Marquette, Michigan

Today we visited Marquette, Michigan and had a great time. It is a delightful little town with things to do both in the summer and winter. It is also home of the Marquette Harbor Lighthouse (see pic). The lighthouse is located on an active U.S. Coast Guard resident station. It was built in 1853; and sits on a stone bluff and is one of the oldest structures in Marquette. We actually got to take a tour and go inside of the lighthouse. It was pretty neat. We've toured a lot of lighthouses in our travels, but this was the first one we actually got to go inside of. I noticed it seemed pretty modern considering it was built in 1853 (although modest) and I found out it was last lived in until 1999. Another thing I noticed was how tightly built it was. It was very very windy outside but inside you didn't hear a window rattle or the wind blowing at all. We also toured the Marquette Maritime Museum. It made you realize just how big Lake Superior is; in that it has had several shipwrecks on it. They had special displays at this museum including the November 1975 loss of the Edmund Fitzgerald and a WWII Silent Service Memorial honoring the USS DARTER and DACE crews and captains. It was quite interesting. I was just amazed at how big this lake is and if you didn't know where you were, you would think you were at a seaport. They have big waves (see pic above) which I totally wasn't expecting to see. We also saw people surfing in these waves. We had lunch in town in one of the oldest restaurants in town called the Brewery. It was excellent and it looks very much like I'm sure it looked back in the 1800's. On our way back home, we decided to put our toes in Lake Superior just to say we did it (see pic of Mem and I). That evening, we met Janice and Ralph at the Brownstone Inn for dinner. The food was wonderful and the atmosphere was great (see pic). We're going to Sault Ste Marie next. We're really looking forward to our next adventure. Until then........