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 Dwight Peck's personal website
Summer 2019
A photographic record of whatever leapt out at us
You may not find this terribly rewarding unless you're included here, so this is a good time for casual and random browsers to turn back before they get too caught up in the sweep and majesty of the proceedings and can't let go.
Downtown Escanaba, and back to the lake
From the Terrace Bay hotel, in Gladstone just north of Escanaba, we're taking the back road downtown instead of the US Highway 2 (16 July 2019).
That can't be the demonstration model.
Perhaps Escanaba has fallen onto hard times?
Ah. Brought up short by the Escanaba River, and the old railroad bridge.
At the lakeside point, our first stop is the Delta County Historical Society (right) and the Sand Point Lighthouse (built in 1868, deactivated in 1939 and restored in recent years). Alas, the museum only accepts cash ($5) and was unable to tell us where we could find an ATM (they said 'any bank' but we couldn't find a bank downtown), so that's one more County Historical Society museum we'll have missed.
The marina in Ludington Park. (Nelson Ludington was one of the three dominant lumber barons in the late 19th century, and his name is on everything in town.)
A very nice mural on the side of the Stone Cup Coffee House & Stone's Deli
Urban murals seem to be a 'thing' in the upper MidWest, or maybe everywhere in the USA. (The best collection I've seen so far is in Ashland, Wisconsin.)
Escanaba, Michigan, street scene: the main drag, Ludington Street. According to Wikipedia, Escanaba, presently a town of some 26,000 souls, was founded as a city in 1863 around an important port for the Wisconsin Northwoods and Michigan Upper Peninsula (UP) lumber and iron ore industries.
This is the home of a person who makes amazing sandwiches, which we will return and pick up after we've canvassed the downtown in search of a bank with an ATM.
'Home of the Free, Because of the Brave' -- a tribute to our courageous young warriors who have fought off the many invasions of our country since 1814, and preserved our unspecified freedoms.
One has been informed that this is an important architectural style from a former era -- we're inquiring now about the name of that style.
Ludington Street, looking west. The name 'Escanaba' is said to be from an Ojibwe word meaning 'land of the red buck', or perhaps 'flat rock'. Somewhere in there.
The Ludington Centre on Ludington Street and South 11th, just next to the Ludington Grill.
The Dream Day Event Center
This is evidently the Escanaba Training Centre, featuring SWAT (Superior Weapons and Training)! Though the paper sign on the door says 'OPEN for Drivers Education & Deliveries ONLY' and another slogan sign advises 'Keep Calm and Carry'.
Escanaba street scene
'Ever After Decorating' in the interesting 1892 North Star building. Escanaba evidently still functions as a port for shipping iron ore south (though the timber industry is long gone), but now its economy leans heavily upon tourism, we're told, with an emphasis on the 'Yooper culture', the culture of Michigan's Upper Peninsula (UP), and especially its signature pasties.
Financial services with an imaginative name
The food here is 'great'; the friends are merely 'good'; but the best they can say about the beer is that it's 'cold'.
This is the venerable House of Ludington hotel, on Ludington Street, across the street from the shoreside Ludington Park. The hotel was first established in 1865, but the present building dates from 1883, with subsequent improvements, and is presently a family-owned hotel and restaurant.
This is the capacious Ludington Park on the shore of Lake Michigan's Little Bay de Noc -- we're here with our very good sandwiches from the Applewood Eatery and Espresso Bar.
The first rule of picnicing in a shoreside park is 'Don't feed a seagull' -- the whole clan shows up with minutes.
Part of the view from Ludington Park. In fact, however, we were only in a tiny corner of Ludington Park (red dot below), and apparently missed all the best bits, for which Escanaba is justly famous.
[from Google Maps]
In nearby Gladstone just to the north, here is the Old Glory Firearms establishment. Evidently an extremely patriotic firearms emporium.
We're driving west from Escanaba, whizzing past this odd sight in the countryside.
On closer inspection, it appears to signal an extremely patriotic farm.
Straight as an arrow through Wisconsin . . .
. . . interminably.
We're passing through Crandon, vigilant to catch a glimpse, if possible, of the . . .
. . . famous Hometown Trolley headquarters. No luck -- it's several blocks northeast of the town centre.
That, I believe, is a Hometown Trolley, in our new hometown of Staunton, Virginia, March 2019 |
Back to North Lake Street, Crandon, where Highway 8 takes a short zig to the north through town.
And back to the cottage by the lake, the battle is joined . . .
. . . Choupette's in pursuit.
Preparing for an ambush
Two cats only slightly unnerved by the summer storm outside . . .
. . . as long as the rain's coming from the other direction.
The lake view after the storm, 19 July 2019
Late afternoon sunlight after the storm
A expedition for the kids, 21 July 2019
Everybody's ready
All's clear. Let's go.
Bon chance. Good luck.
The goose family on a relaxing promenade
They're missing one of the youngsters, alas.
The A-frame across the lake (built entirely to code?)
Rolling up the secchi disc with a measurement of the lake's turbidity
The tree that was struck by lightning some years ago . . .
. . . with the huge piece of it still hanging mid-air alongside it.
An eagle on patrol
But it hasn't spotted us.
Next up: Cats, ducks, eagles, and two loons
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and suggestions are welcome if positive, resented if negative,  .
All rights reserved, all wrongs avenged. Posted 5 August 2019.
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