• Wednesday-What'sUP July 20 - 02:25 am

The waves of Lake Superior have taken their toll on the "caution" sign in this first picture from Brita Haapala. On this day, though, Lake Superior looks calm on both sides of the breakwall, so Brita's gang is safe for their trek. Glance down at the second shot for a wider vista of both the kids and the Portage Waterway upper entrance lighthouse. A stroll out for a closer look is a "must do" sort of thing whenever you make a visit to McLain State Park.

My kids and I love to walk out on breakwalls. One thing that is different about Michigan and Connecticut is that out here most of them have hand rails on them or are fenced off for safety. When I go back to Michigan the most we ever see is one railing running down the middle and most of them have life rings out on them.

Hi BRITA - well nices summer pictures again from You! So happy childrens!!!

Jack, In Duluth too!

Hey Mary, unless Superior has learned how to write, I don't think "all" the damage to the caution sign is natural....... ;-)

I found this old post card site for all the USA

http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/mi/ppcs-mi.html

http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/mi/houghton/postcards/ppcs-houghton.html

http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/mi/keweenaw/postcards/ppcs-kewee.html

Love the pictures! That little guy sure does his best bringing up the rear! What fun!

Actually looks like graffiti is what has taken a toll on the sign, not the lake.:) In my somewhat yearly trips to the Keweenaw (skipping it this year due to gas prices) I make it a point of honor to walk out to the end of that breakwater.( Here's one of my recent "expeditions") I figure that the day I can't do that anymore it's either time to start working out or time to start shopping for an assisted living home. (I do hear there's a pretty good one up there.:) )

OK,

How many of us are going to admit to swimming to the lighthouse from the end of the breakwall, climbing up, and jumping off?

Yep, the water was C-O-L-D out there!

I think I worry to much but I feel these children are far to young to be walking a fenceless breakwater without the supervision of a parent. I know my parents would be right there holding my hand.

You do sound like a bit of a worry wart. Believe it or not, kids have a natural instinct not to leap off of a high wall into deep water. If the parent never lets go of the child's hand, the child's confidence in himself is very little.

Sorry Beverly from San Jose. I just got defensive when you attacked my parenting skills. But you're right, we should always be cautious.

I took my own kids exploring all the time and like Brita,I was usually behind the gang, juggling our stuff while trying to focus the ever-present camera.
Years later we look back at the hundreds of pictures taken during our excursions. Somebody always says,"Hey,I forgot about this...till now!",or "Who is THAT?" as we try to place the face of some kid we must have invited to tag along,I guess. We may not always remember names,dates and events,but the pictures spark alot of memories,along with many good laughs. I don't know or care what I had to sacrifice to buy the many rolls of film with money I didn't have to spare,but our lives are preserved in good,fair,poor and awful pictures. Nobody has said,"remember those meatballs you made back in August 1990 when there wasn't enough for seconds? If you had splurged and bought ground round instead of HAMBURGER,we would have gone to bed happy,but nooo,you just had to buy another box of Kodak rolls!"

Beverly, Add me to the worry wart list because when I saw those pictures this morning the first thing I said to my husband was that I would be there holding their hands. But that's me.

Brita and Beverly,

I've felt like both of you one time or another.
My own fear of height always made me want
to hold my kids back, but my desire to make
them brave made me grit my teeth and hope
for the best.

There are many ways to parent, and I'll bet
both of you did a bang up job.

Very nice(and probably true) Kosk

What no fishing poles?

I am nervous whenver I see a child on a breakwall.1st. There is nothing for that kid to try to gab at if he stumbles over the side.The children should be wearing life preservers while they are on that break wall 2nd. They are not together,a little one is tagging behind, where is his mother or adult? 3. She should be right next to him in case he slips or falls. 4. Those breakwalls are sometimes covered in slippery algae & if anyone slipped on that, it could be a tradegy. Children should not be brought on a breakwall.

Brita, Don't you just love all of the unsolicited advice on how to be a good parent?

I've learned a lot as a mom but now that I'm so smart I've run out of kids and nobody wants to hear my expertise ha-ha. Is this considered too much conversation out of context? Sorry.

Yeah, Kenty, the advice is very helpful. :) I can say from experience that the less kids you have, the more of an expert you think you are.

Brita, I don't think anyone is attacking your parenting skills...just trying to point out that breakwalls are more dangerous than people may realize. Also keep in mind that there are readers here, who may have lost a child through drowning and other unforseen dangers.

If we were all alike, how boring this site would be.

Keeping children tight all the time isn't going to help either - my father was carrying my sister once, so she was as tight as she could be to an adult which didn't keep her head from getting banged when he slipped and fell.

Anyhow, my tuppence is that for me this pic is somehow typical for this site. A few days ago we've had this exchange of posts about children vs. scenery, and maybe a children calendar instead or additionally to the usual pc-calendar, and what pops up? Right, a children-and-scenery pic. :)

I think the worst lesson I ever learned as a child was about gravity. I was walking along a fence with my arms held out like I was flying, when a neighbor passed by and said; "Be careful, your going to fall down"... Guess what happenned.

I learned about gravity that day...And I've been grounded ever since.

Y'know, I really don't want to get into the parenting issue, and certainly claim no applicable expertise, but I would point out that just beyond the furthest group of kids on that breakwall the nice smooth level concrete walkway ends and the continuation of the breakwall is just a jumble of very large, irregular rocks with equally irregular gaps (chasms?) between.

That combination affords a fairly irregular, unstable and precarious footing even for a stumble-footed adult like myself. I know, I've been there, done that, many decades ago.

Nice to see that the kids did not attempt to proceed onto that portion of the breakwall...

Just for the record, I have 5 children. And I know we don't all parent alike, but I've been on those breakwalls, and it can be a scary thing. Sometimes children lose their train of thought if they should see something that interests them and may forget where they are. Not meaning to attack anybody, just saying that when I saw the picture it kind of shocked me to see children out there alone.

In defense of our photographer and Mother, Brita, I think eveyone has lost sight of the fact that there IS an adult with these children, otherwise the picture would never have been taken. Brita was right behind the kids and how do any of us know whether she was in constant verbal contact with them to stay away from the edge and keep in the middle...we don't. So please let's just enjoy the scenery and the children in it, since obviously they're all ok after heading out there AND back!

Whew!

My earliest (and best) memories are my parents letting us walk out there. Somehow all 6 of us kids never fell in. We never hurt ourselves on the “very large, irregular rocks with equally irregular gaps (chasms?).” Three decades later I still do that walk every year. If I had kids I’d like to see them doing exactly what’s happening in these pictures.

I love Brita's pics - the scenery and the kid's adventures have always been a favorite of mine. Keep em coming Brita.

Brita's pictures of her chilren really seem to depict the simple family joys of growing up in the Upper Peninsula...it's the best!!....love the happy children ....and.....wonder how the dog is doing?....I think she was named Violet (????)

Thanks, everyone, for the positive comments! The dog, Violet, is doing good. She is 4 months old right now, so she still has some growing up to do, but she's coming along. As are the kids. :)

Growing up in Fulton, we climbed the old rock piles across the street from Bethany Lutheran Church, built our own rafts and floated out onto the many "temporary" ponds and lakes that would form in the spring after the snow melt, explored the old mining ruins, built forts in the bush, and did other exciting things our parents were better off not knowing about!! LOL We made our fun, got bumps and bruises, but through all of our adventures, we never lost a kid!! That's growing up in Da U.P.