Barbara & Festus Trip Update - Upper Peninsula

This is the UP to locals - Upper Peninsula of Michigan – kind of like Alaskans refer to the continental United States as “outside”.

Escanaba is located on the northern shore of Lake Michigan, which I continue to refer to as the ‘ocean’ because it looks so big.

After seeing the Great Lakes, all other inland waterways now appear much smaller to us!

To our surprise and delight, this area has that wonderful small town family feel. Everywhere we go we see families, sometimes with 4 – 5 children in tow, enjoying the parks, fishing, biking, playing ball, or doing something together. Funny, sometimes you don’t notice something until it seems unusual…….

This Don Solis with four of his grandchildren at a family gathering that we were privileged to attend.

Joey and Don just returned from Alaska with red salmon – ready for the barbeque grill! Yum.

Okay – notice the Snow Blower for sale in this front yard? Haven’t seen one of those in years!

And here’s another seldom-seen icon: a real live US postal service employee delivering mail to houses. We had a great conversation with him – he’d spent a couple years in Alaska in the 60’s and is looking to retire in October. God speed.

Here is a typical street on that postal delivery route. I love the old trees and sidewalks. That’s Festus on his bike way over there on the right side.

The local park offers lots of beach area.

And every Thursday night there is a ‘concert in the park’.

Lots of bike lanes around the marina.

This is a water mower! We got a real kick out of watching this go back and forth across the marina.

The park area includes a small marina.

Small town America in Michigan – made even better because the weather is 80 today. Of course, there was a tornado warning two days ago that accompanied some serious rain, so again, it’s a matter of timing…..

Barbara & Festus

Up on the UP