Marquette

Visits to the UP have usually centered on family time, but that seems to be changing over time, becoming less and less the focus for us.  In part that's because the passing of Conrad's mother meant one fewer family member in an already small core family.  But Conrad's sister and brother-in-law have had their health issues and are getting older.  Sorry, but true.  So we come up here, and we kind of wait around to see what people are up for, and then we go ahead with our day.  That day doesn't necessarily involve them through most or all of it but simply depends on their schedules and interests before we can do anything else.  I'd like us (well, Conrad), to be more assertive in planning for future trips, but we shall see.  And anyway, I didn't even come up here all of last year, so I guess I can't whinge too much.  (I mean, I can, but I shouldn't.)

It took us a little while to get going yesterday.  Breakfast fell through, plans for a drive became plans for just me and Conrad.  At some point by 11 we were on the road north, heading for Marquette for a small adventure.

At the risk of sounding more patronizing than I probably usually do, Marquette is a cute little college town.  Oh, sure, it's also all rugged and outdoorsy, but it has some lovely older buildings and a nice little downtown.  We didn't poke in as many stores as we have on previous visits, but we made sure to get to Snowbound Books,

a really terrific little independent bookstore.  As if I wasn't already overpacked on this trip, now I have books to bring home.  And more, I confess.  We also stopped later on at Presque Isle Art Studios and picked up something for Van and a few more small things for us.  In between those two shopping stops, though, we popped into Lawry's Pasties

to grab lunch to go.  That was a recommendation from the visitor's center where we stopped on our way into town. 

We took the pasties to a shaded picnic table

at the lakefront in Presque Isle Park and devoured them.  And ah, Old Dutch!  Reminds me of home.  A drive through the park followed lunch, then that stop for shopping.

And, actually, one more stop after that.  No photos, alas.  Everyday Wines was where Conrad and I bought our Christmas Eve dinner in 2023 when we were up here for an unfortunate and lengthy visit following his mother's death.  Charcuterie and cheese and wine.  It turned out to be a lovely little evening tucked into our hotel room with a spread on the coffee table and a Netflix holiday romcom.  We did some shopping there last night, and that resulted in the making of dinner for tonight, a repeat of grazing on a spread again laid out on the coffee table.  Our last meal of the trip in Escanaba (well, technically Gladstone).

We made it back to the hotel in time to freshen up a little before a very early dinner at the hotel restaurant with the whole family.  I think we were back in the room by 6:00 or shortly thereafter.  We poured water and wine and munched chocolate and read until an early bedtime ended our day.

I was glad to get up to Marquette and enjoy a little cooler weather there, do our own thing.  We have breakfast plans in a little over an hour, so I had better get Conrad up and going.  After that?  Who knows.  One more night here to come, and then on to Green Bay tomorrow. 

so...

... the worst Christmas in my recollection got even worse yesterday with Conrad's decision that he wanted to stay in Escanaba for Christmas.  This came on the heels of a bunch of texts from his sister, and cost us far too much additional money for me not to be angry about this.  Home on the 26th.  Now counting down.

Sorry.  I'm jet lagged and cranky.  I have never really been fond of Conrad's hometown (there's not much going on here, we know no one outside of the very small family), and it's even worse at the holidays when so much shuts down and we're trapped in a hotel instead of our own home.  So forgive any attitude that creeps through in days ahead.

We left Chicago after sunset yesterday,

later than scheduled but still in time for dinner.  A short flight, and then we made it to the hotel.  A nice hotel,

right next to Lambeau Field (for any Cheeseheads reading this).  We headed up to dinner after dropping our bags, and that was very enjoyable:  Last Words to start with, some deep fried deviled eggs,

a wedge lettuce salad to share, a steak each,

a bottle of a 2010 Rioja, a huge chunk of carrot cake to share. 

It was so good.  Up until Conrad dropped his bomb.  The evening unraveled at that point, and you can be sure I had stern words for him.  And then it was bedtime, more or less, and another truncated night (three hours again) for me.

Ugh.

