Up North. With cherries on top.

Since the breakfast is the most important meal of the day, we started our day in the best diner in the neighbourhood. Once again we ordered a breakfast set of an average American to share and got a full tray of food: scrambled eggs, bacon, biscuit and gravy, pan-fried potatoes and a slice of orange. After all that we could still fit in a slice of a delicious cherry pie. Obviously the diner knows its power and values, because even on the web page they state that even though the waiting line might seem long, it moves pretty fast. Also the service has gotten the best speed training possible, because before we could put the last piece of potato in mouth, the waitress had already taken the dessert order and brought the empty tray to the kitchen. And while still trying to catch that last cherry on the plate, we already have the bill in hand and the nice lady had wished us a lovely day.

Our lovely day continued in Cheboygan, where based on the tourism information we expected to find a pretty beach and nice hiking trail. We had almost given up on the beach when we finally got to a parking lot and from there, past a humongous restroom and empty cafe building to the mentioned beach. Beach turned out to be a dirt covered tiny strip of sand, where when trying to do some 60-meter speed tests, one would need to run along the beach, turn around and back same way. With the hiking trail we had somewhat more luck, we had a nice walk in the woods and found a little private white sand beach, spacious enough for two persons clinging to each other to stand and enjoy the lake view.

A quick picnic and shopping on the way and home.

Up North. Today we saw Canada.

Planners like we are, we grabbed the coffee and opened Google Maps to mark down a route for the day. The bigger and more general plan was already there - to cross the famous Mackinaw Bridge and spend the day in Upper Peninsula. With a little help of Google it became clear that we will have a lot of nature, huge amount of forest, beaches and breathtaking views of forests, beaches and Canada. During the day we found out that additionally we will see some little villages called towns.

I went for a quick swim, we got dressed and made our way to the donuts joint in town. Stocked up a variety of fresh pastries and started to cross the bridge that we looked at from different angles yesterday. After the bridge there was the first sightseeing object - Castle Rock. It's a huge rock on top of a hill that offers endless views over forests, bridge and Mackinaw City. It took us over 200 steps and lot of sweat to reach those views, but luckily the views made up for all that suffering.

Next stop was a quick visit to nearest metropol, also known as Sault Ste. Marie, which is the second largest city in Upper Peninsula. One of the oldest settlements in midwest promised wow-experiences for both foodies as well as lock-cruise interested tourists. Being the superficial travellers ever, we considered it enough to take a look at the locks from the viewing platform and decided not to cruise on them. We also looked at Canada, just on the other side of the locks and went back to see some of the city. Very wisely we were on bikes to not to get some blisters on feet from all the walking in the big city. With 15 minutes we had seen everything there was to see and turned our focus to more important question - where to eat? We stepped into a coffeeshop with cool name yet boring design and were almost ready to back out again when decided to still take a look at the menu. After reading our way through about 50 sandwiches we were certain to find something suitable. Both of us ended up being happy with the choice and even my ice coffee was the real deal. Unlike few other times when I was served either black coffee with ice cubes or just soft icecream with a touch of coffee.

In order to take it easy after the meal we turned on to the first picturesque beach and spent half an hour there listening to the waves.

Since the Upper Peninsula is known for its beautiful nature, we decided to go for a little hike too. We chose a hiking path along the lake shore that promised scenic views to the ones finishing the path. We walked down the stairs and started our way through the forest. Pretty soon we started to hear the noise of the waves and our hopes got high that right there, after the next bush we get that picturesque view over white sand beach and blue lake with white waves. Dream on! Soon after we had to speed up and start trotting, otherwise the army of mosquitoes would have eaten us alive. So, we sped on that random path in the forest, looked at the map that anytime soon we will be on that triangle, where the river runs into lake and all that beauty can be enjoyed form the rustic bridge. Well, more or less. Through the last bushes we got to the bridge that was closed to crossing. Since this minor thing doesn't interfere the plans of an enthusiastic traveller, we climbed over it and took a good look at the most usual bushy river. We picked bunches of fern to keep mosquitoes away and started our run back. Somewhere around the last third of the path we met two ladies, who, ever so hopefully asked us, if they're "almost there". We told them that far from that and gave a colorful, but honest idea of what's waiting for them on the path and at the end of it, should they make it there in the first place and left them there to make the decision. Most likely they believed that we are just trying to keep them away from the most scenic private beaches of the state and kept on going. Suits them well!

