Away To Grand Marais

by Pat Miller
(USA)

A short but memorable trip to the Michigan’s Upper Peninsula began with a memory lane ride through my birthplace and formative years of Menominee, Michigan the gateway to the UP.

I had the pleasure of playing golf with high school friends at the Sweetwater golf course which is a part of the Island Resort and Casino in Harris, Mi. Beautiful course with fairways trimmed lower than the greens I’m used to putting on and greens fast enough to make a “speed skater” or roller blade expert apprehensive.

Continued on to Grand Marais, Mi in search of the perfect sunset and my eventual accommodations at the Superior Hotel with Enrico and Mary Capogrossa the long time and current proprietors of the family owned business since the 1930’s in Alger County.

While movie aficionados will remember the Christopher Reeve/Jane Seymour classic “Somewhere in Time” being shot on location on Mackinac island at the Grand Hotel for its Victorian backdrops the Superior lends itself to a classic of its own making as “someplace in time” with its original 1895 boarding house now B&B atmosphere complete with an old school confectionary on the first floor.

I was fortunate to meet with Enrico or “Cappy” as one of more endearing monikers he answers too for early morning coffee and a story or two.

Cappy is a skilled raccoonteur (raconteur) and about as cute and charming as the masked creatures you see in prevalence in the forests( and garbage cans) of the UP!

A quick trip to Coast Guard Point, a stop at the fully accommodating marina and the prerequisite visit to the Woodland Park campground was as reassuring as the Harbor of Refuge that Grand Marais serves as for sailors looking for shelter off the quirky and dangerous weather that Lake Superior can create. Think Edmund Fitzgerald!

While sailors enter the harbor from the north I was every bit as calmed by entering the harbor of refuge from the south by car via M77.

Once coming over the hill and catching a first glimpse of the lake and landscape below it is indeed the beginning of a trip through ‘someplace in time’ that confirms some things do indeed stay the same the more they change!