The Pasty and The Fatman. U.P. Style.

So there have been a couple of things I have forgotten to write about. Shame on me. One is the Pasty. I finally had a real one. It was from a grocery store deli but it was made fresh, still hot and smelled great. Bought it at the Jubilee IGA store on Hwy 41 in Ishpeming. So I took it home and threw it on a plate. Covered half of it with ketchup, as instructed by any Yooper ever I have talked to about pasties. I knew I was not going to eat it all, it was the size of my plate. A dinner plate. huge. So I started eating. And it was good. It was nothing like the fake one I had down in Green Bay, dry and no taste, even with a bottle of ketchup, no this one was moist, very flavorful both the filling and the crust. Now I need to get to Lawry's and have one and over to Jean Kay's, my favorite deli. Then I will compare pasties. So, so far, I am a fan. My job lets me network with all kinds of people in all kinds of industries. Construction companies, home remodelers, window installers, insurance brokers, bankers, and media personalities like The Fatman on 100.3 The Point, out of Marquette. So I was nervous to go talk to him on the radio. I just don't like being on the radio. He was introducing me to the community for the Home Builders Association, with me being the new Executive Officer and all. So I talked about this and that, it was short and sweet. I don't think I did too awful, but if you started counting the times I said UM, you may need your toes. :-) The next food item on my list is one of those Finnish Pancakes and I can never remember the name of them. That and Das Steinhaus. Dying to try that place, I love German food. :-) Food on the brain - Sarah

A Quiet Storm, Short and Sweet

It was Monday today. Work went fine, that was short and sweet. Then over to the DJ Jacobetti Vets Home to fill out paperwork. Got home and for some reason, on the way home, I just got in a funk. I was kind of glad no one was home, I was just in a mood. In a funk. A painful funk - hips, knees and back all screaming at me (guessing the weather?)...and just an emotional funk along with it. Not sure why. It was a funk that brought emotions to the brim and almost tears to go with it. You know those days. Sad songs, everything upsets you. Anyhow, I own a journal that I actually write in. With a pen. Not on the computer. So I wrote. It doesn't fix things but it lets me get it off my chest. And on paper. And then I don't think about it so much because it is there in my book and not so much in my head. So I washed the dishes. Then just needed to get out of the house. So I drove to the nearest gas station, bought a couple of things....and decided I needed to go for a drive. And where did I end up. At Lake Superior of course. I stopped by Presque Isle Park. There were way too many people there for me to be chirpy and social today so I drove on. To Black Rocks. Planned on sitting out there for a while but it started raining. And not just raining, pouring. Buckets. There were kids running around in shorts and enjoying the warm summer rain, because it really wasn't cold. And the sun was shining. Really bright. It was kind of weird and kind of beautiful. A crazy kind of beautiful. So I sat in my car. Then it stopped raining so I opened my door to get out and mother nature had other plans and she let loose again and rain just came pouring down. Ok, I got the hint. I closed my door and drove on. Right around the corner from Black Rocks is a beautiful little spot called Sunset Point. I pulled over. As the sun was going down just a bit, it was shining crazy bright over the water, and it was still raining. It was really something to see. So I drove on, wanting to pull over at every little spot in the road there was to pull over and watch this but I drove on. Coming out of the park there was a big beautiful rainbow. Click, took a picture. By the way, I have to apologize, this blog still will not let me post pictures in my posts. Not sure why. And I don't have the patience these days to find out. So back up to the park. And there were a dozen cars there and people snapping pictures left and right. I got out and became a tourist again and when I got to the edge of the water, I saw why.....the rainbow stretched lazily over the lake. It ended right in front of us. If you looked back to the West, where it started, all you could see was white in the distance on the top of the lake. The storm front on the water. I wish it would have been closer. I am not sure how many pictures I took, the sky, the clouds, several of the rainbow and then some of the double rainbow. Headed home, and within an hour there was another rainbow at home but the sky, off to the West, the sun was still bright and the sky was SO blue. It was really breathtaking. I know I write about the lake a lot. But I can't help it. It seems like it is never the same every time you go there. So I am sure I will update you again on the same lake, on a different beautiful day. And that is really all for this Monday. It was a Monday, an eh Monday, but it ended up being a very beautiful Monday night. xoxox Loving the sky over the lake.... ~s

