Goodbye Michigan

For now, anyway

We’ve loved our 5+ week visit to Michigan…from Detroit, between Lakes Huron & Erie; west to Muskegon, on Lake Michigan; to the Straits of Mackinac, between Lakes Michigan and Huron; to the Upper Peninsula and the shores of Lake Superior; culminating with a week on Isle Royale, in Lake Superior. We spent 39 days in Michigan, split evenly between the Lower and Upper Peninsulas. We’d both love to come back for another long visit…stay in some different places, check out some of the sites we missed this time and revisit some of our favorites. Would love to spend a few days on Mackinac Island, for example.

We made it back from Isle Royale National Park Tuesday evening. Our return trip took 3.5 hours and “only” had 2-4 foot swells…still not too comfortable, but we made it unscathed.

Yesterday we had time to visit 2 (and 1/2?) more of the the Keweenaw Heritage Sites associated with Keweenaw National Historical Park (#256-Revisit): Calumet Theater and the Copper Country Firefighters History Museum in Calumet. Unfortunately, Coppertown USA Mining Museum was closed, so we only saw the outside exhibits. Just for S&G (and to find T-shirts), we also went to Houghton, to the Isle Royale NP Visitor Center there.

Personal Stats and Random Michigan/Great Lakes Factoids

As we say Goodbye to Michigan, we thought we’d share some updated personal stats and a few more things we’ve learned over the last month+.

We’ve now visited all 5 National Park Units in Michigan, wrapping up with Isle Royale National Park, 35th of our visits to any of “THE” National Parks (currently 63).
With our visit to Lake Superior, we’ve now visited and boated on all 5 Deepest US Lakes, first boat trip on Lake Superior was at Pictured Rocks NL, with 5 more on trips to/from/touring Isle Royale NP.
While Lake Superior is “only” the 4th deepest lake in the US, it is the largest freshwater lake by surface area in the world! It has a surface area of 31,700 square miles, roughly the size of South Carolina. It holds 10% of the world’s fresh water! The 5 Great Lakes, all together, hold 21% of the world’s fresh water.
We sampled all 3 Michigan specialty foods: Fudge (Mackinac Island, Michigan is known as the Fudge Capital of the World), Smoked Whitefish (a staple of Michigan cuisine, especially in Northern Michigan and the Upper Peninsula) and Pasties (signature dish of the Upper Peninsula, brought to the area by Cornish and Welsh miners working in the copper and iron mines). Not to mention, Cherries from the Cherry Capitol of the World, Traverse City.
Michigan has the most Lighthouses of any state in the United States, with over 150 past and present lights. This is due to Michigan’s extensive shoreline on the Great Lakes, which has been a vital shipping corridor and manufacturing center. We saw/visited at least 14, on 2 different Great Lakes.
Residents of the UP are sometimes called “yoopers”, while those who live south of the Mackinac Bridge are sometimes called “trolls”.