a drive to Marquette on Christmas Eve

Ah, it was good to escape for a while.  To leave Escanaba behind, drive out the fog that has the whole town, the whole county, socked in. 

Get away from the boredom of sitting in the hotel while Conrad was going through his mother's personal effects.  It's been a sad, dull, awful week, truthfully, and any change in that was welcome.

We had no family obligations today, nothing to do with his Conrad's mother's things once we had dropped some boxes off at his sister's (and managed to do so before her household was awake).  Conrad and I went to a local diner for breakfast, then to get some groceries to function as our Christmas Eve meal (and likely bites for tomorrow night given that Christmas will be a mid-afternoon family get-together with frozen pizzas), then to Starbucks, then out of town.

I haven't been to Marquette in ages.  I was commenting to Conrad last night how funny it was that after all these visits where we kind of sit around in Escanaba at his family's beck and call, none of them wanting to venture out of town, resulting in me telling him that we should just say to them that we are going on an adventure and that we will see them at dinner, that after all that (run-on sentence, sorry), we do an adventure the week we're here for his mother's funeral.  But thank goodness we did.  Marquette is a cute little college town.  20,000 people on the shore of Lake Superior. 

Where Escanaba has a hollowed out downtown, a ghost of what it was decades ago, Marquette has some life to its downtown.  Yes, it's larger.  Yes, there is a university there.  And yes, they've managed to keep things feeling vital.  It's attractive, too, built on hills

on the lake shore, some handsome old homes and fine churches and excellent older commercial buildings. 

I'd be happy to go back.

We arrived late morning.  The fog lifted about two-thirds of the way to Marquette, though there wasn't sunshine there.  It's not going to be a white Christmas in this part of the Upper Peninsula, alas.  45 degrees, cloudy, damp-feeling today.  We parked at the lakefront and strolled briefly, taking a few photos, then parked downtown and began browsing stores.  Our big target was the good bookstore in town, Snowbound Books,

but we managed to find mementos and some treats in a few others, including a really nice little wine and cheese shop, Everyday Wines, that has provided us with the centerpiece for tonight's evening in at the hotel.  Lunch, meanwhile, was at Donckers, a sandwich that was already the freshest thing I've had in days thanks to the avocado and roasted peppers on it.  So welcome.

Back to the hotel after our poking in stores was done.  About fifty miles from Escanaba, the fog kicked back in, and now we're here in our room, looking out on thick whiteness obscures the lake just below.  I've made a cocktail, I'm writing this and some postcards, and we'll settle in to make the most of this unexpected, unwelcome Christmas.