When asking where we should go when in the UP, I was told that we needed to go to Da Yoopers Tourist Trap. People know that I love tacky road side attractions and this one fits the bill. So on the 10th day we headed up to Ishpeming, Michigan to check it out. Immediately upon pulling up, my wife says "Oh Brent, this is just like Mukluk Land!" (a reference to a place we went to once in Tok, Alaska with a bunch of outrageous junk around the yard)
I will let the pictures speak for themselves. Here we go....
They even had something for us meteorologists. They had a pole marking the most snow they had one winter. Back in 1996-97, they had 272.2 inches of snowfall which is about 22 feet of snow. Amazing!
After walking around the grounds, we headed into their gift shop to buy some souvenirs. So what was the verdict? This place was an amazing roadside attraction that I loved visiting and taking pictures at. The girls had a blast too. I think Manina was still traumatized from our trip to Mukluk Land to fully enjoy this place, but she had fun there too.
Next, we headed to Jackson Mine Park to eat lunch and play some disc golf. Jackson Mine is an open pit iron mine in Negaunee, Michigan which was the first iron mine in the Lake Superior region. It is on the National Register of Historic Places and is also home to an amazing disc golf course called Old Town Disc Golf Course.
As we ate lunch, we had some adorable baby skunks that visited us. Don't worry, no one got sprayed. But the girls thought they were so cute!
My family loves playing disc golf and I especially love courses with character. This course had a lot of character. This course is housed in an abandoned mining town with actual surface mines and mine shafts that you play around. There was a sign telling you this as you entered.
The course was absolutely amazing and fun to play. You got to throw at baskets in and around old building foundations, rusted and abandoned cars, and downed telephone poles. The course was one of the most unique and fun courses I have ever played.
At the end they even have some old artifacts from the abandoned mine, as well as some artwork. The kids had fun playing on it.
After a great round of disc golf, the girls were hungry so we found a local ice cream place a little closer to Marquette. The ice cream place was called Jilbert Dairy which is a local dairy with homemade ice cream.
Once the girls were full of ice cream, we went back to the AirBnB in Gwinn to head out on the lake. This AirBnB had an awesome set of boats and kayaks for guests to use and the girls had been bugging to use them since we got there.
We headed out on the paddle boat into the middle of the lake. It was a beautiful day and super quiet out there. The girls had a blast as we went around the lake and checked out the sights. My legs were totally burning the whole time.
The houses on Shag Lake were absolutely beautiful and I wish I could own one. My girls and I love being near the water at lake houses and this one was a lot of fun.
Once we got back from our boat ride, we headed to dinner at The Up North Lodge. This was a place I was told we really needed to visit and the food did not disappoint. I got the Cheese Curds (only I liked them) and some ribs. I paired my dinner with some great local beer. It was all so great and a nice way to spend our last night in Gwinn.
In addition to also going out on the boats, my girls also were bugging to have a camp fire. So we had one. Luckily the AirBnB provided a nice fire pit with some dry firewood for us to use. The girls had fun listening to music, dancing around, cooking marshmallows and just having a blast. I loved the fact it was 55°F on July 12th!!!
Settling in on our last day on Shag Lake in Gwinn, I felt I made another great decision about our AirBnB. This lake house was amazing and we had so much fun. We headed off to bed early that night as we had an early morning drive to Houghton for our flight to Isle Royale National Park. I will forever have fond memories of Gwinn Lake with my family and hope we can make it back there some day.
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