My wife and I live in “sunny” California, about 45 miles from Palm Springs. For the past several years we have “wintered” in Marquette.

We found out that there was so much to do in Marquette, and so many friends and family to visit (my wife, the former Susan Beyer, is a Marquette native and an Northern Michigan University graduate and I spent 4 years at K.I. Sawyer Air Force Base) that we had to extend our stay in Marquette so that it is now more than two months.

It was impractical to haul our heavy winter clothes in our luggage so we now box it all up and ship them to my wife’s sister in Gwinn.

Our friends in California would ask us where were we going in the dead of winter and when we replied they said “but everyone we know from Marquette goes to Florida in the winter, or California, or Arizona. One of Susan’s cousins recently bought a mobile home in Florida (“too tired of the harsh Upper Peninsula winters” they claim) last week my sister in California asked what the temperature was in Marquette and i told her it was a balmy 27 degrees and she exclaimed “how terribly cold” and I just snickered!

When asked “What’s there to do in Marquette?” We quickly replied “What’s not to do!” Whether it’s watching the start of the UP 200 dog sled races, going to The Ice hockey games at NMU’s Berry Events Center, going to the Lakeview Arena to watch Marquette High’s great ice hockey team play, attending a presentation by the History Center at the Kaufman Auditorium, driving to Houghton to see the Ice Sculptures, or even going to the Outhouse Races in Trenary (home to our favorite toast).

Almost anywhere we go we are bound to run into someone we know. As the saying goes “everyone is either a friend or a friend we haven’t met yet.”

We both love Marquette and though we’re looking for a reasonably-priced second home here, homes seem to sell as fast as they come onto the market, and the prices seem high even compared to California prices. We keep looking anyway.

We’ve been asked: “What is the opposite of a snowbird?” I don’t know what they call them, but we are one!

RICHARD A. STEWART

Moreno Valley, California