KEWEENAW PENINSULA, Mich. — The Keweenaw National Historical Park, consisting of two former mines miles apart, provides a good snapshot of copper mining and the terrible crash that wrecked the region when the mining companies pulled out.

CALUMET, Mich. — On Engineers Day at the Soo Locks you can watch ships close-up and tour the hydroelectric plant. Then it was on to Whitefish Point and the story of the Edmund Fitzgerald.

AGAWA BAY, Ontario — Back at the lakeshore, we view Magpie High Falls, find gorgeous camping at Agawa Bay and take the harrowing trip to see ancient drawings of canoes and moose.

ON THE SHORES OF WHITE LAKE, Ontario — At this point on the circle tour, roads pull away from Lake Superior and bring us into Ontario's  interior, and so while we have pitched our tent on a lake, it's White Lake, not the lake.

Ontario's Highway 17 climbs small mountains — and is flanked by enormously tall palisades layered with red and pink and white, like a birthday cake.

THUNDER BAY, Ontario — Even the Minnesota-born learned a lot at the Grand Portage National Monument's interpretive center, which opened in 2007. It's just big enough to tell you what you need to know, and small enough to be manageable with children. After that, the road to Thunder Bay spanned both miles and years.

Our vacation will do what travel is supposed to do: Show us something we love, show us new things, and show us ourselves — all in ways we haven't thought of before. And I’ll be posting on MinnPost as we go.

TWO HARBORS, Minn. -- With Hibbing Taconite's 3½ month shutdown having started last Saturday, it's quiet on the Iron Range: None of the mines is currently producing any taconite.