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Thursday, February 18, 2016

Restaurants from Marquette to Ishpeming

So over on the right >>>>>> in my lists - I made a list of restaurants. I am sure I am missing some, I know I am. I will add as I remember or as I think of them. If you see some I missed, let me know!

Sweet Water Cafe

So, Valentine's evening, we decided to try something new, somewhere we have not been before. While trying every restaurant from Marquette to Ishpeming is on my bucket list, we have a long way to go. So I let Tony pick out where to eat. He chose the Sweet Water Cafe. We had no clue what to expect. We had heard, or read somewhere, that they use organic foods and such, which is fine. We walked in and it seemed like a nice cozy place. I actually did not know they served dinner. CAFE makes me think of a small diner or cafe, coffee and tea or something - so I learned something. We got seated, the service was very very good.

The menu, to us, was not too big. There was not a lot of variety of stuff that we would have chosen. Tony ended up just getting a sandwich because none of the entrees looked appealing to him. I got one of the specials - Chicken cooked in saffron with a tomato/maple syrup compote, veggies and rice pilaf. So I had no clue what Saffron was but I do know what maple syrup is and anything with maple in it is usually good!!! So the chicken was amazing. The tomato and maple compote was actually really really good! saffron, as it turns out, is part of the Crocus flower and give the food a nice purple coloring. So the veggies we got, thin slices of carrots, zucchini and beets, were crisp tender - not the crisp tender I liked, they were actually too hard, almost raw so we ate the zucchini, the softest of them all, I shared. We left the rest. The rice pilaf was too crunchy for me but I shared again and Tony ate it. He also really liked his sandwich. We did also have the Chocolate Heart Cake for 2 - Chocolate cake - chocolate layers, chocolate frosting and drizzle. It was delish, we ate it all. So we were pleased with the entree but not the sides that came with it and maybe that is how they were supposed to be and we are just not used to that. We gave the whole experience a 7 out of 10. We probably won't go back, and not because it's bad or anything, it just is not for us. It is a great place if you are looking for something different - if you like organic foods and need the gluten free or Vegan choices, they are your place! Oh, I did have an Apple Crisp drink and a Cranberry and Vodka and they were both absolutely scrumscious! Kudos to the bartender!!

Ok that was our Valentine's treat! :-) I wonder what they next restaurant will be? I am looking forward to Hudson's, Das Steinhaus, and the ChopHouse.

Oh, I did eat at the Piedmont at the Landmark during a meeting there. This counts as a restaurant off my list! We had a lunch buffet which included salad, about 5 choices of sandwiches or wraps, soup, chips, cookies - and it was AMAZING. Oh and Italian pasta. I loved it. I ate too much! I will for sure be using them again for the meeting! The staff was excellent and the food yum yum yum. I would give them a 9-10. I am no restaurant critic but you know, I can rate them on my own personal scale.

What are my faves? Still the Vierling, Port Side, and of course, Coco's. I can't get enough of their maple dip for their sweet potato fries and their French Dip sammie. OMG. And they are by the lake. Big bonus. Honey when are we going back to Coco's?

:-) Have a great Thursday! Thirsty Thursday! Maybe another bucket list should be all of the bars...oh boy....I may need to recruit reinforcements for that list!!! :-)

Sunrise on Lake Superior

It is not too often I get to go into work early. Ok that sounded like I actually like going in early...how about - every once in a while, I have to haul my butt out of bed and go to work early :-) That's better. Today I had a class to set up for at the HBA office on Confined Spaces. The weather today is beautiful. Yes there is lake effect snow blowing all over the place. But the sun was out and it was gorgeous. The sky was a cotton candy pink, striped with baby blue. It reminded me of a soft knitted baby blanket one of my kids had that was pink and blue. But the clouds, they were cotton candy this morning. It was just beautiful. So I stopped at Huron Mountain Bakery and got muffins for the class today. And I got to Marquette a little early. Naturally, I headed to the lake. Who would want to miss something like this?

I swung into Rip Tide Rock parking lot amongst the 3 other cars sitting there with spectators of Gods artwork. As soon as I pulled in, I gasped. My breath caught in my throat. The sun was JUST peeking up over the horizon. So I got out my phone and snapped pictures. Then I took a 2 minute video of the sun coming up. You could actually see it rising. It is quote a feeling to watch something so beautiful that you have no control over. I don't remember a time in my life ever, where the sheer beauty of something brought a lump to my throat. The water was glass...textured glass from the ice chunks drifting quietly all around. The Lake was waking up this morning, she was yawning and stretching and she was just beautiful. (I could only wish I looked that beautiful waking up in the morning, right ladies?)

I hope these pictures let you in on my little morning taste of the lake. I wish I had my better half to enjoy it with but he was hard at work already. The pictures do not do it justice.