Since the time started to get closer to late afternoon, we decided to skip the waterfalls and drive straight to Paradise, which also passionately promised that no foodie or nature enthusiast will leave the place without great experience. Paradise, as it turned out, was a little village with around ten houses, fish restaurant, grocery store and food truck. From the latter one we got some freshly fried white fish and Scott also a corn dog and if the crowd of travellers wouldn't have arrived, we probably would have placed an order for all the fish the dude might have had left.

To Whitefish Point or back home? Since Google Maps promised us that it will take us only 16 minutes to get there to enjoy all those delightful views of Lake Superior and the light house, we decided to pay it a visit. It's the top of a peninsula, where, yes, you can see the charming beach, Lake Superior and Canada, but the same tip is also open to all the possible winds. Also the light house was already closed and we jumped in the car to start our way back to Mackinaw City. Just before reaching the bridge there was a sign pointing us to the "Bridge View" and with tires squealing we took a right turn. The view of the bridge was really amazing.

Mackinaw City is located on the northern end of Lower Michigan and that makes it possible to enjoy both, scenic sunrises and sunsets. Right from the lake into the lake. By the hotel we jumped on the bikes and rushed to the beach. We made it there just in time to enjoy the sun setting behind the bridge, the seagulls, tourists taking selfies and finally returned to the hotel to have a light snack on the deck.

Up North. Sunrise Beach

The morning started before the rooster and the dawn, because someone had planned a working day. Once the dawn arrived, I was already standing on the beach, wine in one and camera in other hand and watched the sun rising from the horizon. Around 7am I walked down to grab a coffee from the reception and took a look at the promised pool. It was a house in the middle of the parking lot with pool and outside deck. Exactly what I'd always wished for - suntanning on the parking lot on beach chairs, breathe the exhaust gas and watch, which cars get hit by the seagulls.

After the coffee we walked to town, parked the car very conveniently and wisely right in front of the best donuts and pastry shop in the neighbourhood and stepped in to have a bite before hitting the sightseeing objects. We walked out with a huge cinnamon roll donut covered with chocolate frosting and a cherry pastry. The donut was gone like the first snow and even the fingers weren't sticky, they got so clean. The cherry pie was OK too.

First sightseeing object turned out to be  first beach on our walk, where we had a good look at the famous Mackinaw Bridge with the length of appr. 5 miles. We continued walking along the shore to the bridge. Visited the souvenir shop and walked under the bridge and then some in the town.

For the afternoon we had a bike trip on Mackinac island scheduled and like any reasonable tourist, we went to have lunch before that. We chose a brewery that had lot of positive reviews in Internet. Before we even managed to order some food, we saw on the menu that in this bar the recommended tip for service should be 8 dollars and we can also share our praise for the food and bier in sending the kitchen and service crew a round. We ordered two appetizers to share - loaded potato chips with bacon, blue cheese, chicken and sour cream and beef tacos. This type of loaded potatoes is an everyday or everymenu thing in this country - french fries are soaked in cheese sauce or nachos covered with guacamole and cheese or in this case, chips with all the mentioned. How to eat that is also nobrainer  for an average American - fingerfood (or rather hand- or elbowfood, because that's where the oil gets to) is also very common here. We weren't grateful enough to the service and kitchen staff to leave 8 dollar tip and buy drinks worth of the gun budget of North-Korea for the all crew, so after paying the bill and leaving a reasonable tip, we left and returned to the hotel. One of us had a little nap.

