Hello and Welcome to Yearning for the Yoop!
This blog is for people who love the Upper Peninsula of Michigan - da Yoop- and for one reason or another aren't there right now. Call us Yooper Exiles, Yooper Ex-Pats, Yooper Fans, whatever.
This blog can also be for people who are currently in the U.P. and perhaps want to be in another part of the U.P. Maybe you had to move from your Yooper home to another place in the Yoop for work. Maybe you are traveling around the Yoop. Maybe the law in your end of the Yoop is looking for you and you're hiding out in the other end (if so, I recommend that you don't post anything on this blog, eh?).
Or, maybe you'd just like to learn more about Michigan's Upper Peninsula. The Yoop??? What's that? Why do they call it that? I give you some edumacation on the Yoop in later posts. For now you can go to this Wikipedia link about the U.P.
I'd like to use Yearning for the Yoop to find out why people leave the U.P., where they went and what plans, dreams, or schemes they have to get back there.
What do you love about the Yoop? What do you hate about the Yoop? Why do you want to go back there despite what you don't like about it?
I'd also like us to share what parts of the Yoop are your favorites and why. Let's share stories, recommendations, photos, links, etc. The Yoop is a huge chunk of territory with many very different places in it. What one person calls the best part of the U.P. may be different than the next person's.
Myself, I am a big fan of the Copper Country on the Keweenaw Peninsula. My home is there. I've spent the most time there. However, I know there are some other great places around the Yoop and I'd like to learn about more places.
So, grab a pasty and a KBC and sit with your computer and let's have a chat about da Yoop. I'll try to keep my homesick sobbing as quiet as I can dere, eh?
I've never been to the U.P, but I hear it's beautiful! I'd love to see some pictures of the scenery. Great first post. It lays the foundation for what's to come and really informs us of what the blog is going to be about!
ReplyDeleteThanks! Everyone should definitely go to the U.P. Don't attempt to see all of it at once, though. It is *big*. Take at least 3-4 days and go to one or two local areas with some quality time.
DeleteI'm looking forward to hearing more about our Upper Penninsula. I haven't spent as much time up there as I'd like to, but I did take a few trips up there as a kid. I hope to take a trip across the bridge for some fly fishing this Spring. I did some work in Rudyard last year, and about 5 years ago I spent a couple weeks working at the college in Marquette. I've been wanting to go back for an extended stay ever since.
ReplyDeleteSo, you've hit the eastern and central areas. Time to go to the Keweenaw Peninsula/Copper Country. A bit of a hike to get there, so plan on spending at least 4-7 days there at minimum. Lots of quality hiking, fishing, etc. My favorite area of the U.P.
DeleteThis is very attractive, I iike the map, and it's placement. I think visually this is well-organized. The reading is comfortable, hospitable, inviting. I love the "yooperisms." Good humor! Makes me recall my two (almost) years in the U.P., and how I learned to love pasties (I just bought five today at the grocer) and I believe I am going to want to see what is shared by others in this. In fact, I recall a couple things. The streets were always plowed up there, because the main expense of the city I lived in was snowplows. They had a ton of snow - it was often piled so high you could sled down the little hills of snow by the sides of the streets, but the streets were always clear, unlike the Tri-Cities. Most of the winter - Sept.-May, that is, you might freeze, but during one weekend in January you could walk outside wearing nothing over your clothes but a sweater. Weird, huh?
ReplyDeleteThanks. You are right about the snowplowing. We do it right up there. My wife drove school buses for twenty years up there and three years down here. She hated the icy roads and big ditches down here. No problems up in the Yoop. Lots of snow means big snowbanks on the sides of roads to bounce off of with your car.
Delete(The Thinker is arwolfe,--accident of my weird sign-ins on my computer.)
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ReplyDeleteI've visited the U.P. a few times and have not heard the term "Yooper" before!!! I look forward to seeing your posts so I'm more prepared for my next visit.
ReplyDeleteAlso, pasties are absolutely delicious.
Yup. U.P. said slowly comes out like yoop-ee = yoop = yoopers. The term was invented in the 1970's
DeleteAnd yes, pasties can be delicious. A dangerous subject of many "discussions" up there regarding whether to have rutabaga or carrot or both in them, whether to eat with ketchup or gravy, whether anything but a beef pasty is really a pasty, etc. etc. Almost as controversial as religion or politics, but nothing beats hockey up there for heated discussions.
The best part of the U.P. for me, is my grandparents...they live in Paradise MI.
ReplyDeleteI guess you have to be clarify if you say: "My grandparents are in Paradise", eh? ;-) Are they from there or got smart and emigrated there?
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