Tag Archives: UP

After the Storm: Marquette, March 2020

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This is the third and final post of my experience and pictures with a nice winter storm in the first week of March this year. The day before the storm was March 4th, the storm was March 5th, and it had cleared out by March 6th. It was a wild, windy, and snowy night while the storm came through.

I was glad that took precautions with my windshield wipers so they didn’t get frozen to windshield. I had rented the car from Hertz in Chicago and they had it stocked with an ice scraper/ brush. Those of you from places that don’t have snow, this link will show you what an such an instrument looks like. As a side note, my last minute flight arrangements would have taken me two days longer and cost $1,500 more if I had flown directly to Marquette from Los Angeles.

It was a good thing that I remembered to put the wipers up!

After completing my errands for the day, I set out to the places I’d visited before and during the storm. The Sun was beautiful coming through the trees at the Noquemanon North Trails Trailhead on the Big Bay Road (County Road 550).

The Sun shines through the trees by Tourist Park Lake

The pines were covered in snow with icicles dangling down.

Icicles hang on a pine tree branch

It was then over to Presque Isle Park and the Upper Harbor break wall. I was unable to photograph this during the storm because it was, well, too stormy. The waves crashing against the ice-covered break wall were beautiful.

Waves crash against the ice-covered Upper Harbor break wall
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Before the Storm: Marquette, March 2020

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This isn’t about the pandemic, although it was well under way when I took my trip to Marquette in early March. It is the first of three planned posts about my time in Marquette, specifically sites around the city before, during, and after a blizzard that came through on March 5th of this year. Click on any picture to bring up a full-sized version.

I’ll begin with a shot of the iconic Marquette Coast Guard lighthouse. Build in 1866 and still active today, it is a symbol of Marquette.

The iconic lighthouse at the Marquette Coast Guard Station

I was down at McCarty’s Cove which, in more clement weather, is a popular swimming and beach spot. Not too good for swimming when covered in ice.

A life guard tower seems out of place amongst all this ice

Two birds flew by the waxing crescent Moon.

Two seagulls fly by a waxing gibbous Moon
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Marquette, Michigan, December 2018

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I visited Marquette, Michigan in the middle of December to help my Mother celebrate her 90th birthday. We had a wonderful visit. Here is a travelogue-style post of my trip.

A couple of notes on how I handle pictures in this post. I have always linked to what WordPress calls the “attachment page” which provides a larger picture with title and caption. In this post, I will link to the media file, which will be larger, but will let you see all the details if you click on the image.

Back to the trip. While we were 2.5 hours late in arriving, we did an approach over Marquette itself, which with the new Sawyer Airport in Gwinn, I had never done before. I was able to get decent nighttime aerial shots of the city on my way in with my Pixel 2 phone. This is right off lighthouse point looking down Washington street. The yellow lights on the right are Northern Michigan University (NMU) which uses sodium vapor lamps. Apparently the rest of the city has switched to LED.

Marquette from the air on approach to Sawyer

I also got a good view of the Marquette Branch Prison, which had all the lights on.

Marquette branch prison lit up at night

All of these pictures in this post have been processed in Adobe Lightroom CC. This version of Lightroom syncs all of you changes to the internet and works the same (well, mostly the same) across desktop and mobile devices. I normally do my processing in Adobe Lightroom CC Classic (the full desktop software version). There are some limitations to CC vs Classic and I will point them out as I go along. (All the links go to the photography products because I don’t trust Adobe to keep the detail links consistent.)

So, with weather in the 40s F/ 5s C, what does one do? You go to Presque Isle, of course. You cannot drive around the island, so one starts at the break wall. But closed.

The Upper Harbor Break wall is closed for the winter
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Lakenenland, Superior Lakeshore, Upper Michigan, August 2018

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I will take a step away from India travel to post some pictures of a very interesting place on Michigan state route 28 (M-28) a short distance outside of Marquette, Michigan. Lakenenland is a marvelous sculpture park, filled with many amazing creations made from scrap metal and other items. It is 17 miles (27 km) east of Marquette on the south side of M-28 just past the Ojibway Casino (I’ve never been to the casino, but have driven past many times) as you head toward Munising.

Apparently Tom Lakenen started making sculptures from junk art. He accumulated enough to need a place to put them and acquired land along M-28. It is a wonderful park. You can walk along the road through the park or drive if you prefer. It is free, although donations are accepted. If you are ever in the Marquette area, I highly recommend a visit. It is open 24 hours a day all year round. Here is the start of the tour at the parking area.

Main entrance by the parking lot.

A comfortable skeleton greets you as you walk along.

A seated skeleton

The art is really quite good. I made this picture black and white as I think it makes it spookier.

A scary face

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