Father's Day in the U.P. - and some new experiences

Black Rocks, Coco's, Maritime Museum, The Port Side, a car show, the Iron Ore Museum, Country Grill and Da Yooper Tourist Trap. All a part of our Father's Day weekend. Tony's dad, Lincoln, came up to see us for Father's Day weekend. Of course we had to take him site seeing...he fell in love with Black Rocks, as I did when I first saw it. You can't explain Black Rocks to people and you can't take a picture and get them to feel how you did when you went to see it. It is something they need to see and experience for yourself. The beauty, the magnificence of it all, the sounds of the waves, gently slapping up against the rocks....so lightly, but hard enough to say hey, I am here and I am magnanimous.....the smell...of the clean air, of the lake, just all of it. There are no words that I can tell you to make you fully understand it all or even imagine the experience and there are no pictures that can show you. It would be a picture of some big black rocks and a lake. It would be beautiful. But it would not be YOUR experience. I believe everyone who comes to Black Rocks has their own experience, their own emotions. I have had many. From pure happiness in realizing that I know I made the right decision in moving up here to just emotional sorrow, letting go of some things that needed to be let go of. It is a good place to do that - to let go of things, but it is a good place to go and just smile and let the wind touch your face, and to be in love and be happy and healthy...it is just a good place to be who you are.

Ok enough of that sappiness. So off to lunch, we stopped at Coco's, which I have been dying to go try! So I was excited!! I was expecting it to be a little more formal than it was but I was not disappointed. It had a very casual lakeside atmosphere about it, which is what it was, a very casual lakeside restaurant. Our waiter was Ethan and he was very awesome - the customer service was great, he took care of everything, checked on us many times, and made sure we were well taken care of. The food, well, the food was amazing. I had the French Dip and it was just outstanding. The boys had burgers and Tony's dad had a Rueben and everyone was very very pleased with their food. Oh, and if you are a fan of sweet potato, order them here...there is a to die for maple dip they give you. Heaven. Tony and I WILL be coming back here on date night to test out dinner!! The next stop was the Maritime Museum. We knew Lincoln would like this, as he has been a sailor all of his life. So off to the museum we went and it was very neat. Even if you are not a sailor or a fisherman or anything of the sort (like me), it was still pretty neat to read about the history of some of the big shipwrecks on Lake Superior. And they have a pretty neat gift shop. Someday I will go back, there are little light houses there that need to be in my house. :-)

After the Maritime Museum, we headed out to Lankenenland. This is the park full of Junkyard Art. You can read about this in a previous post. That was very enjoyable as well. Back into town, we went to the Port Side for dinner. I went here once before and I had ordered the wrong thing and didn't like it, it was a fish I knew I didn't like, but had forgotten. So anyhow, we all ate...I had a chimichanga and it was SO filling and SO amazing YUUM. The rest is sitting in my fridge. Again, everyone happy with their meals. Forgive me, I cannot remember our waitress's name - short blonde spiky hair I believe. She was awesome too. Another hit. Back home and we all pretty much crashed. It was a long day in the U.P. and we were all done for. So Sunday we headed out to the Yooper Tourist Trap. This is always a hit with visitors, well, because it has everything Yooper and you can spend hours in there reading all of the fun stuff they have. After our purchases there (why can't I ever leave there without spending money), off to the Country Grill for brunch. They were busier than we had ever seen them but we got in and got seated. The buffet was good as usual, and we were stuffed again. After food we hit Negaunee for the car show and the Iron Ore Museum. The car show was interesting, not a ton of cars there but some neat ones, including my Bronco on the way out. Someday. The Iron Ore Museum is A LOT of information. You could spend a weekend reading all about the history, the process, the past-present of mining and how they lived, all kinds of stuff. Note...do not touch the red rocks in the cart....they stain. In my defense, there was no sign telling me not to play with the red rocks. After another long day, we headed home and dad headed back south. It was a good weekend and a great visit.

