Featured Blog Posts – March 2012 Archive (23)

It's an odd thing, to wonder if the ghosts are mad at you.

We are selling the house. Yes, the house we labored over (and under), the one we restored with our own sweat and bulging biceps (ahem), the house that we thought we'd be in forever. (And ever.)

Why, why, why would we sell…

In 1958 my grandfather had the opportunity to purchase a couple hundred feet on Lake Michigan for what feels like pocket change today. He didn't think he had the money.

In 1978, my parents reached deep into their wallets and figured out a way to purchase a house in downtown Glen Arbor--with a view of both Sleeping…

If you didn't catch the blog I wrote last month when I was working on the France Vs. Italy story for the April issue of Traverse, here's a re-run. Such a delicious story to work on! Click to…

Recently our local papers began trumpeting the "sudden" rise in sales activity in the local real estate market  (Regional Home Sales Jump in Feb. ) and some are wondering if this is just a patch of fair weather that brought out the optimists or if a trend may be taking shape.  Were I a betting man I would say it was the latter not the former. Here's why:

1. Mortgage rates are…

DETOUR– More than three miles of northern Lake Huron shoreline and 145 acres of land on Point DeTour were recently donated to Little Traverse Conservancy as the De Tour Peninsula Nature Preserve.  Located just south of De Tour in eastern Chippewa County, this is one of the most ecologically significant properties now owned by the Conservancy as a public preserve.…

The Latest New Home Design Trends

Each year at the National Association of Home Builders’ International Builders’ Show, the Best in American Living Awards (BALA) provide recognition to builders and design professionals who have accomplished outstanding design achievements. Awards are given in all sectors of the residential housing industry, including single-family production, custom, rental, affordable, interiors,…

The economic downturn has hurt many American families during the past few years, and sadly that means there are a larger number of foreclosed homes on the market than during a healthy economy. The lower price of these homes can make them look like a bargain, but home buyers  need to carefully compare the actual cost—and advantages—of a newly constructed home versus a foreclosed one before you buy.

During an educational seminar at the 2012…

Black Star Farms is proud to be part of a wine region that has continued to receive accolades for its quality wines and food destinations. The winery is honored to announce four new awards received at the 36^th annual Eastern International Wine Competition.  

The International Eastern Wine Competition (IEWC) is one of the oldest and largest professional wine competitions in the United States. Judges were comprised of the most experienced and unique pool of wine industry…

The 2011 Fall Dunes Eco-Photo Tour lead by naturalist Mark S. Carlson and digital photography expert Bob Grzesiak was once again a great success. Mark forwarded us two really nice “thank-you” emails they received from participants along with a few of the first photographs of the weekend.

 …

With this winter's wacky weather, I fully expected to put our snow skis away in March. I didn't expect that I'd be going to the beach the next day. It was a Northern Michigan type of March Madness with 83 degrees at my house and 63 here on the water's edge.…

Walked out into the Northern Michigan morning today and I heard birds singing in the trees. Made me want to go climb a tree like these guys! Read about to learn to do this in the March issue of…

Last week, my boyfriend said he saw a robin. I was informed last year, after my first (and very long and very white) winter, that such a spotting is a sure sign of Spring. Yet I was hesitant that perhaps even the smart robins had been tricked, just as the poor confused squirrels were all winter long- frequently seen darting out during teasing thaws when barely any snow remained, then rushing back to their homes when the snow fell. (I may have exhibited similar behavior, hence my empathy.)…

Judy Reinhardt, co-owner of Sweeter Song Farm, a CSA farm north of Cedar, Michigan.

I am working on a story for the May issue of Traverse, Northern Michigan's Magazine about people who have helped build Northern Michigan's remarkable local foods scene (it has achieved national renown…

One of my all time favorite stories ever to come out of my work at Traverse, Northern Michigan's Magazine was told to me many years ago by a colleague who'd just returned from researching a story in the Upper Peninsula. He'd been invited into the humble home of a particularly humble Yooper and in…

We peeled our winter bodies out from too-tight bathing suits Saturday afternoon to try our first official Eat. If you haven't been following along, my husband and I have decided to try each of the 42 Best Eats listed in the March 2012 issue of Traverse Magazine, and even though we were in TC to shake off the winter blues at Great Wolf Lodge, we knew there was no time like the present for digging into America's favorite vegetable: fries.

We chose Slabtown Burgers' hand-cut fries…

Today was one of the first truly nice afternoons we have had in a long time; after a winter of oscillation between freezing rain and thick sticking snow, the sun finally appeared in Ann Arbor. It was sixty six, the breeze was gentle, and it seemed like almost every student was taking a break from the books to sprawl out in the Diag. It seemed like the perfect time to test out the course for the 5k my sorority will be hosting in a few weeks. The run will be benefitting Breast Cancer Research,…

The snow storm came fast, piled deep, trapped us in our driveway for two days and killed our power and heat and water for three days. So turned out to be a great time to take some photos of Northern Michigan's Leelanau County landscape in all its March glory, especially enjoyable since we'd had so little snow this winter. Here's a sampling of images to show how sticky the snow was in this late winter treat. The forest was the whitest snow globe place I've ever wandered through. For those…

It was my birthday and announcements every half hour from my husband and daughter had prevented me from sleeping in and outlined a rather dire set of circumstances … no power, large fallen tree branch blocking the driveway, two feet of snow covering the road, no evidence of snowplows … All this data meant one thing:…

Spray Falls, Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, Munising in Michigan's Central Upper Peninsula.



            Remote Spray Creek bubbles up somewhere in the middle of Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, meanders through miles of maple and beech forest—then flies foam-first over a 50-foot cliff into Lake Superior. Seeing the creek upstream, you’d never guess the little guy had it in him to become one of the most dramatic waterfalls in the region.



            Due to…

I'd gone up to bed early to catch that perfect hour of pre-exhaustion reading. I had my Traverse Magazine and my book. I never got to the book.

I nearly wrote that I "flipped through" Traverse, but no, that's not right. I made a full stop on each page, not to look for my byline (ahem) but to get into the nitty gritty of each image. The art, the photos, the concepts in March's issue are gorgeous. So gorgeous, in fact, that I almost passed the story. The story that, just in its…