There are many things that I love about Michigan. I love my home, the seasons, the lakes, my college (University of Michigan-Dearborn) the list goes on. But what I love most about our state is the Upper Peninsula or as my family says “going up north”. I have been traveling to my family cottage in the Upper Peninsula since I was a baby. The cottage has been on the St. Mary’s river since the 1920’s. The cottage itself is small and meek, but the experience is like none other. The memories made there will last me a lifetime and one day my own children will travel there and they will create memories to last their lifetime. 

I like to remember things like riding bikes with my sister to go get ice cream. Fishing with my dad and grandpa was the best! We fished for pike, bass, and perch, depending on the time of year. The first time I learned that you can make the shape of the two peninsulas with your hands, I was at the cottage. We would travel “to town” by way of Sault St. Marie. We would go to the locks and learn how they worked and why they worked. Quite an education on water commerce for a ten year old, but I’ll always remember it. On the way “out of town” we would stop for a burger at Clyde’s, a drive-up restaurant at the entrance for the Sugar Island Ferry. Still to this day, I stop for a Clyde burger every time I’m “up north”.

Our state is proof that you don’t have to go far and you don’t have to spend much money to have a wonderful family vacation that can produce life-long memories. No matter where I go, no matter what I do, it’s nice to know that I will always have this beautiful and serene place to get away from it all—my Upper Peninsula—it’s “up north”.