(alternate title: hi ho, hi ho — it's to the UP we go)

We have hit the road! We are on our way right now to the Upper Peninsula of the great state of Michigan. We will be staying with our friend, born-and-raised Yooper and current Math teacher, Jodi Hyrkäs at the Finnish farmstead she wrote about in her guest blog post last summer.

As a good friend named Joe “Seppo” Autio from Duluth, MN relayed to me in a text message this morning:

“I love the UP though, it's isolated and sparsely populated enough and has enough of its own regional quirks..."Yooper" stuff, pasties, cudighi, Finnish-American things being a little more mainstream (ie the average person has heard of mojakka) etc etc that it feels both familiar yet like you're far away. It's like if my hometown [of Maple, WI] were a whole state 😂”

Needless to say, we are very much so looking forward to our visit. We plan to share a map with you all in the coming weeks of Finnish-American or local must-see sites. Let us know of any that we should visit this vacation in the comments. Kiitos avusta! Thanks for the help!