On a more personal note, I know now where my boyfriend gets his amazing personality and his big heart from. Thanks for the visit Link, you are welcome back anytime. No guns at the window, I promise ;-) Happy Father's Day to all of the dads out there, whether you are a dad, a stepdad, a grandfather, a single mom with no dad around to help with the kids, all of you. Thank you for being there for your kids. And I hope your weekend was as blessed as mine was. ~Sarah

Contractor Demo Days

I have to put in a plug for my event coming up in the fall - Contractor Demo Days - September 24th from 11 am to 8 pm. It is at the Marquette County Fair Grounds. It is everything a contractor or builder needs in a show. There will be tool suppliers. There will be heavy equipment dealers digging holes and showing off their equipment, parts suppliers, pick up truck dealers, safety equipment, Cardhardt, all kinds of stuff! And the U.P. Home Builders Association is providing free food. :-) I will post reminders close to the event but if you are a business and you want to show off your products or services to the contractors in the U.P, please email me! info@upbuilders.org Keep Diggin! Sarah

My Morning Commute

I have to brag a little to all of my friends who DON'T live up here. Well, this summer anyhow. This winter, they will be laughing at me. I love my morning commute. I say that with visions of the lake in my head. Teal Lake. Lake Superior. (there will be a duplicate blog this winter about my morning commute and it will not be so nice and happy. It will probably be written out of frustration with shaky hands from days of white knuckling my steering wheel). The traffic is not too terrible. It flows pretty smooth. I drive through Ishpeming on highway 41 and then down the hill past Teal Lake in Negaunee. It really is a pretty little lake. Sometimes like glass, sometimes covered with fog, sometimes with ice and snow. Any day you pass it, it's beautiful. It's like Lake Superiors VERY baby sister. A spec of water to the big lake but still. Still pretty. Once you come up the ridge and around the corner, you see the big lake, Lake Superior, well most days you can see it. Some days it is bright blue and you just take a breath in. Some days it is all white and you cannot see where the lake ends and the sky begins. When I park at my office, I am at the Marina pretty much, well across the street. I park by the lake every morning on Spring Street. I know, it's terrible. I take it in every morning. Again, come back this winter and look for my post on my morning commute. I guarantee it will be way different. Anyhow. Drive from Ish to Marquette someday. You will see what I am talking about. :-)

Lankenenland Visit

Morning folks! Sorry I haven't written in a week - life was happening!!! It is Monday June 15th - my little brothers birthday. Happy Birthday Brian Timm in Colorado. I hope you are having a fantastic day today. It is sunny and beautiful outside and it is going to be a great day. Of course, by this afternoon, it would be storming. Or snowing. Because the weather up here has a mind of its own. So I had a new experience yesterday. No, not grocery shopping with my love, both walking around half sleep walking like zombies, that isn't new, I have done that before, lol. He took me to Lankenenland. If you have never been there, please Google it. It is a little place out on M28 - free to the public - a park kind of, full of junkyard art. Tom Lankenen builds junkyard art, out of scrap. I can't name off everything that is there because I can't possibly remember everything - but there were spaceships and motorcycles, dinosaurs, mermaids, pigs, trains, ghosts, a tank or a boat maybe both, a skeleton or 2, monsters, funny things and creepy things. It is really really neat to see. You can park the car and walk the trails checking out all of the neat sculptures or you can drive around in the car. It is a beautiful drive along Lake Superior to get there from Marquette on M28 East. Worth the day trip folks! Next time I will be taking pictures and maybe walking! :-) So I took a new job up here. Executive Director of the Upper Peninsula Home Builders Association. Fancy title huh? Anyhow, I get to put on a Contractors Demo Days with other folks helping me out - it will be pretty awesome. Big machines showing off, vendors to show their stuff to you contractors out there. :-) Very exciting stuff. I will post more about it when the time comes. Well off to make the mad dash off death across Hwy 41 then stopping at Holiday to grab some girl coffee. It's going to be a beautiful day. What is your favorite Yooper thing? - Having a sunshiny day - Sarah

