Da Yoopers!

Michigan is broken up into two parts - the Lower Peninsula and the Upper Peninsula. They are connected by the Mackinac Bridge. The next portion of our trip took us across the bridge to the Upper Peninsula. I am my father's daughter so naturally the bridge was a point of interest for me. Built in the 1950's the bridge is 5 miles long, making it the third longest suspension bridge in the world, and the longest in the western hemisphere. Nick named Mighty Mac, this bridge was pretty impressive!

View of the bridge from Mackinac Island

The bridge crosses the strait between Lake Michigan and Lake Huron.

So now that we are across the bridge and in the Upper Peninsula (U.P.) let's talk about what da heck is a Yooper? The people that live in the U.P. are called Yoopers. Yooper is also the name for the dialect many of the people speak (which is also common in northern Wisconsin and Minnesota). Don'tcha know dar da people that speak like this and end dar sentences like this eh? Ya, seriously so fun to talk to these super friendly people! We loved it!

So while in the U.P. we saw signs everywhere advertising pasties. We decided we need to try a pasty in order to have a true U.P. experience. So John walked into a shop and asked if they had any pasties . . . only he pronounced it wrong and was really embarassed, because what we had be calling "pay-sties" are actually "pa-sties." Anyway, we tried them and the best way to describe it is a pot pie that looks like a turnover, sometimes described as the burrito of the U.P. It was delicious and now we feel like we've had the real Yooper experience don'tcha know!

I left the camera in the car when we ate our pasties, but this is what a pasty looks like.

Pictures on Lake Michigan - our first stop in the U.P.