U.P. Tour 2015

 For several years, I have been going with my husband in August to the U.P. as he does some work there.  We spend the night and I help with whatever I am able to do.  We didn't get to go last year due to my father's illness and need for care.  We got to go again this year.  We didn't go to all the buildings like usual though.  There was a lot of work to be accomplished in both Houghton and Iron Mountain so that's where we spent our time.

We try to do some fun things while there and this year we did some new things not done before.  The pictures are not in chronological order.  On Friday night we stayed just outside of Iron Mountain where they have a ski jump.  There are 500 stairs if a person wants to climb to the top of the mountain.  We climbed them all.  Each step is sponsored by someone or dedicated to someone.

The Steve Mariucci Family sponsored this step.  There was another plaque on the other side of this stair with Steve's parents included.

 This is Dave's Falls county park here in Wisconsin.  It is a beautiful park!

 This is a view of the stairs on our way down.  It appears in two separate places that the stairs just fall off into nothingness.  Of course on the way up, it appears that the stairs just end when in all actuality, when you get closer, you can see there are a lot more to go.

 Back to Dave Falls.  This park is dedicated to Dave Frechette who died trying to clear a log jam back in the 1800's.

 On Thursday night we stayed on the shores of Lake Superior at Sunset Bay campground.  At night you can see the ships coming across the lake as they are lit up.  This is really how well you can see them.  I was sitting in my camp chair as I snapped this photo.

 A view of the ski jump from the road.  On the right side are the stairs.  A jumper can get going as fast as 50-60 mph by the time they hit the end of the jump.  I cannot imagine landing on the snow further down that hill going that fast.

I took this photo to show the vastness of Lake Superior.  I believe Pat said he could touch the bottom.  He is just plain nuts to even want to try going into that frigid water.  I recall doing it as a kid, but then I can blame the fact that I was a kid.

 In Iron Mountain there was work to be done.  One of my jobs was to organize and plant some shrubs outside the building as there were two General Authorities coming on Saturday to do some training with the bishops and high councilors of the Green Bay Stake.  I picked out the tall yellow flowers.  Other than that, my husband picked the plants.  I just busted my behind to get them planted and spaced.

While we were standing on the actual ski jump about a quarter of the way up, we took a selfie.  We took one in the opposite direction as well, but we look not so great.  I had a great time and even though my calves are sore today from that climb yesterday, it was fun.  It was also exhausting!  We had to stop a couple of times in order to catch our breath.  My heart was pounding pretty hard.  What a cardio workout!  We met several people on their way down as we were headed up.  Steep, steep stairs for most of the way.  Another fun few days with my sweetheart!