the upper peninsula has it’s own whole other peninsula shooting off of it, called the keweenaw peninsula, and that’s where we were headed to next. on our way, of COURSE we stopped at yet another fabric shop. i may have already mentioned it, but we happened to be in michigan during their first ever “shop hop” so, even though i wasn’t technically participating, i reaped the benefits of cool deals, extended hours, delicious snacks, and fun merch. this shop had really cool long sleeve tees, and i decided it would make for the perfect official summer road trip commemorative purchase for me.
our airbnb was outside the cute little town of houghton, so we made a little stop on the way through, to kill some time and get the lay of the land. we visited the isle royale national park visitor center, on the off chance that we could swing some sort of adventure to said national park, but it’s just so far way out into lake superior and expensive that it really wasn’t an option for this trip. but there was some cool info and art. we walked around town and checked out some shops. and took an obligatory photo of this bridge that we would end up crossing a zillion times in the next week.
our airbnb was pretty amazing. like. pristinely preserved from the 1980s. every detail. the appliances. the decor. the furnishings. we were in love.
after our last week in a very rustic cabin with limited space and cooking supplies, we were pretty excited to settle into this comfy 80s palace. plus we had a full supply of groceries after our stops at walmart, farmers markets, and other local grocery markets.
the keweenaw peninsula has an interesting and storied history in the copper mining industry, so it made sense that our first outing took us to a copper mine tour. i won’t sugarcoat it. it wasn’t one of our favorite adventures of all time. our guide was super enthusiastic and informative. but it was an old closed copper mine. and the kids were not super interested. the highlight was our ride down to the mine on an old railroad track.
we walked a long way into the mine. and as you can imagine, the lighting wasn’t ideal for photos. but we learned some things. and got to experience some total darkness and what it would have been like (on a very small scale) for folks working in the mines back in the day. (very poor conditions, needless to say).
then. back out and up the hill on our cool train.
of course, then we had to spend some money in the gift shop. but not on polished rocks. haha. we did walk away with quite a bit of random copper and some postcards. then, as a reward for surviving the harrowing (boring) trip to the mines, we drove a little bit north to calumet and scored some local ice cream.
