The UP

After we left North Dakota, we drove all day to Duluth, MN, but we camped just across the border in Superior, WI.  We had stayed in Minneapolis camping years ago and needed to get Wisconsin checked off the list.  By staying 2 nights we had a full day to explore  So we decided to got to downtown Duluth to checkout their waterfront.  That turned out to be a great idea.  There are a number of eating places, bars, and even a distillery. We chose to eat at a brew pub call Canal Park Brewing Company.  The beer was great and surprisingly the food was excellent as well.  We got a table by the window looking out over Lake Superior.  Really enjoyed a leisurely lunch and view of the folks walking the boardwalk all the waterfront.

After lunch we too enjoyed a stroll along the shore's edge.  Duluth did a smart thing with their walk. They have a wooden plank boardwalk for walkers and they have a paved path for bicycles and runners. Cuts down on the collisions.

On Saturday we drove to Houghton, MI to stay at a city park and campground.  The drive up was okay except for the late 30 minutes when we hit a storm the locals called the worse this year. Driving rain and a lot of it.  It wasn't blinding so I kept on moving but slowly.  The rain broke and it started to clear off as we pulled into the campground. The good news is there wasn't a bug anywhere on my RV. The heavy rains has power-washed them off. The City park and campground of Houghton is truly a great find.  All the sites are for self-contained RV's only.  No tents sites, laundry, or bathrooms.  Great for rigs like us.  All the sites are back in with covered picnic tables and benches at the rear of the site looking at the river.  In our case our site was actually on the river and since we have a rear picture window in the fifth wheel, it was perfect.


Houghton is one of those places we found by just looking at a map and checking TripAdvisor to see what was there.  Figured we were close and would never come here on purpose so see it while we were in the neighborhood.

Well, I would come back on purpose.  But only in the summer.  They get way too much snow in the winter.  There is a sign along the road showing how deep the snow was one year and it was taller than a 2 store house.  But in the summer it's warm, not humid and cool at night.  We've found the good pizza place, the local brew pub and made the loop around the northern part of the peninsula, even stopping in Gay, MI at The Gay Bar.  They have a lot of fun with their name, particularly with their tee shirts that are for sale.

We plan on a copper mine tour today before we leave tomorrow to head to Saint Ignace, MI.  It turns out that copper is what made this place.  In fact in the early 1900's so much money was made from copper that the rich mining executives wives had a big theater build so they could have some culture in the area.  They still get some big acts in the summer to perform in the theater.

I've put a few photos Flickr - Houghton and Flickr - Duluth.