Lands Oh Lakes and Grands and Greats

Halfway between Sioux Falls and Minneapolis, we noticed that the front right tire was running low. Although we filled it back up, we had a sinking feeling that this was the start of another car issue. We arrived at the grandparents’ ready for our daily medicine and the delicious dinner that was waiting for us. The medicine that day was a cold beer and the dinner was like a gourmet picnic, complete with light-as-clouds Waldorf chicken salad, deviled eggs, baby dills, and crescent rolls. We walked off our feast with a stroll around Lake Harriet at dusk, basking in the balmy weather that had followed us from South Dakota.

The next morning was supposed to be a sightseeing tour for Chris, who had never been to Minneapolis. We dropped off the Focus for an oil change and a tire check and heard the bad news that all the tires would have to be replaced. After some shopping around we found a place, but weren’t able to see much of the city outside of the tire shops in uptown. Once the car was fixed up, Liz took off to see her super cool sis Madalyn in Rogers, while Chris checked out a kung fu studio in the city. Maddy and Liz headed back to the city later that night to pick up Chris and go to Bryant-Lake Bowl, a funky hipster bowling alley … pretty much the awesomest place we could have taken a 15-year-old for a hot night on the town. Maddy’s cousin Suzanne joined in on the fun before we headed back to the burbs for some shut-eye.

With the sis, post-bowl

The next day, after lunch with Maddy, we headed back into Minneapolis to spend the afternoon chillin’ with the grands. It was a welcome break to all the running around we’d been doing and, of course, our stomachs were very happy with the multiple heaping servings of Kemp’s Java Chunk ice cream …. mmmmmmm ….

On Wednesday morning, armed with multiple tourist magazines, maps, and a rough itinerary, we headed up to Duluth and then through the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. We stopped at an RV park in some unincorporated town in Michigan for the night, and after setting up camp we headed toward the pier at sunset. Lake Superior is ginormous!!!

A Superior sunset

We continued the UPie tour the next day with a visit to The Porkies (Porcupine Mountain State Park), which the grandparents had suggested we check out. We looked out over Lake of the Clouds and then headed on a 4-mile hike on which we encountered a wee black bear scurrying out of a tree (no mama, thank goodness).

Snuggling in the clouds

But we still had a lot of ground to cover so we blasted on out in the afternoon, ending up in Marquette for a night before crossing the border to Canada. And let’s just say, if you’re looking for a couple nights’ vacation in a picturesque town on the water and don’t want to spend much dough, look into Marquette. We awoke the next morning refreshed and ready to make our trip an international sensation!

A postcard from Marquette