Pete, James, Kris and I went to
Michigan Tech for our annual WCHA hockey weekend. The trip started out similar to last years with a slick snowy ice mixture driving up hwy 35. We saw 17 cars in the ditch and a few fender benders. Once we got to Duluth we were finally in the clear cruising our way to
Houghton, MI. After 8 hours in the car we arrived at the
Travelodge. We got lucky once again with our hotel selection. Our room was very large with 2 queens, fold out couch, mini fridge, microwave and the best part was we were right on the main strip in downtown Houghton. No need for a taxi to get to the bars.
Friday night we went out to check out the bars. First stop
Keweenaw Brewing Company. This little gem in the heart of downtown had the best micro beers I have ever tasted. We had the Pick Axe Blonde, Red Jacket Amber, Coal Porter (nitro) & the ESB. KBC only served beer and peanuts. Oh did I forget to tell you that it was $2 a pint! TWO DOLLARS!! Frickin' awesome! The atmosphere was awesome with the aged wood & brick walls and a cozy gas fireplace in the middle of the bar. Unfortunately I was only able to get some Blonde to bring back because MI does not allow you to buy beer before noon. KBC was only open until 11pm so we headed over to
The Library another micro brew pub for some late night appetizers. I got some wings that were damn pathetic but James & Kris got the crab stuffed mushrooms and they would not stop talking about how great they tasted all night. I had the Bumbletown Ale and once again this micro brew was fantastic! Next stop the
Ambassador. Nothing too special about the Ambassador. Beer was twice as much as KBC and The Library. We just took a shot of whiskey and packed it up for the night. We were all dragging ass from waking up early and the drive.
Saturday we did some Houghton exploring. First we consulted the
napkin that James brought. A teammate of James' went to Mich Tech and lived in Houghton for 5 years so he drew a map on a napkin for James with some local sites we should check out. We drove out of town for 15 minutes and arrived at
Lake Superior were it meets with the
Keweenaw Waterway. There was a small light house east side of the waterway and a large wave barrier on the west. We walked to the end of the wave barrier to check it out. After our little hike we headed into Houghton to check out the mall. What a sad sight this place was. There were more vacant stores than there was open stores. We then hit up the Wal-Mart to find some shorts to go swimming. There was maybe 5 other people in the hotel so we had the pool to ourselves. Too bad the hot tub was broken.
We headed over to the
John MacInnes Ice Arena around 6:00 pm. I personally wasn't too impressed by this arena. It felt like you were watching a high school game. The arena had no personality, just bland. The Huskies Pep Band had to of been the most annoying thing ever to grace the game of Hockey. They would not stop playing! Every break in play they would start up again & again. All I wanted was for the band to disappear so I could hear the sounds of the game. Mich Tech Huskies lost to the St. Cloud Huskies 4 to 1. After the game we headed back to KBC
for some $2 pints. After KBC closed we went to a few more bars on Shelden Ave. The rest of that night was pretty fuzzy. I permanently borrowed a glass pitch from one of the bars, bar goers were dressed up as pirates and I don't remember going to bed. Yeah it was a good night.
Sunday morning was a real treat. Hung over! Two Aleves and I'm ready to rock n' roll. With some Perkins in our bellies we were on the road once again. On the way back we hit up Anchor Bar and Grill in Superior, WI. $3 burgers and $1 fries, how could you go wrong? That was a tasty burger. We arrived home around 6pm. We gassed up the car and got it washed for Aimee. We averaged around 30-32 mpg the whole trip which kept the gas bill down to $25 per person.
Over all it was a really fun trip. The town of Houghton was great! The ice arena was a disappointment. The beer and price of beer was fantastic! The bars were good but not very busy for being a college town. Next years WCHA destination will be a local one, St. Cloud.
Here is a
link to all of the
pictures.
-MikeyB