We arrived in the harbor, loaded ourselves and bikes on the ferry, sat down in the first row like the good students ever and stranded 15 minutes later on Mackinac island. It's a car free island, where people move around using legs, bikes or horses. Bike rental must be the main income of the island, considering that daily bike rent was 62 dollars. My old school Schwinn got several admiring looks though. We started with the east coast of the island and made first climbing stop by an arch rock, which offered breathtaking views over crystal clear turquoise water and white beaches. We chose one and biked there. The one, who grew up in a Nordic country, jumped in for a quick swim and after we had a little picnic too. We kept biking, looked at the Mackinaw bridge and noticed that the water on the west coast is way muddier. We walked up the hill and made our way back to the harbour town. From there we made a quick trip to the terrace of the Grand Hotel and enjoyed the views that the customers, who used last minute deal of 350 dollars a room, could enjoy from their windows. Watched the sunset on the beach, bought some fudge and returned to the harbour to catch the prelast ferry back to mainland.

Before coming to US this time I was sure that on 4th of July I will see the most grandiose fireworks ever, but turned out that Ann Arbor, being the University town, doesn't think much of this trifling entertainment and only few flares went up the sky, fired by residents. Today, however, right before stranding, all flares in town were fired and while sailing to the harbour and a while after we had the chance to enjoy an impressive show.

Up North. Global Cooling

Thursday lunchtime we packed our bags, planned to get on the road by 1pm, hit the road by 1:30pm, went to the store, turned the car direction north and made a U-turn. Turned out that we had forgotten the cooling bag. Bag loaded in the car, at 2:45 we hit the road again. Few hours later we had first lunch break at a lake. We got out of the car and ... right back in the car. We pulled out our warmest clothes and gave it another try. The wind wanted to blow us on the lake, but we managed to have our picnic and continued the trip to Harbor Springs. From the last trip I remembered it as an especially cute little sleepy town and now, in the peak tourist season it was full of all the rich people, who park their yachts in the harbour and then, looking like they would have just stepped out of Miami Vice, are listening to the street musicians or sipping on the glass of whiskey.

Around the sunset time we reached our hotel and despite not using the offer to upgrade our room (for only 55 USD we could have gotten a single room!) that was ever so kindly offered per email to us prior, we got a better room than we could have expected - facing the lake and sunrise, with balcony and bridge view.

Since Scott was slightly displeased the the uncleaned bathroom, where there were a lot of hair everywhere and the floor was covered with litter, they gave us an even better room, where the hair was only attached to the bathroom door.

Go Blue. Lowlife.

I think, it might have been Bill Bryson, who mentioned in one of his books that the next step from taking a bus in US is living out of a plastic bag. In our town the public transportation wouldn't be not too bad, mostly it can even be seen as private ride, if they would consider the rush hour traffic when preparing the schedules. Separate lanes for buses on the streets is however as unthinkable as the the pedestrian wanting to cross the street. Today, for example I got off the right in front of the shopping center, but to cross the street to the side of the center, I had to walk few hundred meters to the nearest traffic light. And then back. And should the bus drivers get the idea of requested stops, the bus transportation in this university town could become totally considerable means of transportation. Today the driver just skipped two stops, where I pulled the wire and pushed all the buttons and stopped in a random place far enough to make my walk home longer than it would have been from the stop I got on the bus. Actually I can't really hold it against him - to mark the bus stops, there is just one pole with little sign that has a bus and a person drawn on it and the number 969-0400. That's as far as it goes with the information they have about the routes and schedule available. Also there are no pockets for buses, no roofs or benches for the pedestrians. Often the little sign is just put into the grass.

But in general I pay about 5 times less for the bus than I would pay for Uber, the bus has aircon as well, most likely I'm the only client in both means and additionally the bus driver doesn't care how I'm doing or where I'm from. Win!

Go Blue. Go Detroit!

