It’s been a few years since we’ve been to Marquette in Michigan’s upper peninsula. I guess we didn’t quite realize how much we missed it. The small college town charm, Lake Superior at your doorstep, beautiful bike trails and being immersed in nature, immediately reminded us that this is one of our favorite Michigan destinations. Once again, we enjoyed staying at the nicely maintained Marriott Fairfield Inn during the last week of August. To break up the drive we stayed a night in Petoskey both on the way there and back.
Our timing happened to span Northern Michigan University’s move-in weekend and a 3-day music festival in Marquette’s waterfront, Lower Harbor Park.
In addition to dining at The Vierling Restaurant and Brewery (for a wonderful salmon dinner), we discovered some awesome new places this time. We absolutely loved the Cognisjon Brewery’s atmosphere and beer. We spent two of our evenings there listening to live music while enjoying their beer and bringing our own food. Speaking of which, we also discovered the Huron Mountain Bakery with their amazing sandwiches. We made that our dinner twice during our stay.
The highlight of the trip was the marvelous bike trails immersed in natural beauty. This time around we were grateful for our e-bike as we rode 17 miles of steady incline from Marquette to Ishpeming on the Iron Ore Trail. Our specific destination was the Cargengie Library in Ishpeming and it did not disappoint.
On a different ride, on the Lake Superior spur of the Iron Ore Trail, we first stopped at the Marquette Farmer’s Market and purchased some amazing blueberry sour dough bread to eat as our lunch during the ride.
We were on our bikes everyday of our stay in Marquette. It’s hard to describe the overwhelming feelings (peaceful, exciting, beautiful, fulfilled, tranquil, exhilarating, to name a few) of biking and being in such a magical place. We really can’t wait to return.
On the way home we kept seeing signs advertising pasties. Neither one of us could remember having one. So, we researched and decided to try highly rated Sposito’s on U.S. Highway 2, just west of St. Ignace. We were glad we stopped as we shared a savory chicken pastie and a sweet blueberry dessert pastie for lunch. Now we want to add these to our menu. The crust is uniquely delicious, not a hard crust nor soft, just perfect. We are still looking for a homemade version with easy- to-follow directions for our kitchen. 🙂
Till next time,
DAK
Published by