4th of July Festivities

Joseph and I had a GREAT 4th of July!  We drove to Copper Harbor, MI (about an hour long drive) at the tippy top of the upper peninsula.  It's basically as far as you can go before drowning in Lake Superior.  We decided to take the slightly longer scenic route and it made the whole trip so much more fun.   We kind of just "drove by the seat of our pants" and stopped when something looked picture worthy.  We didn't have any cell phone reception all day!  Here are some pictures from the day and the things we saw along the way.

About 20 minutes into the drive, we saw this submarine statue made out of stone.  It looked patriotic, so we figured we should stop and at least take a picture.  It's not every day you see a stone submarine parked on the side of the road.  

Not long after the submarine discovery, we saw signs for a waterfall.  It wasn't that majestic, but it was worth the stop to stretch our legs and get some fresh air.  

We had heard from multiple people that we NEEDED to stop at the Jampot Bakery if we were going to Copper Harbor.  We walked in, and there were monks frosting cupcakes and running the cash register! We weren't expecting that at all!  I think the man in front of us in line was just as shocked, because he asked if he could take a picture of the monk.  We split the carrot cake cupcake with raisins, zucchini, and walnuts. It was delicious.  

Halfway through the trip, we saw signs for Great Sand Bay.  We had all day, and nowhere else to go, so we stopped to dip our feet in the absolutely freezing cold water of Lake Superior.  There were more people sitting in the sand than actually swimming.  It sounds a little out of the norm for 4th of July, but the water literally was almost too cold to stand in for a couple of pictures.  

West Bluff & The Brockaway Mountains.  Coming from Idaho, we are still trying to figure out why these were called "mountains" but it was a good stop none the less!

 The first thing we saw when we rolled into Copper Harbor was a tiny little ice cream shop called The Berry Patch.  I love small town ice cream shops/parlors, so we had to go!  We walked to the shop after getting some dinner and ran into another family from Idaho who are here doing an internship like Joseph.  We had ice cream with them.  I was trying to teach their daughter Piper the concept of licking the ice cream before it melts, but that didn't go very far!

The fireworks show didn't get under way until around 11:15.  The sun sets here in the Upper Peninsula at about 10:30, but it doesn't get dark until pretty late.  The fireworks were pretty impressive for a small town and we were glad we made the trip.  Thanks to Joseph's genius in parking at large public gatherings, we were able to avoid traffic and make it home in an hour!