a golfing trip to the UP (upper peninsula to non-Michiganders)

After a nice night having dinner and drinks with the parents and my brother who swung through while going from North Dakota back to Pennslyvania, we got up early for our next “stay and play” golf at Drummond Island.  We have never been to Drummond Island and thought that this would be a good way to see more of the state.  We have enjoyed the ones we have had at Treetops in Gaylord, McGuire’s in Cadillac, Crystal Mountain, and Oscoda in the past.  We stopped at several crazy stores in Mt.Pleasant, Harrison and Gaylord to find little things that are good deals as usual.  We 

stopped at the satellite store for Cops and Donuts out of Clare and I will encourage anyone in the area to stop and go to the shop in Clare.  The satellite in Harrison was out of the best donuts and the one in Clare is open 24-7, so there is no excuse not to have a bacon topped maple longjohn.  http://www.copsdoughnuts.com/ It might sound horrifying and your arteries will surely not thank you, but your taste buds will. 

Since we weren’t able to get the bad for us donuts we crave, we were able to stop at Spike’s Keg O’ Nails in Grayling for a Spike burger which is worth the drive  http://www.spikes-grayling.com/

We stopped at Hops and Schnapps in Gaylord to get some wine and beer for the evening in the resort room and I can’t figure out why I can’t remember to bring a bottle of wine from home.  Anyone who has been in

 our house in the last few months knows that there is no reason for John and I to ever stop at a liquor store again, but we did find a new beer from a Virginia brewery that we had to get more of on our way back home.  We were amazed again at the view of the Mighty Mac and with the promise that we would do the bridge walk on Labor Day this year we crossed into the UP.  

We were lucky enough to catch the ferry as soon as we got there and they were running every few minutes it seemed because it was Friday I guess.  We got some history on the island about how the English built a fort here when they were expelled from Mackinac Island and didn't leave until 6 years after Drummond Island was part of the US in 1828.  In our rambles about

the island, we found a very small cousin of the banana slug, mushrooms, a chapel in the woods that was too much for John to resist, a church named after Florence, and a first look at what people are talking about when they mention bugs in the UP.