Funny thought about Mos-Qui-tos

I had a quick thought about mosquitos before I sign off for the night. It is included in part of my blog title because, well, I have never seen mosquitos swarm like Oshkosh lake flies anywhere ever until I came up here. They hover....and they are huge. They really are the Yooper state bird. I will have to invest in a huge bucket of bug spray. Or a shot gun. Shot gun may kill more in one shot. Maybe. And the little fuckers hurt when they bite and silently drain you of every ounce of your life's liquid gold. It's doesn't quiet feel like when you get blood drawn but that is starting to become much more appealing.....;-) Haha. If you see mosquitos coming, just start swatting. Or shooting. Or use the shovel still left out in case it snows again. That's it. Shovel and swat. ;-) A wise man told me that once. And if you HEAR mosquitos coming, well, don't get too frightened, it may just be my old man's Saturn. Gotta love him. Swat away my friends. Make it funnier on the mosquitos and get wasted. That way you can at least laugh at them as they stagger-fly away lit up on a belly full of beer or whiskey. shovel and swat - Sarah

An Inspiring Lady

If any of you are ever looking for someone to help lift your spirits, maybe give you a positive outlook on life or just a little bit of motivation - I want to introduce you to an amazing young lady. Since she was little - she had a mighty temper. And by mighty I mean Mighty Joe Young mighty. She threw tantrums and stomped, everything she wanted her way. (I don't think that has changed much....I will have to ask her fiancé). She loved to hunt and fish with her dad and go out in the mud and then come inside and put on a crown and her prettiest dress. She was a princess who knew how to run with the boys and she still is today. She is now 20 and engaged to be married to someone very worthy of her. He puts up with her emotional spins....he is worthy. Seriously though, she has been through a lot in her lifetime from divorced parents, going through a troubled middle school life with no self esteem, a tumor on her breast, an ATV accident and knee surgery, the loss of several people close to her and an astounding journey to find Jesus on her own. She makes this mama so very proud and if there was anyone I could have live closer to me it would be her and her brother. Please give it a whirl. Stop and say hi to her. My kid. HeatherLee Schwersenska and her motivational blog: http://internationalinspiration.blogspot.com/ Thanks for checking in. Pay it forward my friends.... Have a great week in the U.P. - and hurry and do it before summer is gone.... xoxox S

Lazy Days

It's Sunday today. It started raining early this morning, about 2 or 3 AM. My allergies have been in high gear the last 4 days. Worst I have seen them in a very long time. I hope it doesn't rain a lot this summer, ugh. So today marks one year that my handsome better half sent me a friend request on Facebook and we started chatting again for the first time in 24 years. Never in a million years did I think I would be living up in Ishpeming, Michigan, the Upper Peninsula.....in a world where time runs a little slower, in a place where a person can just be at peace if they want to be....and with a man that I have loved, well, apparently since 1991. For 24 years. Someone deep inside, there laid an ember...just one little tiny ember still warm and glowing...and a year ago, he was the wind that picked it up stoked it.....brought it back to life. And living here just feeds those sparks and embers. I find new reasons every day to love him even more and to love it up here even more. I do have my days. When I miss the back of a motorcycle, I miss getting all decked out in my Harley attire and feeling all sassy, I do miss those days. Those days are more prominent now, as friends of my post their pictures of fun in the sun. And I will have those days and they will pass. And I wouldn't give up my life right now for any of it. People ask me why I move up here and I tell them and they think I am crazy. They say no one MOVES HERE intentionally. They all move away to get better jobs. I moved to Green Bay, WI to get a better job, about 4 to 5 years ago. I got 2 betters jobs and a great education and met some of my favorite people in the world. But I didn't move here to get a better job. I moved here to be with someone I can't imagine being without. I followed my heart. Three hours north. I wouldn't leave. I have no regrets. I miss my friends and that life I used to live. Change is hard. I have gone from Harley tank tops and bandanas, skull jewelry and riding in the wind, most of the times included drinking a lot - to a much slower paced life - of reading books I needed to catch up on, writing this new blog and more on my other blogs, meeting new people, starting a new job (it is never easy being the new person), and hopefully get myself a girl truck to go trail riding in or just pissing around. Trail riding and mudding are a big thing up here. I have done this before and I enjoyed it then. I enjoy it more now because of the company I keep. I am just babbling. In one of those moods. Ever have a day when the rain and the dreary day just made you lazy and blah? :-) It's allowed, right...:-) Yoopers can have lazy days too. It's a damn good thing I'm not one of them then huh? LOL Family Video in Negaunee, Pizza Hut in Ish - they have been getting our business this weekend. Oh well. New job tomorrow. I am excited that I get to work in Marquette, RIGHT next to the lake :-) Which will make my summers beautiful and my winters fucking frigid....ahhhh...here's to Ish. xoxox Here's to lazy Sunday's S