Dear loyal reader, do you remember from one of my previous posts, what the capital of Michigan is? Nope, it's not Detroit. And indeed it's the same Lansing that no-one else but people, who live in and very nearby of Lansing has ever heard of. But I didn't want to write you about Lansing, that I've yet to see  by the way. But Detroit that is not mentioned enough in this blog, but is a great city.

To start with, there's so much of abandoned - factories, neighbourhoods, main railway station, bank buildings in downtown and basically two third of the city, right. And second, from the shore of Detroit river or on Belle Isle one can almost touch Canada. It would also be possible to cross the bridge or take the tunnel and visit Canada for a day or two, but since I have little trust in the immigration on this side, I'd rather not test it. So, we keep looking at Canada from this side of the river.

Detroit also has my favourite brunch place. It's the one, where I don't have to read the menu and make my choice between 16 different stacks of pancakes, 7 waffles, more than 20 omelets and variety of burgers, but can sit down and place the order for my salmon bennies. The same ones that have hopefully already been praised in this blog - English muffin (why they call this bun a muffin, I can't explain to you) topped with cream cheese, smoked salmon, capers, poached egg and sauce hollandaise. And there are two of those piles on my plate, accompanied by lettuce or starting from recently also house french fries. Muy good!

We have decided not to focus on abandoned buildings (as we usually do), but educate ourselves culturally and visit an exhibition. Not far from the city center is Heidelberg Project. In 1986, the artist returned to Heidelberg, the street where he grew up on, and found it in shambles. Bruised by the loss of three brothers to the streets, he was encouraged by his grandfather to stand out from the crowds and to pick up a paintbrush instead of a weapon. Next few years he was painting the houses, carried out the stuff left in the abandoned homes, arranged all that stuff in different piles on the properties in the neighbourhood and the mammouth installation, known as Heidelberg Project had started. At the moment there are several artists, who contribute to the project with old shoes, toys and everything else one can think of. You can find there the Arc of Noah, which is an old boat full of huge soaked and soon probably mossy soft toys.

After the mentioned art exhibition, where we had the chance to exchange few words also with the extremely non-talkative artist himself, we went down to the Riverwalk, hopped on the bikes and made around 6 miles along the riverfront. On the positive side, both of our sides got equally red from the blazing sun.

Last stop before driving home was the Detroit Eastern Market, where accordingly the season we got tomatoes, apples, peaches and some lamb koftas. There's also a Polish stand, where in the middle of the summer we could have bought fried dumplings, different huge sausages and sauerkraut.

Go Blue. How much the customer service here loves coffee.

I have sort of voiced my dissatisfaction with the small talk here - how everyone, who comes within 2 meter radius of you, always wants to know, how I'm doing. I'm not used to it, but know to expect it. Similar with the written communication with customer support - before even touching the problem, we always inquire how both are doing and in Amazon they also thank me as the valued customer for being a Prime member.

Recently I found out that the customer support of another online store always has hot coffee handy. Just in case, should it start raining in the middle of the summer or it's just cold in the winter. As an example part of our recent conversation:
After giving them my order number and address
Christine: Perfect! Thanks for that information, Gaili! Please bear with me while I pull up the order.
Gaili: Thanks, Christine!
Christine: No prob! ;)
Christine: Despite this, how are you doing today? I hope that you're having a pleasant weather in Michigan. It's already summer here, but it suddenly rained! Good thing I have my favorite cup of coffee to keep me warm. :D
Gaili: I'm great, thanks! Enjoy your coffee! :)
Christine: Glad to hear that!
Christine: I definitely will! Coffee is life! <3 Lol!

With Amazon I had recently this conversation when trying to locate a lost package:
Grace: Hello, Gaili.I’m sorry you didn’t receive your order. Let me check.
How are you today?
Gaili: Can you help me out - when should I expect to receive it? :)
I'm fine, thanks! How are you?
Grace: That's great to hear.
I am fine, thank  you so much for asking.
I'll find a resolution to help you with  this. I am  your superwoman for the day.
Gaili: Yay!