READING THE UPPER PENINSULA
Reading the Upper Peninsula My summer ended with a trip to Paradise. Literally a drive through Paradise, Michigan in the Upper Peninsula (U.P.) The drive through Paradise lasted only a couple of minutes but it was part of a 10 day trip wandering the UP--one of the most distinctive landscapes in the Midwest. My wife and I started coming up here when we wanted a more untamed "Great Lakes" experience from Michigan’s Lower Peninsula. Our most recent drive connected the rugged landscape with some of my favorite authors and their books. North of Paradise was Whitefish Point and the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum. It is a suitably dramatic introduction to Lake Superior. The beach was windswept and littered with enormous trees that had been stripped and bleached into driftwood. Far offshore, a single lake freighter was leaving Whitefish Point, a reminder that this seemingly wild landscape is also part of one of the great commercial waterways of North America. The...