We landed at K.I. Sawyer International Airport (a former military base) just outside of Marquette, Michigan, Thursday evening around 9:30 PM local time. My Uncle Jack met us at the gate in Chicago’s O’Hare Airport, and we made our way to the Days Inn hotel. The city is bustling this weekend for graduation and we met several parents on the flight. After settling into the hotel, my son Owen took us to the Michigan-based grocery chain called Meijer. He works there and gave us a quick tour of the online pickup area that he is assigned to. He knows every aisle like the back of his hand and is a master in shooting the bar code reader gun. 🙂 Meijer (pronounced Meijer’s in Michigander) has been really good to him. They give annual $5,000 scholarships to employees who are full-time students.
We started Friday at Third Street Bagel for Ocean and Nadia. They make delicious bagels and it is kind of a tradition for us when we visit Marquette. We spent most of the day helping Owen plan to move out of his house. We are renting a U-Haul truck on Monday to take his furniture and personal belongings to my childhood home in Caspian, about a 90-minute drive southwest of Marquette. We also met Owen’s roommates and his parents. They are all decent gentlemen, and I feel relieved they were a good influence on him. We met their parents, too, and are looking forward to the party Saturday night at his house following the ceremony. We attended his roommate Jack’s ceremony for Construction Manager majors at the Dominic Jacobetti Center. Graduates from that program received NMU hard hats instead of the traditional caps and gowns.
We switched hotels due to a booking error and set up at the Fairfield Inn & Suites located near Lake Superior. Definitely an upgrade from the Days Inn! I managed to work out yesterday, getting a sweaty power yoga workout, a 15-minute weight workout, and a walk along the beach. It snowed in the afternoon, yes, it is May 2, but that is the Upper Peninsula. It was “refreshing” and got me ready for going out to dinner with the family. My middle son Oliver drove up from Green Bay, Wisconsin, where he is studying at St. Norbert College. We met at the Black Rocks Brewery, where there was a live band. It was crowded, but we did have fun. Anytime all five of us are together, it is awesome. My brother Andy and his wife Chantal drove up from Chicago and also met us there. Marquette is a trendy university town, but the casualness of the Upper Peninsula still keeps it from becoming too uptight. We had a white fish dinner at The Vierling Tavern. A classic Marquette – Lake Superior restaurant.
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