Stacey’s 30th Birthday Extravaganza

So I had great aspirations on Tuesday…get up early, take the ferry to Mackinac Island, bike eight miles around the island, be back in time to check out of my motel and make it to Grand Haven, Michigan by 4 pm as planned. Unfortunately, sleep deprivation (courtesy of the Minnesotans) finally caught up with me and I ended up sleeping in and skipping the island. I’ve heard that I didn’t miss much…my friends in Grand Haven described Mackinac as “cheesy” and Angie says it’s “boring”. Either way, it’s going to have to wait for some other trip.

I did manage to complete the rest of the plan…checked out of my motel and made it to Grand Haven by around 4 pm. Grand Haven is a very cute beach front community on Lake Michigan near Grand Rapids. I was planning to visit my old college friend Jason and his family in Kalamazoo but it turns out they were on vacation at a rented cottage in GH so I popped in to see them there. Jason’s in-laws Denny and Ellen were gracious enough to both feed me and offer a night’s accommodations which was extremely nice of them. I had a great time catching up on old times with Jason and his wife Michelle, whom I hadn’t seen since they got married nearly 4 years ago.

Speaking of Jason and Michelle’s wedding…this is perhaps a good time to explain how Michigan scored its one point against me. You see, the last and only other time I’d set foot in Michigan…I was double-crossed by this great state. Indeed Michigan seems very midwesterny in its presentation. It looks a lot like Minnesota and Wisconsin…green, lots of trees, lots of water. Michiganites have proved to be just as friendly and gracious as everyone else in the Midwest. But don’t be fooled. Michigan actually resides in the EASTERN time zone…not CENTRAL like the rest of the Midwest. Seems simple enough but unfortunately my friend Nate and I were not aware of (or rather, had forgotten) this fact and ended up showing up at Jason and Michelle’s wedding AFTER the ceremony was over. Score one for Michigan.

At any rate, a grand evening was spent in Grand Haven (pun completely intended) in which I met some new friends Sara and Kirk and got to hang out with Jason and Michelle’s adorable little girls Caitlin and Nora . After breakfast and coffee by the lake, I headed back out on the road towards Kalamazoo for lunch with some work colleagues. It is the strange nature of my work-from-home gig that I’ve worked with many people across the country over the past few years whom I’ve never actually met in person. Such is the case with the crew at Comsys in Kalamazoo so it was great to finally put faces with the voices. Here we are (from left: Johnny, Jo, Jill, Cartier, me (of course), Jim):

After lunch, the Comsys Crew had to get back to the office for the standard Wednesday conference call and I decided to get back on the road towards Detroit. An uneventful drive (for which I’m scoring myself a point) landed me in St. Clair Shores where my friend Jared’s house is located. We celebrated my arrival by heading to downtown Detroit (no, I did not get shot) for sushi at Fishbone’s and drinks at a local Irish pub. I’ll likely hang out here a few days as the draw of a washing machine, wireless internet and a couch to lay around on is too tempting to pass up. Plus, I’ve been talked into sticking around for the home Tigers’ game on Friday night so will likely head towards Niagara Falls on Saturday morning. More to come from Detroit….

Since all of the Minnesotans I know went to college in Wisconsin, I’ve been wondering for a while if maybe there is something inherently wrong with the state of Minnesota? I mean really…why would so many residents defect for a different state if their own was so fabulous? Puzzling…especially considering how great a time there is to be had in the Twin Cities…

Though I was departing a day late and probably a few dollars short, I made it to St. Paul in time to go with my friend Danielle for dinner on East Lake Street in Minneapolis at the Town Talk Diner. Since D knows the bartenders, we were mixed very special drinks including one made from a green tea liquor. I am quite sure that Friday night met my sugar quota for the year but not to worry…the sugar high was counteracted by, quite possibly, the best thing I’ve ever eaten…Town Talk’s garlic parsley french fries. Yum. Afterwards we headed to the Triple Rock to see New York’s Robbers on High Street.

On Saturday afternoon I was off to the house party of several of the aforementioned Minnesota defectors (who have since returned to MN) in the trendy Uptown area of Minneapolis. Sorry for the lack of pictures…I was feeling a little lazy with the camera over the weekend. With perfect weather and lots of food, a good time was had by all on Girard Street well into the early morning hours. Breakfast was a struggle the next morning but was brightened by a coincidental encounter with my old Madison friend John Terry.

Minneapolis Skyline

A quick dash though northern Wisconsin on Sunday afternoon doubled as a flashback to my youth…Minocqua (on the lake with Julie’s grandparents), Rhinelander (what the hell’s a Hodag?) and Tomahawk (4th of July at Alyssa’s grandma’s house). Considering the minimal sleep I got on Saturday night, an early-to-bed Sunday in Iron Mountain, Michigan proved to be just what was needed for an early start this morning.

First stop for lunch…Fayette State Historical Park. Fayette is a restored historic town which was once one of the most productive iron-smelting operations in the Upper Peninsula. There were huge furnaces, an extensive dock and several kilns in operation here. Nearly 500 people lived and worked here for 20+ years in a town that existed just to produce pig iron. The town is very well-preserved and renovations are ongoing by local archaeologists and university students. A recent find included the discovery of a significant quantity of morphine hidden in the walls of one of the buildings they’re excavating…likely the stash of a 19th century addict. It was here that I had the first “heart-attack moment” of the trip when I rounded the corner of the giant furnace and stepped on a rather lengthy snake. To say that was a shock would be an understatement but I can report that I survived despite the temporary spike in my blood pressure. I unfortunately cannot report the same for the snake as I didn’t stick around to find out how it fared.

The next two hours were spent wandering through some very scenic coastline as I approached the famed Mackinac Bridge. The northern route through the UP is reported to be more scenic than the quicker southern route that I took. It’s true that patches of trees often block the beautiful view of the shoreline but for the last 15 miles before St. Ignace one almost forgets they’re in Michigan and not Florida. Almost. I said almost.

And speaking of the Mackinac Bridge (which I will have the pleasure of driving over tomorrow morning)…here’s a shot from the new Bridge View Park:

Since we here at the Extravaganza blog are devoted to informing, amusing and educating (and by “we” I’m referring to myself and the Civvy), I’ve compiled a list of interesting tidbits garnered from the UP.

1. Henry Ford invented the charcoal briquette in 1920 from the scraps and remnants of wood from his Model T production plants. The charcoal plant was established by E.G. Kingsford in the UP near the Wisconsin border.

2. The Mackinac Bridge is the 3rd longest suspension bridge in the world with a total length of 5 miles.

3. A pasty (rhymes with “nasty”, not “tasty”) in the UP is not the more traditional use of the word but rather a meat and potato-filled pie of Cornish origin.

4. Upper Peninsula is home to 328,000 people—only about 3% of the state’s population—living in almost one-third of the state’s land area.

5. UP seagulls rival European pigeons in levels of both idiocy and annoyance…plus they’re louder.