Jodi and Elizabeth — aka Helmi and Helvi — visit the old Traprock Valley Schoolhouse

Well, this is a day later than my usual post, but I blame vacation brain… Oh well. I am back from the UP adventure now and after a solid 8 hours of sleep am typing this while munching on Trenary Toast and sipping strong black coffee from a summer-themed Moomin mug.

During this trip — my first to the UP in about 7 or so years — we stuck mainly to the Keweenaw Peninsula, but also made a trip to the Aura Jamboree in Aura, MI and visited a few sites around that area as well. In summary, our week-long trip in the Keweenaw Peninsula in Michigan's Upper Peninsula was insightful and restorative. I met lots of people, each with a different conneciton to the area. Some were new to the area and others had family history there for generations. Among the folks we met with were teachers, construction workers, cultural coordinators, coffee baristas, museum guides, gift shop workers, nisu bakers, post office clerks, custodians, folk dancers, recycling-return experts, fellow tourists, librarians, musicians, former pro hockey players, grocery and convenience store clerks, and state and national park rangers.

Anna (owner of Finnsight) and Helvi during a chance encounter in the Portage Lake District Library in Houghton

There were chance encounters with former colleagues and planned meetings for establishing new business connections. We were fortunate to stay with a friend in her historic Finnish-American farmstead (the previous owner used to grow potatoes there!). Having access to a farm kitchen allowed us to make a batch of ruisleipä to have for breakfast, lunch, and to share with others in the area. I brought some over to a young couple I have tutored in Finnish via Zoom. They invited us over to their family camp to sauna and swim on Lake Superior. Lydia sent over a photo of their breakfast the next morning and said that she is planning to start baking it herself soon!

Lydia’s open-face *ruisleipä* sandwhich for breakfast at the family camp [photo courtesy of Lydia]

I will share more specific details about this week-long visit in future blog posts, but will keep it short for this week. We plan to be back soon and want to explore other sections of the UP further east, such as Ishpeming, Marquette, and Sault Ste Marie. There is so much more Finnish-American histories (and futures) that we have left unexplored in the UP.

Broken, but not defeated butterfly on the shores of Superior in Ontonagon — we transported it to some flowers far away from the beach to live a bit more safely

Brian making sure that I wasn’t taking this trip too seriously during our tour of the Finnish American Folk School

Risto enjoying a *korvapuusti* from Suomi Restaurant and *kahvi* from Steep and Brew on Michigan Tech campus grounds

For now, we thank our lodging and local color host Jodi, along with Lydia and Gavin for a most special saunailta on the shores of Superior. With special thanks to Clare for a tour of the Finnish American Folk School, Kay, Hal, and Emily for coffee and hospitality, Laulu Aika for their entertainment contributions at the Aura Jamboree and Hanka Homestead, Kivajat dance group for their performance at Hanka Homestead, Wil for contributing to our local knowledge from a non-Finnish, lifetime Yooper perspective, Risto and Tammi for their good energy and company, Anna for saying just the right thing at the right time in the library, and all of the staff at the National Park Service cultural sites and local businesses we visited. Thanks too to all the non-Yooper Finnish-Americans who shared advice with us about where to visit. Finally, an extra special shout out to Brian for being a most excellent driver and navigator to all of these sites, as well as, helping make decisions about what to eat. I am sure we missed many others — good thing I can edit this at a later date… Thank you all!

Initial Reflections from Time in the Keweenaw Peninsula of the UP of Michigan

Elizabeth Brauer