Featured Blog Posts – June 2011 Archive (27)

Mission Table chefs prepare Lamb rillette with cucumber, feta, and pickled onion on baguette

Headed out to Crystal Mountain Resort last night to enjoy the annual gourmet local foods banquet, called Summer Celebration, sponsored by Michigan Land Use Institute. For the $15 admission fee,…

This essay was written by our daughter Mary for her 7th grade English class. Reading this was proof that every penny was well spent on our home away from home at Crystal Mountain Resort. 

Crystal Mountain

Arriving at Crystal Mountain was a very memorable moment.  When we drove up to the lodge to check in, snow was falling from the sky so beautifully that it seemed like we…

The time arrived! I have been waiting for my hidden patch of showy lady slippers to bloom all month. It is about a mile from the end of the road to the site where I saw these flowers last year and I have been going out to check on them once a week for the past month. Last year I saw them after…

This past Saturday 20 people from the Traverse Area Paddling Club and Friends of Sleeping Bear Dunes floated the lower Platte River in canoes and kayaks picking up trash. It was the first sunny day in a week and we took advantage.…

Since the garlic mustard season is rapidly coming to a close, I wanted to end with my most rediculous post about it. With a little help from Windows Paint I think I've succeeded!

We have eradicated garlic mustard from nearly all of our preserves including Arcadia Dunes, Greenpoint Dunes, Betsie…

Cracking the REALTORS Code

I have written professionally, commercially and recreationally for most of my life. I like to think of myself as creative. But when it comes to the real estate advertising copy I stand in awe of my peers. They have created a completely new language which graces the weekend classifieds, multi-listings and promotional flyers.  I first wrote my initial translation of this highly complex lexicon in a magazine column nearly 30 years ago. The…

A group of us spent the day at Sleeping Bear Dunes exploring the sites of some of the logging villages that dotted the Lake Michigan shoreline in the late 1800's and early 1900's. Trying to imagine what the forest, lakes and rivers looked like when the first settlers arrived in the area allowed us to step back into the lives of these little villages. Finding abandoned dock pilings in remote areas of the beach, building foundations, and scattered artifacts added a touch of reality to the…

At Traverse, lucky lady interns, Lucy and I, are encouraged to explore the area we live in by trying new things and experiencing all that the Traverse City area has to offer. Yesterday we decided to leave the downtown office and meander the Old Mission Peninsula wine trail. Lucy is not yet 21 so I, martyr that I am, was forced to taste the wine at the 4 wineries we stopped at.

In just a short, 2-hour period, Lucy and I were able to complete an abridged wine tasting circuit,…

Usually, we Traverse Magazine interns eat lunch at 1:00 every day. There's no particular reason for it, Nell and I just decided that it's a respectable hour of the day to dine, so we do. Yesterday, however, we had reason to break the routine. Around noon, our editor Lissa asked if we were ready to go. I shouted next door to Nell, "Lissa wants to go now, are you--" only to be cut short by a chomping-at-the-bit, enthusiastic "Yeah, let's go!" response from Nell. We'd been waiting for this…

When Traverse editor Jeff Smith and I began picking up the phone to track down real Northern Michigan folks to tell us how they really vacation in Northern Michigan, we weren’t sure where, exactly, we were going with the story "12 Summer Weekend Getaways," we'd scheduled to feature in our…

From the rooftop of the unit in Traverse City's 101 North Park where Nick Darga lives, you can look down on the beach, the bay…

There's a group a songwriter can turn to and say, "How does this sound?"

On Saturday, June 25, the Michigan Songwriters & Musicians Association will celebrate its first year of existence at

Borders Books in Traverse…

When was the last time you ventured north of M-204 on the Leelanau Peninsula wine trail? If you do, you'll find a cozy circle of five distinctly different wineries tucked along Leelanau's Northern Wine Trail. Stop by and visit us, Silver Leaf Vineyard & Winery, along with Raftshol Vineyards, Leelanau…

I apologize that I haven't been on here and that I have deleted several posts. I joined this community for (2) reasons: less people and I heart Michigan's north. I had written a post on some fiction novel ideas and for whatever the reason may be, a person posted the chapter I introduced on their webblog and claiming it to be theirs. I took my other posts down and hated the internet for a bit. I am okay now :) 

I have been doing raw food for quite some time now and have come…

      Michigan ranks #4 in foreclosures nationwide with continuing high unemployment and 36% of homeowners with mortgages owe more than their home is worth.  It’s understandable, therefore, when good news goes unreported.  But that doesn’t change the facts. In the five county area of Northwest Michigan (Grand Traverse, Benzie, Leelanau, Antrim and Kalkaska) the long slide in real estate sales and prices is apparently over. Put another way, the market has bottomed…

So, I’ve been a Northern Michigan pseudo-resident for about 3 weeks now and I’m settling in nicely—getting a hefty dose of cherries, white fish, local beer and time spent by Lake Michigan. One thing I have come to realize is that the general attitude among Northern Michigan residents—whether they inhabit the…

1. Padded Headboard

A padded headboard adds additional fabric to your bed, allowing you to tie in more texture and color with your surrounding fabrics for cohesive  harmony. A wooden headboard tells a story of  heirloom quality, whereas a padded…

The fresh breath of summer. Crisp, cool mornings erupt into sun-drenched afternoons then dissolve into picture perfect sunsets. The lakes warm to a balmy 62 degrees and fill with hardy wake boarders, skiers, surfers and Frisbee flingers.

And like the annual onslaught of swarming black flies come the color-coordinated, spandex-assed bikers riding three abreast on the winding lakeshore roads.

 …