Scott headed out on a mountain bike ride early this morning.  He slipped a bit on the wooden structure in the drizzling rain, so he cut his ride short.

Brooke is enjoying some hot chocolate from the best camp host ever.  We have been to well over a hundred campsites, so it says a lot when we say best campground.  The bathrooms were impeccably clean, the campground host had hot chocolate and coffee to share, and the showers…Let’s just say, “Ahh.” Scott took the picture of me in my high heels after sawing the kids’ hiking sticks into more portable sizes. I don’t normally wear high heels camping, but my left foot tends to become quite painful if I don’t stretch it often enough due to planters and oddly enough high heels help.

We stopped at the sign marking the annual snow fall accumulation.  Last year they had 19 feet of snow, which is slightly below their fifty-four year average. Their greatest snowfall was the winter of 1978-1979.  The best part of this picture was the other group we took a picture of.  They had about ten kids and four parents.  Trying to get them all in the picture at the same time and smiling was quite the feat.

Qunicy Mines, MI

We took a cog railcar with a top speed of 5mph down to the mine.

The cog railcar provided a fantastic view of Houghton down below.  Cody was slightly joking, but he grasped the seat in front of him on the 54 degree decline.

We transferred from the railcar to an solar powered electric car.

We were on the seventh floor or seven hundred feet below the surface.  Michigan Tech had a classroom off of the mine.  Imagine going to class in a mine and taking a break from the lecture to get some hands-on real-life experience.  There was a drainage ditch two feet deep to the side of the mine pulling out the constant water.  The ninety-two floors below the mine were flooded.

We learned about the history of copper mining in this area.  The guide shared that in the beginning miners usually worked in teams of three. The person holding the drill bit was called the shaker.  Then two others would use sledge hammers to hit the drill bit.  If the shaker needed a break he would put his thumb over the edge of the drill bit and hope his partners would see before their sledge hammers met his thumb.

The famous hoist number two. Said to be the strongest hoist around in late 1800’s.

The red passenger cars took thirty miners down at a time traveling in the dark at over 1,200 feet a minute.

We stopped at the NPS Isle Royale Headquarters to get the NPS Centennial Badge celebrating the one hundredth anniversary of the NPS. The rangers bent over backwards trying to find the Centennial Badge and additional badge workbooks including the underwater explorer and paleontologist books.

Cody refused to pose for the picture so I scooped him up and he posed upside down.  After our visit to the NPS we headed to Wal-Mart to load up on supplies and get the ever important fly swatter.  The heavy rains earlier in the week caused an increase in the biting black fly population.  To the point where we have been completely coated and had to seek the shelter of the tent.  Scott spent fifteen minutes looking for the fly swatter.  To him it was well worth the time, hence the victory pose in the middle of the store.

My friend Meghan suggested that while we were in the UP we should try pasties. Just so you don’t have the same awkward conversation I did asking where to find the best ones, although it was worth the good laugh, the a in pasty is short, not long.  Pronounce it with a long a and you might wind up some fancy ladies dancing upper outerwear. We finally found some pasties at Ray’s in Houghton.  We tried the traditional and a turkey and craisin combo.  The traditional tasted much like a pot pie.  The turkey and craisin was more moist and sweet and quite delicious despite Cody’s not-so-happy expression.

The bridge in Houghton was quite unique.  The middle section would completely raise or lower horizontally.  In the winter time it lowers completely so the snow mobile riders have their own safe river passage while the cars keep moving up above.  We were able to see the bridge rise up even further in a picture in the Applebee’s we stopped at for dinner.

We celebrated our 15th wedding anniversary at Applebee’s in Houghton, MI.  I had a taste for a mudslide.  It was a little larger than we expected.  Scott stuck with a margarita.  We usually save money by not ordering drinks other than water at restaurants, but it was a celebration night.

We arrived close to sunset at our campground in the Porcupine Mountains.  Let the rock throwing commence!