We had a lovely time “Up North” this past week. Here’s a link to a collection of flickr picts. In no particular order, here are some random thoughts:
- This is the first time I’ve been up near Traverse City when I actually didn’t have a whole lot to do with Traverse City. We were staying out at a place near Lake Ann, and we actually only went into to TC one day, in part because we were up there during the dreaded Cherry Festival. Mostly, we hung around Glen Arbor, Empire, and the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lake Shore.
- My parents rented this gigantic vacation home/cabin called “The Eagles Nest.” We never inquired, but hopefully it had nothing to do with Hitler. Seriously though, it was a great place. Slept 18 people comfortably, great views, very comfy, etc., etc. It made me appreciate cabin aesthetics, too.
- This is the first trip I’ve taken like this where I’ve thought about how it would be cool to have a cabin. Nothing like this place we stayed of course, but just a place a few hours away in the pseudo-wilderness. It’d be nice to have a place like that to go and write and read and hang out. Maybe someday.
- Lotsa hiking around with friends (John and Karen M!) and family, mostly through good weather.
- Some fun golf at a place just down the road from us called Mistwood which turned out to be just a fantastic course. My dad and I played there one day with Will and one of his cousins (just 9 holes, and Will spent most of the time reading), and then the next day me and him for 18, and then my mom and dad the day after that for 9 holes. There’s a lot of great deals up there– my regular golf friends and I might need to check out some of the deals up there.
- It probably was a good idea for me to not have regular Internet access up there. Relaxing. I might have to figure out how to ration my WiFi access in “real” life, too.
And now we’re here in Ypsi-Arbor for the rest of the summer. No European travel this year, but maybe some gardening.
Caught your post and chuckled a little at the “dreaded” comment. When I was a kid, also vacationing up here, we only went once to the festival. We found so many wonderful things to do on the Leelanau peninsula, we didn’t have time to get to TC. Now living and working here, I was delighted to discover that the Cherry Festival didn’t inconvenience my work obligations at all and the traffic downtown was very reasonable. Especially given Detroit standards (a Detroit friend confided that he spends 45 minutes going to work and 1.5 to 2 hours getting home–yikes). And it seems now that there are a broader variety of things at the festival–its more cultural arts program than carnival cotton candy thing. The Cherries D’Vine event, for an example is a lovely way to sample trendy cherry recipes from the Culinary Institute and all the area wines, with one of the best views of the bay at the Hagerty Center. (Full disclosure, my company, Traverse, Northern Michigan’s Magazine, sponsored the event and it was cool). I lived in Ypsi and other SE Mich. suburbs and came up for the weekend all the time–I hope you can get away more this summer. If so, here’s a resource that the folks around here produced–even though I live here now, I’ve used this site myself to get around and find cool places. http://www.destinationnorthernmichigan.com This summer’s list includes a trip to Elk Rapids. Glad you had a good time and hope you get up again.