Up in the U.P


For a few years now, my husband has been driving six miles north to the edge of Lake Superior to go skiing. A couple of years ago, my son joined in for the fun.  They go skiing at Mt. Bohemia in Mohawk, Michigan, where the runs are technical and there is a lot of tree skiing.  For skilled skiers, it is a reasonably priced high-level ski experience. For those of us who are intermediate/beginner skiers at best, it's not the place to be. Or, is it?

Houghton, MI on the way up north
This winter I decided to join them, with the one condition that we rent a cabin nearby, not stay in the yurt. Jeff chose a modest two-bedroom near the lake from Wilderness Resort, which was a short five-minute drive away. For me this trip was a test run, to see if riding twelve hours in the car round trip was worth it, compared to staying at home and puttering around.

It turned out to be a wonderful experience.  One thing I realized about traveling and staying somewhere else instead of doing a staycation is that there are no chores or projects around the house, no errands to run.  For this trip, I had two days to myself while the people were skiing, and I could do anything I wanted.  So, I chose to nap, read, nap again (apparently I was worn out), and go snowshoeing. There were groomed cross-country ski tracks right outside the cabin snaking in a 3-mile loop through the woods, so I gingerly walked beside them and vowed to bring my skis next year - it was so beautiful.

Frozen and windy Lac La Belle
On a couple of the evenings, we went over to the dining yurt at Mt. Bohemia and hung out with that day's skiers (demographic alert: 85% men), ordered pizza, and listened to Jan Arnold who plays the guitar and skillfully leads karaoke for the somewhat lit crowd in the main yurt.  I chatted with Jan and I might come back and play fiddle with her - as long as I can work on the songs ahead of time, I'll be fine, as I've never learned to improvise.

Bar yurt, Mt. Bohemia
The Olympics started that weekend in Pyeongchang, so as we watched the opening ceremonies on the little TV in the cabin with my family, it all felt wonderfully hygge.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

NYC adventures Day #4 - the a.m. grumpies

Image
The trip was definitely winding down. Despite getting plenty of sleep in an excellent hotel bed, I woke up and was just...done. Done with walking and sightseeing. I had hit my travel wall. My feet weren't particularly sore, nor was any part of me in distress. It was more of a mental state and I was more generally overwhelmed by everything we had taken in but I had not been able to process. Although I was not surprised, the timing wasn't great, because we had to be out of the hotel by late that morning and we would then be out and about until our plane left....in the evening. As I mentioned before and what I know from experience but seem to to have still not learned the lesson, is this: if I don't schedule down time while traveling, there comes a bad day. Not only for me, but for the others with whom I am traveling. However, with such a short time in NYC and so much we definitely wanted to do, it is not clear what I would have changed. But I will firmly say this - I know...
Read more

NYC adventures day #4 - p.m. tennis

Image
Oh, I forgot to talk about Flushing, from a couple of days prior to our last day. When we were touring around Queens eating ourselves silly, we found a bunch of time with no place to go and no room to eat. So, we wandered around the streets taking in the sights and the smells, and we ended up walking over to a park. I have rarely seen a park so ...used. There were soccer games going on - adult soccer games with families all up and down the sidelines. Kids were riding bikes in fountains that had been drained. There were ice cream vendors, grilling was going on, and oh, the music. I couldn't help myself because there was drumming, music, singing and dancing. We had moved over one block and instead of Asian communities, this was definitely Latin. Exactly where, I had no idea. I just wandered into the crowd and enjoyed being a part of it for about 5 minutes, then I noticed my family was wandering far away so I reluctantly caught up with my group but kind of wanted to be adopted b...
Read more

Delightful Denmark - Tivoli Gardens

Image
Last year we took a truly wonderful cruise of the Baltic Sea. It was a work-related trip for me as I was in a hosting role, and happily, Jeff was able travel with me. I have to say Jeff and I both fell in love with Copenhagen. The slightly gritty yet architecturally interesting look of the city fit with what we enjoy, and I think the fact that we got everywhere by bike or on foot made it that much more special. My favorite spot of all was  Tivoli Gardens . Of course, I adore amusement parks so I was already primed to like the place. However, it ended up being much more of a beautiful experience than I expected. We went in the late afternoon of a warm but soon-to-be rainy day, and decided to get a few rides in while we could. At the entrance, I saw a restaurant with a variation of the word I recognized for 'cake', and made a mental note to come back. Captivating The rides ranged from older and quaint to quite modern, and getting a glimpse of Copenhagen from the ta...
Read more