I can now cross watching the sunrise off my bucket list. :-)

Wednesday, February 10, 2016

Shoutout to My Beared Yooper

This post is just a quick shout out to my bearded Yooper....like the majority of the Yooper men I have met and seen up here, he is a very hard working man. In the summer he works 12-14 hours, wrenching and coming home black from fingertips to biceps, smelling like a can of 90 weight (on a good day). And every time he walks through the door, I kiss him. Filthy or clean, he gets a kiss. Crabby and bitching, he gets a kiss. Every morning, he gets a kiss (ok except those mornings when he flies out the door and forgets, eh hem....by the way honey, you owe me two...I add interest). I have no reason to not kiss him when he is crabby when he comes home. I know he isn't crabby at me. Ok so even when he might be crabby at me, I think I still sneak kisses in. You have to. Why not? Why go to bed angry? Why bring work troubles home and vice versa?

My Yooper introduced me to this beautiful place and there isn't a day that goes by that I don't peek a glimpse of the lake and appreciate it. I went out with my friends in Green Bay the other weekend and one was asking what's been up in my life and I had nothing to report. NOTHING. No drama. No arguments with the old man. No financial troubles. No car troubles (because my old man fixes them right away thanks to his most superior mechanical skills). No kid drama. Nothing. Everything is good. Everything is happy. And I am SO loving it! Who the hell knew that moving to North shore of America where it is cold 9 months out of the year....where Winter comes in abundance and sometimes with a vengeance, where my love lives, where my heart belongs, who the hell knew that this was where I was going to find happiness. It's funny how life works out. One of my biggest fears is losing it all. Almost seams too good to be true.

Funnies - when boyfriend slips and calls himself your husband...funnier - when his mom slips and calls you his wife. <3 Ahhhhh. If only, lmao. :-) Gives this girl a big ego to know that his parents like me enough and believe I am even remotely good enough to be their sons wife. What a compliment from them.

Ok, enough mushy babbling. I guess I just wanted to point out that there is love in the U.P. - love love love - maybe Valentine's Day is getting to me this year - I am a Valentine's Day girl, I do love the hearts and flowers and mushies that go along with it. It is not required by any means, but what girl does not love to be romanced. We are going out to eat this weekend, no clue where. We have done the Vierling a few times lately so we won't go there (don't get me wrong, I love them, just time to change a bit). We will see. Maybe we will just get in the car and go. See where we end up. Maybe dinner at the lake. LOL. :-)

Find your Valentine this weekend. If you really don't have one, I will be your Valentine. Just remember, I love those little conversation sweetheart candies, my favorite, and Donkers chocolates. You can drop em off at the HBA office on Front street. LOL!! Just kidding. Love yourself!

Happy Valentine's Day - Happy Winter - Happy falling in love. Shout out to my bearded Yooper - I love you more than you will ever know. I don't give at damn about the garage full of tools and car parts and small machines, I don't care about the vehicles in the driveway (as long as they are not Chevy's), I don't care that you grow your beard 70% of the year. I think your beard is hot and I think your dimples underneath are hot. I am still excited every time you come home from work. I still get butterflies when you grab me and kiss me. I still love your smile. I still love dancing with you. I still love looking at the lake with you. Woogeyman.

To the ends of the earth..and then to Ish. xoxoxoxox

Learn the Lingo

Hey folks! I hope you all are surviving the cold blustery weather!! So, if you are a follower/reader, you know I have only lived up here a short time (since April) - so I am used to everything Yooper - the weather, the lingo, the beards (I never have seen SO many people with beards inn one place in my life!)and everything else. I have even taken some of the Yooperisms under my cheesehead wing and enjoyed them myself - the pasty, the cudighi, the lake of course and some of the lingo - ok I refuse to say SOW-NA, cause I am a cheesehead. I am used to the weather - I visited all last winter, where there was more snow I believe. And a lot colder. By the way...the beards up here are not all scraggly and nasty...the Yooper men up here are very proud of their beards and most of them wear them quite nicely.

So let me come to my point - I was at the Career Fair today at NMU - taking applications and resumes for my HBA members. The folks sitting next to me (I will not mention the company name or folks names) were nice people. Until one of them was looking at their smartphone at the weather and saw snow squall and lake effect snow and asked what squall meant and what lake effect meant. -_- That was my expression. If you live up here, you must know these terms. You have to learn to the lingo if you are going to live up here, although, lake effect is not just a U.P. term, right? I mean...there are other lakes, maybe it's just me.

I am on a great Yooper site on Facebook - (Yoopers Rule da World) - and I am on it for the pictures. I love the pictures people post and I have decided I need to get a nice camera, with a nice big lens and zoom capabilities...I have two Nikon Pix cameras and they don't do things justice, the screen is way too small to view the pictures in and I can't see anything. Goals.

So I have not gotten snowed in yet....close tho! The snow did come up over the bottom of the door when we got about 8 inches last week. I did take a snow day. It was a good day.

