Still in the frozen north

For the last night of my trip I am treating myself to a nice hotel right on the water in downtown Marquette, Michigan. I have a nice view of Lake Superior and what appears to be a large coal-fired power plant. I can see inviting sandy beaches across the bay, but they would be more inviting without the intervening ice floes.

 Looks like there's a bike trail running right along the lake below my window. Oh man, I am never travelling without my bike again!

With all of 21000 people, Marquette is the largest city in Michigan's upper peninsula.

I got a late start this morning after sleeping in, and then lingering over a fabulous latte at Dunn Brothers coffee, right next to my Duluth hotel. I guess this must be a Minnesota chain, as I have never seen it elsewhere. The place is very close to University of Minnesota Duluth, and was full of collegiate-looking people. It was so busy I had to share a table with three girls, at least one of whom was working on her master's in something like "applied computational mathematics".

I had lunch in Wisconsin, right across the water from the Apostle Islands. I guess I missed it: just a couple of months ago I could've walked out over the ice to see the ice caves (which happens only in rare years), and in another few weeks I could take a ferry out for a day. But right now the only option is a day long boat tour which doesn't stop anywhere.

There's more open water here but still plenty of ice to be seen, and I even passed a patch of lingering snow along the road today. I will be happy to turn southward tomorrow. Just an easy 300 mile drive and I will be done!