Tag: superior

Trip to Paradise

billkralovec

 

Earlier this week we took our annual summer trip to Lake Superior. This was the fifth trip we’ve made and we always go with the Bonetti family. I have been friends with Mark Bonetti since our school days, and as well as seeing the best freshwater lake in the world, it is good to renew our bonds of friendship. This year we decided to go to the far east in the UP to stay in the small town of Paradise, and explore the coast near Whitefish Point.

We are shown above at the Centenial Cranberry Farm. Although it looks nice, it was extremely cold with a sharp, northerly wind making us quite chilled. It was the first time I have been to a cranberry farm and learned how they are harvested. The cranberry is native to the UP and it is a small bush that likes acidic bogs. The glaciers made sure there are plenty of bogs in the UP. Our neighbor to the south, Wisconsin, is the number one producer of cranberries in the US. The Kralovecs are fruit fanatics as you can tell from some of my blog posts! Cranberries are traditionally eaten during American Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Owen & Lauren Collected Rocks at Whitefish Point
Owen And Lauren Collected Rocks at Whitefish

It was a long drive but well worth it. Lake Superior’s water temperature in mid-July was 57 F (14 C) and quite refreshing. We went swimming on Monday evening despite the cool winds. The tourists from Ohio thought we were crazy, but once you get in the water it is quite nice. On Tuesday we toured the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum and the Whitefish Point Bird Observatory. The area is a popular stop for birds on the flyway south because the point juts out into the lake, making it a short flight to and from Canada. We collected rocks and driftwood, played in the sand and really had a nice morning at the beach. Nadia and the boys at the Shipwreck Museum

 

Tahquamenon Falls
Tahquamenon Falls

The museum was very interesting. Lake Superior gets huge storms in the autumn and many ships have gone down. Most were in the 1800’s and early 1900’s and mostly due to collisions or storms. The most fascinating story is of the Edmund Fitzgerald. This was an ore carrier that sank in 1975, the last ship to go down with lives lost. Gordon Lightfoot wrote a song about it. The event captures the essence of the beauty and danger of Superior. Many ships went down near Whitefish Point because it narrows as it approaches the Soo Locks.

Superior Sunset
Superior Sunset

Family Journal: July 5, 2009

billkralovec

 

Wild Men, originally uploaded by bill kralovec.

Yesterday we drove up to Marquette, Michigan to go shopping at the Target Store located there. We wanted to buy a duna for Ocean, shoes for the kids, as well as get a new set of pillows and towels for my Dad. Without my mother, he lacks that woman’s touch around the house.

After Target, we hit the beach as you can see. Marquette is my favorite town in the UP. It is the largest at around 20,000, and has a university (Northern Michigan University). It is located on Lake Superior and receives 144 inches of snow per year. It is one of the few places I would come back to live in the USA if I could find a good job there.

Ocean
Ocean

Lake Superior is a huge freshwater inland sea. It is the largest of the Great Lakes and always pretty cold. We all got in yesterday, but not for that long. The kids really enjoyed the sandy beach, making sand castles, playing football, skipping rocks, and burying each other.

In the morning we watched the Federer versus Roddick final.

Oliver Featured In Web Banner

billkralovec

The International (USA-Canada) Joint Commission  for Great Lakes Water Quality is using a photo of my son Oliver. They found the photo on my flickr.com account and asked me permission to use it. The photo you can see above is from last summer on our annual trip to Lake Superior. We stopped after a day of hiking in the Porkies, just west of Ontonogan, Michigan. Oliver and friends Brandel and Lauren were throwing rocks into the water and running from the waves. The photo will be representing the beaches aspect of Commission’s mission.

The Great Lakes Regional Office does valuable work preserving and improving the water quality of the Great Lakes. It is great that perhaps Oliver’s joy will inspire politicians, scientists, and citizens to prioritize a preservation of this beautiful area.

I have travelled all over the world and seen many places, and one of my favorite, is still the south shore of the “big lake they call Gitchigummee.”

The communication that the internet has made possible never ceases to amaze me…

Lake Superior Pilgrimage – Family Journal July 13-14, 2008

billkralovec

 

Ontanogan City Park, originally uploaded by bill kralovec.

Sunday we drove up to Ontonogan for our annual trip to one of the Great Lakes. My town of Caspian is located an hour from Lake Superior and Lake Michigan and every summer we try to at least spend a day at the beach. We usually go with my brother’s family and our good friends the Bonettis. This year Jim couldn’t make it, but we went up with Mark, his wife Danell, and children Brandl and Lauren.

We wanted also to explore the Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park. It was about 90 miles away from Caspian. We stayed at the Superior Shores Resort located on the Lake about 6 miles outside of the park. The annual trip is also a celebration of “Yooper Culture” and we try to stay in locally owned motels and eat in local restaraunts.

Lake Superior is one of my favorite places in the world. It has the largest surface area of any freshwater lake in the world (82,178 km square). It’s average depth is 149 meters. It is the Lake that took down the ss Edmond Fitzgerald in 1975, memorilized in that famous song by Gordon Lightfoot. British poet Rupert Brooke had noted in 1913, “These monstrous lakes, which ape the oceans, are not proper to fresh water or salt. They have souls, and they are wicked ones.” It is also a very cold lake, with an average temperature of 40 degrees F. The lake is huge and cold and beautiful. (I like that Hemmingway-esque description)

The weather was cold on Sunday, we we loved it. After we settled in to the motel, we went for a hike at the Lake of the Clouds inside the park. We made it down to the lake in back. In the evening we went to the Kontecka Supper Club in near by White Pine. This is a dying little town near the park. There used to be a big copper mine, but when it shut down in the late 80’s, so did most of the town. The club feeds local wild bears and it was great the kids had a chance to watch the big black bears come in. I do not like this artificial feeding, but it has helped the club survive. Many tourists go there to watch the bears and have a bite to eat.

The next day we made a short stop at Bonanza Falls after lounging at the motel and a pancake breakfast at Syl’s Cafe in Ontonogan. There was a bad smell downtown Ontonogan from the big paper mill. The mill makes corrugated cardboard and employs around 300 people. We then drove just east of town and there is a nice public beach on the lake. It was a nice sunny day and we really enjoyed a day at the beach. I took the photo of Owen above.

We came home and then I took the kids up to the weight room as my brother needed to watch the football players. You can click on our flickr photos to see more photos from the trip. I would like to that Mark and Danell for being such wonderful company!