THE U.P. Is the upper peninsula of Michigan. People who live there are called Yoopers. I’m lucky I have a cousin who is a Yooper. We came to this cool peninsula to visit her. We got to help take care of her donkeys Zack and Pearl. They loved to get out of their pen to go across the street to graze.

We got to visit the A.E. Seaman Mineral Museum at Michigan Tech in Houghton, Michigan. It was amazing. There were huge copper pieces from Michigan, pyromorphite, from China, Azurite from Arizona and many more from all over the world. There was a special black light room too.

The museum was surrounded by a beautiful rock garden,

The next day we visited the Hungarian Falls. It was a series of small falls on Land trust property.

You have to be tough to be a Yooper year round. They get an amazing amount of snow.

The next day we visited Eagle River and the Eagle Harbor Lighthouse,

A few years ago we navigated our way into Eagle Harbor with a power boat. There were rocks everywhere – it was scary.

In Copper Harbor we saw a magnificent view of the lake and marvelous rock formations including a long line of vey ancient stromatolites, algal mat fossils.

On the way back to my cousin’s a young buck posed for us

My cousin said that Pearl and Zack expected us back next year and they would remember us.