Weekend Getaway

Going north over the Mackinac Bridge.

A couple of months ago Bryan and I received an email from his cousin Gary inviting us to his college graduation in May. We're always excited to see Gary so we confirmed the date was free on our calendar and quickly accepted.

Fast forward to May...last weekend's little getaway to Escanaba was exactly what I needed. It was so nice to see Gary and spend time with him. After his graduation we rambled around Escanaba getting ice cream, going out to the park on Little Bay de Noc, and checking out the Escanaba River (which is still flowing rapidly from all of the melting snow.) Gary's friends graciously offered to let us stay at their home, which was set on 40 gorgeous U.P. acres laced with trails. We ended up taking a hike right when we got there--it was definitely great to get outdoors. Gary's friends truly treated us like family. We had a BBQ (first of the season featuring steaks to celebrate Gary's graduation!), first bonfire of the season (complete with s'mores!) and a large Sunday breakfast including with eggs, toast, bacon, and pancakes with local maple syrup. I wasn't hungry from the time I got there until long after I left!

It was the perfect weekend to be in the U.P. with temps reaching into the 70's (unlike this weekend!) Unfortunately, I forgot my good camera so didn't get to many photos of our time in Escanaba; however, I did take some while we were traveling with other electronic devices we had on hand:

Sunset over Lake Michigan while driving west on U.S. 2 in the U.P.

On the way back home Bryan and I stopped at Jack's, a grocery store in Manistique. They have the most amazing pasties (you really can't leave the U.P. without getting a pastie.) You can buy them frozen or fresh. Our favorite type is the chicken pastie...unfortunately that was the flavor of the day, so we could only find one! We bought it and ended up stopping at Straits State Park in St. Ignace. We pulled off in an unoccupied (yes, there were people camping!) site and found a place to sit. Here's the view from our picnic table:

The Mackinac Bridge from the north. Straits State park is right on the water just east of I-75.

We also saw this... (look closely, in the middle!)

We just missed driving over this freighter as we headed south over the bridge. We weren't able to its name, unfortunately. I've always wanted to drive over a freighter when going over the bridge. I think it'd be cool to look down over it.

Our weekend continued to improve as we stopped at a gas station to fuel up and grab a snack:

Better Made makes licorice??!! Mind blown. (Bryan is a huge fan of licorice. He likes Australian licorice and he said that Better Made's is similar to it.)

 Just when I thought the weekend couldn't get any better, I came home to a clear night and this:

It's not a great photo, but if you look closely you'll see the light of the South Manitou Island Lighthouse. Last weekend it was turned on for the summer. According to Wikipedia, the light is lit from May through November.

Here's a photo of the South Manitou Island Lighthouse from Wikipedia.org.

To top it all off we came home with a small gift from Gary's friends:

A plum tree!

Gary's friends are the third generation to own the land they live on. On the property are 100+ year old plum trees that were planted by their predecessors. We dug up and brought home a sapling from those trees, and its leaves are starting to grow! We've yet to get it in the ground because of the cold temps that hit this past week. Tomorrow it's suppose to warm up again, so we might have an opportunity to plant it then.

What a great weekend. We had a great time with Gary and made some new friends in the process. This definitely makes me more anxious for summer!