Yooper Troopers, Pt. V

 (contd.)

We woke up the morning after my birthday to a steady rain.  It gave folks the chance to sleep in a little bit following another looooong U.P. day of exploring mines, drinking beer, and checking out local crap.

Back in Houghton, later on that morning.  We didn't have much on the agenda today, just a bunch of small stuff, and most of that was out in the Baraga/L'Anse neck of the woods, a short drive down the road.  Before we got to that, though, we wanted to head back into Houghton in order to thoroughly wrap up the town.

The previous day, most of the stores and shops had been closed (the Fourth of July fell on a Sunday this year, so I guess it needed a weekday off in observance or some shit.)

I love old buildings like this where you can still see the old font along the brickwork.  Needless to say, this is not longer Miller's Department Store - now it's like five or six separate gift shops. 

Starting off our morning of shopping, the girls drug us into this typical 'Michigan' souvenir joint where you could find crap like sweatshirts that have the Great Lakes on it and in big letters it says something like 'unsalted' or 'up north,' etc. etc.  You've all seen them.  Anyway, they had a bunch of goofy-ass cotton candy flavors as well.

Gotta show both sides to keep this blog non-partisan, right?

Stopping to tie her shoes.

Flipping through Japanese manga (of course) at a comic book store.

The girls and I had to wait outside this upscale boutique (similar to that Secret Garden joint in Bay City all the women around here are obsessed with) while Kris and Rita shopped inside FOREVER.  A couple blouses and a coffee mug set later, we were allowed to resume our shopping.

Found this familiar symbol on the cornerstone (of course) of a city business building that housed like the police station and the chamber of commerce, crap like that.

Used to be the Houghton Masonic building, by the looks of things.

Sadly, this was a restaurant and not a library (we checked.)  Still, a pretty cool looking building.

We swung by the Quincy Copper Mine before leaving Houghton in order to pick up our usual Christmas Tree Ornament souvenir (we try and get one for every major vacation we go on.)  We nearly died in the process because Kris' van struggled to ascend a side street with a 45-degree (seriously) incline, and after struggling to reach the top of the street we found ourselves at a frickin' stop sign.  Not wanting to stop for fear of stalling the fan out and plummeting to our deaths, Kris gunned the van forward despite blind spots in both directions.  We nearly t-boned an old man in a sedan for our efforts, but at least we didn't die.

This is a hokey, roadside attraction located in Baraga (by what I could see the Farwell of the U.P.)

These tracks run along an old Native American trading road that's been around, I hear, for thousands of years.  Leave it to the White Man to come along, say 'nice road you got here, fellas,' and slap a giant, iron railroad line right on top of it.  'Merica.

This gift shop and visitor's center was closed.  Who knows why.

Kris is a wrong-side of the tracks sorta chick.  Again, Farwell.

Today was the old meh day we had in terms of weather - it wasn't really even raining anymore, but everything was dreary and overcast, and the ground was soaked from the morning deluge.

See?  Historical stuff.

The Bishop Baraga Shrine

Bishop Baraga, for whom the town is named after

From what I gathered off the informational placards hanging around this joint, this Baraga dude was an early priest that came to convert the Native Americans of the Peninsula, waaaay back in the day.  Might've been the first white guy up here after the explorers came through, I don't know.

Wall of donors who fund this Catholic shrine (yes, it's a shrine, not just a statue - people pray here and receive blessings and stuff, as Catholics worship saints and regular people as well as deities, and this Baraga guy I think is a saint, too.)

Scenic view - you can see Baraga on the other side of the bay, here.

Trying a panoramic shot - these things are always hit-and-miss.

This Baraga guy has a lot of crazy adventures to his fame - shipwrecks and battles and wilderness survival tales.  I'd go into it more but I'm feeling lazy today so if you're all that interested you can just frickin' Wikipedia that shit.

Guess what this is.

Girls educating themselves.

Me and a couple of my roommates.

Leaving Baraga, we decided to check out another local waterfall, this one called Canyon Falls, about ten miles away.

On the trail, about a mile long, that led from the roadside parking lot to the falls themselves.

My fancy Merrill hiking boots definitely came in handy on this trip.

The silver-lining to this blah weather today was that crowds were pretty much non-existent - we practically had the entire park to ourselves.

Lots of tributary streams flowing over rocks in this place.

Surprisingly no one ate shit on these slippery, muddy boards today.

Which way?

Some snappy dressers in this family, let me tell ya. . .

The arrival at Canyon Falls. . .

The waterfalls here were nowhere near as tall as those of Bond Falls, but the draw here are the dramatic rock walls on either side of the falls, not the falls themselves.

If there's a crevice or a cubby, Abby will climb into it.

Doing what I do.

Pretty cool place, made all the more awesome because we had it to ourselves.

Some mandatory 'go get a picture with your dad in front of the falls' pics.

Aaaand a couple with Spouse.

This gangsta pic might be the best couple picture Kris and I have ever taken, not gonna lie.

I'm assuming the falls have carved out this canyon over the course of a few hundred thousand years.  Keep up the great work, guy.

Leaving Canyon Falls, heading into L'Anse to pick up some dinner.

We ordered pizza from some place Courtney recommended named Irene's.  Why she recommended it, I don't know - it was super greasy and definitely nothing noteworthy.  I guess when you live up here anything halfway resembling civilization is phenomenal.  Yours Truly grew up with God's Gift to Mankind as my local pizzeria, so I'm a bit snobby when it comes to pizza.

Eating dinner, watching a movie.

Those are blue light lenses she wears when she's been looking at a screen for too long.  This is why we have a timer on her phone that shuts down her device if she's been on it too long.

Definitely a more chill day today, which was a nice change of pace considering the craziness of the previous day and the jam-packed itinerary we have for tomorrow.   Stay tuned. . .

- Brian