And etc…

Yesterday Matt and I went hiking at Copper Falls State Park. Well, I’m not sure I would call what I did “hiking.” It was more like casually strolling. Of course, I’m thinking that whenever you’re in the relative wilderness, walking is deemed “hiking.” I mean, I didn’t see any signs on the trail that were geared towards casual walkers. Only hikers. There were signs for a handicapped route, and in the inner recesses of my mind, I was longing to go THAT way. However, I toughed it out and went the route for non-handicapped people. On this trail, there were a ton of stairs. How many times do you find stairs in the wilderness? This killed the wilderness reality for me somewhat. The stairs were really shoddily constructed, though, so that helped me tell myself the stairs were a random act of nature. And I think there are probably stair-like constructs in nature. You can’t tell me that humans created stairs. They had to have seen stairs somewhere first and then thought to themselves, “Hmm. Good idea. More funny to watch people fall down stairs than hill. Sharp edge hurt.”

When we were done (after I consumed a bottle of Powerade in about three minutes–thank you cheesy state park gift shop) we realized we were only a half hour away from Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. So we went. I’d never been to Michigan. Turns out it’s a lot like Wisconsin. Their state motto, according to the welcome sign, is “Great Lakes. Great Times.” I came up with my own motto:”Many trees. Many lakes. Many bars.” I should probably copyright that and then propose it to their state government. I’m clearly a catchy sayings genius.

I finally got to see the immensity of Lake Superior because it was a clear day and I got to see a view that wasn’t part of a muddy bay. We also saw the Porcupine Mountains from a distance. We didn’t really want to pay to get into that state park–we can only financially support so many states at a time. It’s a good thing mountains are tall and easy to see from a distance. I wonder if there are a lot of porcupines there. If so, I’m glad we didn’t go. Death by porcupine quill is not a fun adventure.

We found yet another cheesy gift shop (a staple of the state park, I suppose) and bought the obligatory shot glass. Nothing says “I went there” quite like a shot glass. Well, except for a snow globe, but those are harder to find and sometimes people don’t understand their appeal. Come on…if there’s a catastrophic emergency you can pour the water from the globe into a shot glass and drink it to survive. The snowglobe is a practical souvenir. It could save your life. Just try not to swallow any glitter. It might be toxic.

And then we went home. Well, we returned to Stone Lake. Ok, I left out the part about stopping at the Big K and the McDonald’s in Ironwood, but apart from the pink 80’s style interior of the McD’s, there’s not much story behind those parts. Except that they changed the numbers of the value meals and McD’s is more expensive in Michigan than in Wisconsin or Iowa. Why? I think it’s because the only other places to eat in the U.P. are bars. Many of these bars are scary, or have suspicious names. Like “Squeaks.” Umm. Yeah.

We survived. I didn’t see any bears; maybe they were scared away by the five thousand deer or the drunk bar patrons.