By We live in Michigan's Lower Peninsula, but have connections to the Upper Peninsula. Our daughter married a Yooper (that name refers to someone from the Upper Peninsula, or UP...U-Per, get it?). They live in the UP, and have two of our grandchildren, Jack and Elisabeth.
The UP and the Lower Peninsula (interestingly not called the LP) are different. The culture is different. The topography is different. The speech is different. The degree of socializing is different.
The natives we've encountered in the UP seem truly more friendly than their southern citizens. So we had a very friendly, very family-oriented time over the Fourth.
Here are a few pictures of happy family times above the Mackinac Bridge:
It was a fun, noisy (ok, I didn't like the damn unofficial fireworks..at all), friendly, tiring, reassuring time. News beyond the local boundaries was ignored. Babies were watched by mothers and fathers and grandparents and aunts and uncles. Kids played in small-town America. Life was refreshed.
Good to have you back.
Life as it should be.