Yoopsconsin

Thought we would follow the "directions" of a local to find a row of 22 cascading waterfalls in the U.P.  This was near Marquette Michigan.  The terrain was a bit non-level and the only thing that saved us from many a slide was the tree roots that were above ground.  We each slid/fell twice but neither was off the cliff!  I didn't count how many of the falls we actually did see but there were sure a lot of locals having a great time swimming in the pools at the base of the different falls.  Wish we would have brought our swim suits.

Then switching gears we ended up in Ishpeming and the National Ski Museum.  Did not know that skiing and Olympic training originated in the U.P.  Great memorabilia are housed in this museum.  Snowboarding even has it's special part in the museum.  Randy & I just gave up downhill about 4 years ago but I've loved the sport since I was about 8 and we got skis for Christmas and we were at the local ski hills every Friday. Saturday, if we could talk my parents into taking us.  I was even President and originator of the Elkhorn High School Ski Team.  Great fun and great memories.  Now too worried about breaking something.

We toured an old Iron Ore Mine and got a lot of history behind the many mines in Northern Wisconsin and the U.P.  I had a cousin, but we always called him Grandpa, as he was the only older relative left on my dad's side.  He worked for decades in an Iron Ore Mine in California after leaving Wisconsin.  Had Black Lung to prove it.  So it was great to get an idea of the working conditions and what he must have gone through. Tedious, hard, hard labor and always damp, cold surroundings. I don't think my claustrophobia would have faired well going miles into a tunnel and if it caved in, or your candle/lamp went out - you were in the dark of dark.  Nope, glad I didn't chose that occupation. 
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Many years ago, before Upper Michigan was stolen from Wisconsin and because part of Michigan, this peninsula was known as 'Yoopsconsin'.  The king of all this territory, King Vince Lombardi, ruled over his subjects with an iron fist from his castle in the  Field of Lambeau, near the Hamlet of Green Bay.  The Knights of the Shining Deer guarded against violators who were always trying to shoot the king's deer.  These knights were the forerunners of today's dreaded D&R.
Da Yoopers Toursit Trap
This is a fun, funny place to stop and see all of the ODD inventions that are on display.  Link 3 snow blowers together and you can clear your driveway in 2 swipes!  Put a push lawnmower in place of your front bike tire and you can get the lawn mowed faster!  We laughed and thought, why can't we come up with these ideas and then go on Shark Tank and get them to invest.  Oh well, we will stick to what we know (or don't know) and be happy as we are.  But someday???



In Iron Mountain Michigan is the WWII glider and pump museum.  Blows my mind that this ginormous pump was made in the 1800's, to keep the mines from flooding on the workers. You could see many of it's parts were "hand" made but still works today.  Next door was the Glider museum, they were invented and build right here in the U.P. to basically make a One Way trip over the enemy (silently) and deliver jeeps, supplies, men to our troops. Another invention that blows my mind.  Great WWII artifacts.  Randy has been putting up with my obsession of WWII museums.  My dad, uncle, and my mom's 4 brothers all served in WWII.  Never got to talk to him much about it, as at 17 it wasn't an interest of a teenage girl.  But we do have lots of photos and items from all that now I want to look into.  Very, very interesting.  I even got online and was able to obtain the Incident Report of my Uncle Elmer (mom's brother) who's plane crashed over the ocean in Hawaii, and what may have happened.  The internet is a wonderful tool.
On to Northern Wisconsin and checking out more waterfalls that we had not been to.  Well Randy had been to many, many of them when he attended Northland Bible College, back in the 70's.  We stopped at Northland which has changed drastically in the last decade since we drove through.  Buildings everywhere, they even added a mini-golf course and a huge rec center.  We stopped in the office and got a tour of the facilities.  Randy had helped build many of the original buildings or renovated, as the college was only a few years old when he started.  The buildings are still there, many re-renovated but he had many stories to tell of his "saintly" days at Bible College.  Keeping his motorcycle to do a tune up, in his dorm.  Keeping his pet turtle in the toilet reservoir tank.  Hidden radio (not allowed at the time).  Yup, learned a lot at college, he did!
Leaving Northland the fog was setting and so the sun.  Awesome views and a great day in Northern Wisconsin.