We got on the road late this morning, having stopped in a couple of places.  By the time we got to Escanaba, it was lunch time, so we popped into Gram's for pasties

before we did anything else.  I left Conrad after lunch to take care of things with his sister, and I headed to buy food and Christmas decor.  I mean, if we're not going to be home with our tree or Van's, if we're going to be in a hotel room for a week, we may as well have a little touch of Christmas.  So I shopped, and then checked into the hotel.  A nice enough room with a lake view,

 

and with some Christmas touches, it feels better still.

I got Conrad back to the hotel to unpack, then sent him off for dinner with his sister.  Me, I had a cocktail (The Meredith - grapefruity, but a bit sweet)

and the bison meatloaf at the hotel bar. 

I'm now back in the room, finishing off a boulevardier.  Conrad is back from dinner.

Tomorrow is the funeral, and then it will be a couple of days of getting things done.  I've told Conrad to put some of the burden back on the rest of his family.  He heard me, but he won't do it.  Ah well.  As long as I can pin him down on Sunday for a Christmas Eve together.

Counting down here, counting down.

Yooper cuisine

No trip to Conrad's family is truly complete unless we have ourselves that classic of Yooper cuisine, the pasty.  No, it doesn't originate in the UP, but in Cornwall, in England.  

Beef, carrot, potato, and - of course! - rutabaga fill the tender pastry.  I didn't remember how very large they are, and so Conrad and I shared one between us.

The absolutely necessary side dish?  Old Dutch brand dill pickle flavoured potato chips. 

I remember the first time I had a pasty on a visit to the UP with Conrad, and I was floored that they had a Canadian brand like Old Dutch, and in my favourite flavour.  Conrad quickly disabused me of that notion, that it was a Canadian brand.  It is big in Western Canada, though, so even though it's a US company, it has a lot of operations in place to cover my side of the homeland.  Ah well, no matter where it's based, it's nostalgic for me, and it goes well with the pasty.

So that was our last meal in the UP for this trip:  pasty and chips.  Not the most nutritious dining, but it filled our bellies for the travel ahead!

pasties

Minds out of the gutter, folks. Pasties, with a short "a". Meat and potato pies, essentially. If I don't get one when we go up to Escanaba, it doesn't feel like a real visit. Conrad's family indulges me every time. I need to send them a thank you card for that.

There are many shops around the UP, and it seems we alternate between the two that I know of in Escanaba each time. Dobber's this time around. Check them out if you pass through the area - just don't tell them that we think we found a place in Marquette that is better!

lunch in Marquette

In for a penny, in for a pound - let me get at least one more blog entry done this morning before I pack Conrad off to swimming.

It was a week ago that Conrad and I lazily got up at about 9:15, had breakfast, showered and dressed, and headed off with his Mom to the north shore of the UP. We didn't have much time allotted for seeing Marquette, alas. What I saw of it left me the impression that it's a city that has cared for its history well, and that it's really a neat college town (it is the home of Northern Michigan University).

We found a pasty shop, made our purchases, and headed to a lakeshore park, Presque Isle (they pronounce "Isle" the English way, BTW). There we sat enjoying the warm noon-hour, deeply content with the meaty pies. We sat side by side at a picnic table so that we could appreciate the view together.


One thing caught our eye on our way back through town to get back to Escanaba - the Superior Dome on the NMU campus. An interesting looking structure. As we subsequently drove through a neighbourhood with businesses geared toward campus, I was left thinking that campus life there might be pretty decent, in fact.

local delicacies

And... balancing the "older" photos with more recent ones, a couple more from the holiday weekend up in the UP. This was Saturday lunch at a park in Marquette, by Lake Superior.

Never let it be said I'm always and entirely a food snob. I mean, I am a food snob, but I will try a lot and appreciate a lot. Local delicacies factor get bonus points. These pasties did not need them. Still warm, a good pastry, tasty filling. We wolfed them down along with a bag of Old Dutch (it's not Canadian? Who knew?) dill pickle flavoured potato chips. Pasties are found all over the UP, it seems, but I think that we found some of the best last weekend.