A Christmas Day Tradition

I mentioned a Christmas hike on my Facebook page today and it inspired me to share the Christmas tradition I had established while living in the Upper Peninsula.  This will be fun for all as it will be much more visual then all of my previous posts.  :-)  You won't have to hear from me as much.  :-)  That said, I do need to share how it started.

Christmas morning 2000.  It was around 7:30am and I was sitting in my living room after opening my gifts wondering what to do with the rest of my day.  Then the thought occurred to me.  Why not take a drive up to Great Sand Bay and have breakfast on the ice.  Given that it was a last minute thing I decided to have a bowl of cold cereal.  And it was cold cereal!  Great Sand Bay is almost 30 minutes from Hancock.  It was between 20 and 30 degrees when I left It at 8am and I had one of those custom Kelloggs cereal bowls.  It was large and glass.  I grabbed a gallon of milk, some Rice Chex (I think), and thinking that the milk would get warm if I kept it on the front seat I stuck it in the trunk.  :-)  (FYI:  Not a good idea.  Don't get me wrong.  It will stay cold but it's still not a good idea.)  Thirty minutes later at thirty degrees, probably less, I pulled up to Great Sand Bay.  It was ice covered.  I pulled out my glass bowl.  It was in the front seat.  However, it didn't matter.  When I pulled out the now nearly frozen (and partially green) milk my cold cereal became ice cold.  It was at that time that I determined that the next year I would make pancakes.  I did eat breakfast on the ice though!    After I finished I continued my trek up to Copper Harbor. However, along the way there were spots I made it a point to stop at every year.  They were actually spots I stopped at year round anyway so it just made sense to stop there on Christmas morning.  One of the stops I made was at was at Eagle Harbor.  

As the years passed and I started taking pictures this turned into a real adventure.  Christmas morning the Keewenaw was mine.  I would see next to no one and would call my parents from Copper Harbor.  I called from a phone booth one time.  I wish I'd taken a picture of it.  I think there are two phone booths next to a hotel in Copper Harbor.  I called from one of them.  No need to call from both.  :-) Then as the winters warmed up I was able to call from the top of Brockway which was cool but depressing since I was able to drive my Ford Escort up a road that normally only snowmobiles could get up.   Then of course I'd have to get a picture of the Copper Harbor lighthouse.  Every year I would always go to this spot
 and get a picture.  I'd take hundreds of shots trying to get that stupid light.  I was really happy I had the LCD screen in the back.  That helped!  So I guess not as many pictures but my trek was mainly one to get out and enjoy the morning.

As I think about those eight years and how I much I enjoyed those yearly treks up to Copper Harbor (I did eat breakfast every year at Great Sand Bay, although not on the ice every year as it didn't freeze. :-)  That was the initial tradition.  Breakfast at Great Sand Bay overlooking Lake Superior.) I know that it was only for a season. :-)  Hmmm...  No.  There was no pun intended but I suppose it could've worked well there.  I now have to look to the future and what God has in store for me now.  It is exciting!  I can't wait to see He has waiting for me around that bend!