Wooooo! We’re onto posts from my trip to the Upper Peninsula… finally! Over Labor Day weekend, I took a long trip up to Escanaba, Michigan! I had never been before, and was really excited to explore a whole new part of the U.P. I hadn’t been to yet. I left Thursday night, hit up dinner in Petoskey, and then stayed overnight in Mackinaw City before venturing across the bridge on Friday morning. My first full day… I checked out the Manisitique area, which is on the way to Escanaba! I had been there once before, but hadn’t seen any of the lighthouses yet, so that was a priority, of course. First up?! The Seul Choix Lighthouse in Gulliver! Pronounced Sis-shwa, the name means "only choice". It was named by the French who found it was the only harbor of refuge in this part of Lake Michigan. I was so excited to explore this one!

You have to venture off the main road to get here, and take a long dirt road, but it’s really not too tricky to get to! The lighthouse itself is beautiful, and they have it available as a museum and you can tour and climb the tower. This one is tall! But yeah, I walked through the boat house, and even bought a little nautical boat for my living room from their gift shop! It was BRIGHT outside though and I was so nervous about the photos not turning out, but I think they ended up being okay! The entire trip, I had beautiful weather. It was still warm enough to mosey around all day, but you could layer up a little bit more with jackets and sweaters!

One of my favorite things about this lighthouse… are the many sightings of a haunting. Visitors and workers at the lighthouse have reported “strange happenings”, including moved silverware and other items, the sound of footsteps and of someone climbing the lighthouse steps, and a strong smell of cigars. Apparently the president of the historical society said she has seen the former lighthouse keeper in a round mirror on three separate occasions. The keeper from 1902 to 1920 (Joseph Townsend) died in the upstairs bedroom, and was buried in a nearby coffin. He was a cigar smoker in life, so that’s where the “smell of cigar” comes from. Oooh! I even had a reader comment on my Instagram story about this lighthouse saying him and his wife often visit this lighthouse and know the “ghost” well because it’s part of their family history/tree. SO FUN. I love stuff like that so much! 👻

I didn’t see any spooky things during my visit, but I was also unaware of the “haunting” otherwise I definitely would have paid more attention when I was there! Usually after I visit haunted places on the blog, I’m scouring through my photos to see if I spot anything spooky in a mirror or through a window. I definitely want to visit more places though — I used to always do a series of “spooky” or haunted places in Michigan around Halloween-time. I’ll have to pick up that tradition again this year… so fun! After I hung out for a while, toured the grounds, climbed the tower, and snapped some pictures, I headed out for an afternoon in Manistique. So I’ll be back with a blog post from my afternoon! xo