Many people, thanks to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's "Hiawatha" poem (1855) have heard of Gitche Gumee, the shining Big-Sea-Water... loosely, it does mean "Big Sea" or "Huge Water" but just about always refers to Lake Superior.
Huge water is right! We are amazed at how few boats we see as we travel from town to town...they have to be out here somewhere, but where? We are like a lone fish in the sea.
It's fun to see what each of these little towns along the big water is known for. We went 75 miles from Marquette to Houghton on Sunday...Happy Father's Day! Treated to both a spectacular calm lake and hours and hours of rain after we tied up to the town docks. We saved the exploring until Monday when the skies finally cleared, but oh so chilly! Houghton is known for the birth of professional hockey. The International Hockey League (IHL) was formed in December 1904, lasted only 3 seasons but was the start of professional hockey. They also have a national parks office where you can purchase your park pass, which we need to go to Isle Royale in a few days. Luckily we are over 62 so Mark could get the senior lifetime pass to get into National Parks! It is good for up to 4 people so only one pass is needed. We explored the town and stopped at Keweenaw Brewery, the bartenders were charming college students and we learned all about Yoopers and Trolls. "Trolls" is a term coined by Yoopers to refer to residents of the Lower Peninsula of Michigan because trolls live "under the Mackinac Bridge". One of the bartenders said she was a "troll" but felt she should be considered a "yooper" because she is always crossing the bridge, we told her we agreed!
Our next stop was Ontonagon, MI, 53 miles from Houghton. The marina is across the river from "downtown", in 2010 the population was 1,494. We were told the shortest route was across the abandoned train tracks over the river and that we had to stop at Stubbs Museum Bar. So off we went to see the sights. Unfortunately it was much too dark in Stubbs to take pictures but you should have seen the "stuff", antiques, animal heads, figurines...it really was a museum.
To leave or not to leave Ontonagon on Wednesday was the question. We checked 3 different weather reports for wind and each one was giving us different info, finally we decided to go. It was a little choppy when we started out, then smoothed right out and as we approached the Apostle Islands and the marina it got choppy again. We traveled 78 miles and now we are in Wisconsin and the central time zone. We will be in the Apostle Islands for a few days. Sunrise in Bayfield is 5:10 a.m. vs 6:00 a.m. in Houghton. The Captain likes to leave at first light, I'm thinking it might not be happening while we are in Wisconsin!
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