's bacon burger, fries, soup for each of us, a beer for each of us, we were $2 short of our required amount. So, we found room for a brownie sundae. And I seriously considered swiping the pint glass, but thought the better of it. I guess will keep these new spending requirements in mind if we bid on any more restaurant certificates. We never would have spent that much or eaten that much otherwise. Really *G*!

So then we waddled through some more shops and decided we really didn't need any fudge for the ferry ride back to Mackinac City. The day had turned completely cloudless by now, and we got treated to the usual awesome view of the Mackinaw Bridge on the way back across the straits. It was 430 pm by the time we got in the car and turned for home. I was surprised at how many tourists and fudgies were on the island, and still headed over when we left. This is the tail end of tourist season there. Today the ferry schedule cuts back drastically, and a lot of the inns, B&B's and other businesses close for the year soon. But there are still a lot of conventions that are held there, and who could blame people for taking advantage of a sunny October Sunday to enjoy the island.

No great color pics on the way home. The slanting late afternoon sunlight just didn't quite look right on the leaves, and of course the best trees were seen as we hurtled by at 80mph. Then it got dark, so that was it. We got home at 9pm that night, and noticed a half inch of rain in the rain gauge, so we must have had much the same weather here at home. Even after being gone two days, we can notice a lot more color on the trees behind our property, and the small ones in the yard. I think this week is going to see the end of the flower boxes and hanging baskets. It's just getting too cold for them now, and I'm thinking some pumpkins would look nicer on the porch now (mmmm, pumpkin soup later, Astara!), or a mum, or something more appropriate for the season.