What is so crazy to me is that I used to be very bitter about winter. I hated it. I hated the thought of going out in the cold, I hated getting all bundled up. Staying in with my blankie and fuzzie socks seemed SO comforting. I am not so bitter anymore since I have moved up here. I don't mind donning my Mad Bomber hat and either my wool military style dress coat or my bright red Carhartt. (I just realize I have been spelling Carhartt wrong my entire life...Tony had to point out the logo on my sweatshirt....Yooper fail). Anyhow, I don't mind going out in the winter anymore. I like walking in the deep snow. I love looking at the ice sculptures, icicles....fat fluffy snowflakes... I don't like driving in it at all, it stresses me. The back of my neck gets giant knots in it from hunching over or grabbing the steering wheel too tight. And I don't like the frigid blustery wind. Who does right? Otherwise, I am not minding winter anymore. WHO AM I!!!!! Still not a Yooper. I still have not figured out the qualifications yet...if I have to live here 7 winters...or what. LOL. Always a Cheesehead.

I drove past the lake this morning (during the blowing whiteout snow conditions) and it looked so dark and eerie.
It looked like a giant wall of fog just sitting on the lake....fog, mist, blowing snow, you could not see any of it.

I believe the UP 200 starts tomorrow. I am hoping to see some sled dogs! Not sure if I will, work calls.

Speaking of work - the UP Builders Show is coming up, March 4th thru the 6th at the Dome. IT is only 4 bucks to get in and there are a lot of free giveaways, you should all come. Stop me if you see me and say HI - I will be one of the gals running around with a bright yellow nametag on (only 2 of us).

All for now - not digging the subzero temps but hey, it is what it is and I love my Mad Bomber hat. I am never cold when I wear it. Ok maybe my legs are cause I have not learned to wear long johns yet.

Stay warm and Toasty! My favorite socks today - bought from Shopko in Marquette for $2.49 on sale - one sock reads LIKE A and the other says BOSS. I love them.

:-) Always freezing - but isn't that what our bearded Yooper men are for? Keeping us warm? I know mine is...:-)

xoxoxox - Lovely frozen thoughts.....S

Monday, February 1, 2016

I do believe Winter is here....

So we have not gotten dumped on yet up here in the U.P. - not at all. We are supposed to be getting a storm this week up to 10- 12 inches or something like that, ok, that is only a foot of snow, not even that much and I am used to getting that down in Green Bay...so really, I am getting SO spoiled this winter!!!

I have to say, I do love my Mad Bomber hat from Getz's. It is not only super super warm, but it keeps the wind off me as well. LOVE IT. I am glad I chose that over the Stormy Kromer. I am just a mad bomber kinda gal I guess.

So new place....we finally got to the Coachlite and ate breakfast! YUM!! Great food, good service! It was a very busy place and nice atmosphere! We really enjoyed it. I, of course, did not eat all of mine, like always, so I had help. Jon had an omelet - he was ok with it but was hoping for more cheese or sauce, not what he was expecting. I had the southern country skillet or something and it was delish. Way to go Coachlite! I am a fan.

So my son Jon came up this past weekend and we drove down Lakeshore to show him all of the cool ice sculptured trees...annnnnd, they were all melted. It was 49 degrees outside!!! WHAT!!!! Is SPRING coming early?:?!!! Hahaha of course not, don't be silly. It was just the calm before the storm that was all. It is now going to drop a foot of white beautiful snow on us (I did not say that out lout ssshhh) and I may actually get my first snow day from work!!! (If any of my HBA friends are reading here....I am so bummed if I can't get into work, really!!!)

I signed us up at the HBA for the Holiday Fleet card so I am excited about that!! Ten cents a gallon off!!

So, for those of you who do not know, I sell Pampered Chef. Shamelessly plugging myself here, well, cause this is my blog and I can. But there are not a lot of consultants up here in the U.P. - not a lot at all so I am looking for one in the Houghton area, one or to three in the Marquette area and one or two on the East side of the U.P. - if you know anyone who wants to start their own business, please, but all means, send them to me! To sign up, it is $99 or $159 for a starter kit and you get to keep all of the products! Ok enough shameless Pampered Chef plugging!

So come on mother nature! Show your snowy wintery face and snow me in!!!! :-) Only up here, we don't run to the store and clear our the bread and milk and eggs and water sections......we don't stock up food for weeks on end, well, because that's just life. If you can't drive there, chances are you have a pair of snow shoes, or a sled or four wheeler...and if you don't, a neighbor is bound to!

:-) For those of you who have not been to the lake lately, you must go. When the sun is shining and just sparkling off the water....just stand and look at it...whether it is the sunset over Teal Lake, or over the big lake herself....just to know how beautiful it feels to be moved by something that is out of your control. THAT is what living in the U.P. is about. And when you look up at the stars at night, they will remind you of the beauty in your struggles.

Have a good night my Yooper friends....

...Not a Yooper....but don't mind being amongst them (or in love with one).... - S