Happy Labor Day!
We spent Labor Day weekend in the small town of Ontonagon (pronounced onta-noggin).
We don’t make many reservations in advance, preferring to see what we find along the way, talking to locals etc to decide Where2Next, but we forgot we should have booked something early for the Labor Day weekend since it was a holiday and campsites book up. Luckily, John was able to find a campground in the small town of Ontonagon, MI with availability that was on our route. And fortunate for us, this place really celebrates Labor Day, so we got to join in on the fun for their “63rd Annual Ontonagon Labor Day Festival”
On Saturday, they closed the downtown main street and had street vendors, food, games for the kids, including an Auto car show with trophies prizes,
On Saturday, they closed the downtown main street and had street vendors, food, games for the kids, including an Auto car show with trophies prizes,
There were Bed races!
"Little red running hood’s" team won!
There was Live music!
Free admission to the town museum and much more...
On Sunday there is was a Parade, the town has lots of fun making floats (with judging/prizes) and also great marching bands
It was almost an hour long parade that we thoroughly enjoyed! We sat next to a local family who were eager to tell us more about their town (struggling jobwise with the lumber mill and mine shutting down) & what to see in the area.
Marty’s Goldenaires, a Bugle & Drum corps band, that has been performing since the 1950’s, marched in the parade and then put on a great concert in the street after the parade.
The weekend celebrations ended on Sunday evening with a Community event with music, food, dancing, where John and I got some dancin' in! This little town really goes all out for their Labor Day Celebration!
In addition to the Labor Day Festivities, we also managed a few other stops -
We visited the Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park, which contains a group of small mountains spanning the northwestern Upper Peninsula of Michigan near the shore of Lake Superior called The Porcupine Mountains, or "Porkies" as they are sometimes called. They were named by the native Ojibwa people, supposedly because their silhouette had the shape of a crouching porcupine.
We climbed up to the summit peak (elev 1958’) to look out over the top of the mountain forest...
You can just barely start to see the tips of some of the leaves starting to change color.. it must be beautiful here once that happens! We are a few weeks too early.. this entire upper peninsula (the U.P. as it’s called) is said to be amazing with fall color - hate that we will miss it - perhaps another time.
Next we took a walk along the Presque Isle River Trail, seeing more waterfalls, and following the trail to the shores of Lake Superior
The round portholes are formed by the rivers water swirling with pebbles and sand wearing away the soft shale.
It almost looks like seating areas have been carved out for us to sit in along the River.
Lake of the clouds is located in a valley in the middle of the porkies, it’s surface is usually very calm, as the wind hardly touches it in the valley.
Oh no... John is trying to climb up the mountain, or is falling off... NOT!
We also took a tour of the Ontonogan Lighthouse.
No longer in service/working, the town has taken it over as a historical site with tours. The guide liked to show all the old ways of doing things
The lighthouse Fresnel lens, made in France in 1856, is on display in the museum and a kerosene lantern, which would have provided the light through the lens is in the lighthouse.
Another beautiful sunset over Lake Superior -
If you are ever driving thru Ontonogan, stop to eat at Syl’s Cafe for a fabulous home cooked meal!
1 comment:
How lovely that the town goes all out for Laobor Day! Nice to see places like that still exist!
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