Yooper Time

One of the things I have noticed up here is that life up here is on a different time table. I am not talking about the one hour time difference that messes people up if you travel back and forth between time zones, if you work in another time zone or just visit. It still messes me up. Having to leave here at 5 pm to get down to where I have to go by 5 pm can be confusing. :-) That isn't what I mean though. I am talking about the days up here. Life starts a little later. The days are a little longer. There is not a mad rush hour for folks to get to work by 6 am. A lot of jobs up here don't start until 8-9 or even 10 am. The days last a little longer too, especially in the summer. Just ask my neighbor who mows his lawn at 10 pm. It was still light out. Nevermind that I was in bed already with a headache, but he finally had the time to mow his lawn. Really? -_- I get it. I know it gets done when they have the time and if the time is, well, the last 15 minutes of daylight....then so be it. I can't bitch too much. My other half doesn't get home from work until after 8 pm most nights and we don't get to bed until 11, after everyone had eaten dinner. Lol. It seems crazy but it's true. Life is a little slower up here, people get up a little later, and the days last a little longer.

A Healing Lake

I went out to Marquette today, ran errands with Tony and dropped him back off at work. I decided, since the weather was just gorgeous out, to go peek at the lake and see if I could get some writing done. I skipped Rip Tide Rock today and went straight to Presque Isle Park. I parked there for a minute but there were way too many people so I headed to Black Rocks. It was just breathtaking. There was one other car in the parking lot. Good. The lake was very very blue today. Tony's eyes get this color of blue some days. The sky is clear. You can see so far out today. Not quite to Canada like some tourists think you can, but far. I have never seen the lake so clear as it was today. I could see bottom as far as my eyes would let me. I walked down to a tiny piece of beach in between the jagged rocks. The rocks down here are so colorful, so beautiful. My toes, clad in sandals of course, immediately found the water. LOL Yes it was cold. But that did not stop my feet from enjoying the frigid waters - covering them, up to the bottom of my jeans. I didn't care and my feet, while frozen in temperature and in time...they couldn't move. I was amazed...amazed doesn't really seem to even begin to describe it. I was over joyed, excited, humbled, by how clear the water was. I wonder how it tasted. I squatted down at the waters edge, both feet submersed, one hand full of beautiful stones and I reached down with the other hand and cupped a handful of water and brought it to my lips and drank. It was freezing cold, it was silk going down my throat, it was crystal clear. My mind ran off to some science fiction fantasy realm imagining a lake, a water that could heal. I doubt if you put a little of Lake Superior on your cuts, bruises or sprains that it would heal you. But I do know that it heals your soul. I am living proof of that. And I know others that are as well. As I sit on Black Rocks all alone (I have never been here alone before, there were two tourists here taking hundreds of pictures when I arrived, we passed as they were leaving, exchanged hellos and comments on the beautiful weather, but then it was just me and the lake) with no sunscreen on, it was almost overwhelming. The sheer size of this lake and her beauty. I could come out here every day and write. The only sound besides me typing on my phone is the lake. Gently rippling, gently slapping the rocks as she comes to say hello. Once in a while you hear the birds but even the birds are quiet today. It is like time stood still today. When you are alone. I found a couple of neat little pieces of driftwood I took home. All over Black Rocks, there are little pools of water, from the lake or from the rain. They are very very warm. Warmer than bathwater. I cannot wait until this summer. I just may have to jump in. I can't describe to you really how this lake make you feel or the magnificence of it all. You have to see it for yourself. If you ever get the chance. I am putting a list up on the right over here ======>>>>>>> with facts about Lake Superior. Not my facts. I found them online at the Minnesota Sea Grant website. Hopefully they are accurate, I have found some different facts on different sites. Enjoy - Toes in the water - even if they are freezing. xoxox Sarah