With this post we introduce a new section to Home Sweet Houghton, Quick Bites, in which we’ll offer brief reviews or suggestions on where to go for a good meal in the Keweenaw.  The peninsula is a little short on fine dining establishments, but there are plenty of great places to get a tasty meal and if you’re a fan of breakfast you’ll feel right at home.  Whether it’s French toast, pancakes, eggs or sweet rolls the diners and similar establishments in the Copper Country offer an embarrassment of riches.

Suomi Restaurant

My favorite is still Suomi Restaurant and Bakery in Houghton for Finnish French toast, made with a Finnish egg bread called nisu, and pannukakku, which is often called a pancake but is really more of a baked custard.  Visits there, particularly during the winter, are a fun distraction for our family, and Suomi’s become a regular stop for us when we have guests in town – a delicious meal, loads of local color and a guaranteed introduction to the Yooper accent (PS: Don’t miss the meatball sandwich if it’s lunchtime).

This past weekend, however, it was time for a field trip and the decision, on the occasion of a birthday, was to head 40 minutes south of Houghton to the Baraga County township of L’Anse, which is home to the Hilltop Restaurant and its famed sweet rolls.  Recognized by readers of the Detroit News as the #2 sweet treat in the state of Michigan, these things must be seen – and tasted – to be believed.  It was the first time I’d ever been brought a knife with which to slice a sweet roll, but the minute the pastry arrived at the table the logic in the knife was evident: One roll can easily feed 3-4 people.

www.sweetroll.com

According to the restaurant’s Web site they bake these rolls fresh all day, so you’re guaranteed to get a fresh one whenever you go.  Never mind the calorie calculation, these things are decadent and delicious (I did the math but trust me, you don’t want to know.  Ok, if you really want to know leave a comment to that effect and I’ll tell you.).

They’re best eaten warm from the oven and dripping with frosting at the restaurant, but failing that they ship anywhere in the U.S. twice a month.  If you’re in the area though, do yourself a favor and stop by.

The days are getting shorter and the leaves are showing signs of turning here and there, but the National Park Service is offering a series of deals at parks around the country to help people get the most out of what remains of the summer.

There’s a rundown of the whole list over at the National Parks Traveler blog, which is also highlighting a series of deals at Isle Royale including kayak ecotours, transportation to the park from Houghton on the Ranger III and accommodations at the island’s Rock Harbor Lodge.

These deals run out in early September at the latest, but there are several options worth taking a look at if you’ve ever considered checking out Isle Royale’s unique offerings.

For more information head on over to the Traveler or call Isle Royale National Park at (906) 337-4993.

Sunday’s Detroit Free Press has a great article on Isle Royale, Michigan’s only national park and one of the least-visited parks in the entire system.  The Free Press’s travel writer, Ellen Creager, spent a couple of days on this remote island, something that apparently only about 14,000 people do every year.  I’m actually a little surprised the number is that high – this place is the definition of remote, reached from this part of the world by ferry from either Copper Harbor or Houghton, a trip that takes somewhere between 3 1/2 and 6 hours.   According to the National Park Service, Isle Royale gets fewer visitors every year than Yellowstone National Park gets in just a day, Isle Royale’s backcountry use — hiking, paddling and camping are popular –  is the highest of all the national parks.

Around Houghton, attention is also paid to a long-running study of the moose and wolves on Isle Royale, thanks to the involvement of Michigan Tech researchers in the project .  The 50-year-old study of how the two species interact is followed locally by students at Houghton Middle School, who can track the animals’ movement on a monitor inside their building (How cool is that?).

Still and all, Isle Royale has a mystique about it even to Copper Country residents.   It’s enough of an effort to get there, even without one of the famous storms that rock Lake Superior, that not everyone you meet has been.   You’d be hard pressed to find anyone who doesn’t want to, however.   It’s just one more exotic feature of this fascinating area.

For more details on Isle Royale park and how to get there, Wikitravel has a nice entry.  For information on the national parks in general, check out the National Park Service’s Web site or the independent National Parks Traveler blog.

Houghton and the Keweenaw Peninsula have a reputation for being a winter paradise, but that shouldn’t be taken to mean that things slow down in the summer.  It seems that just as the warm weather arrives the outdoor festivals kick in: there are two this weekend alone, and that doesn’t include the huge Bridgefest shindig next weekend, which celebrates the “birthday” of the Portage Lake Lift Bridge, which connects the communities of Houghton and Hancock and is the gateway to the Keweenaw Peninsula.

More on that later … this weekend it’s pasties and art on the menu.  First off, Houghton and the Copper Country Community Arts Center are hosting the annual Houghton Spring Art and Music Festival, which brings what you’d expect: art, music and food to Houghton’s old-timey downtown.  One of the highlights of the weekend (at least from this Boomer’s perspective) is a performance that is the culmination of a rock camp that Houghton native PJ Olsson of the Alan Parsons Live Project has been running with music and dance students from the area.

The sun shines brightly on Houghton Michigan's downtown. (Photo credit t.shirbert. See more of his fabulous UP photos at http://www.flickr.com/photos/tshirbert/sets/72157603597599982/)

One of the great things we’ve found about living in Houghton is the ease of access to opportunities like this.  There isn’t as much going on in this small town as in a large city (it stands to reason), but when special events like this come along it’s actually possible to get involved and you don’t have to “know somebody” to make it happen.

All Hail the Pasty

Ten miles or so to the north, the town of Calumet is hosting Pastyfest ‘09, this year’s version of the annual homage to the pasty (pronounced PAA-sty, not PAH-sty or PAY-sty, lest you look like an outsider), the Cornish meat pie that fed the miners who brought copper out of the surrounding hills a century ago.  Calumet was once the center of the Upper Peninsula mining industry, so it’s fitting that Pastyfest would be there. The event features all things pasty, the Pasty Walk, Pasty Parade, a pasty bake-off, etc.  There’s a nice video from Pastyfest ‘08 if you want to learn more.  Quintessential Americana (You can’t make this stuff up.).

Events like these will go on throughout the summer in the Houghton Hancock area, as well as the rest of the Upper Peninsula.  What’s your favorite Upper Peninsula summer happening?