Remember in the Fitz

November is flying by so quickly I just realized that for the first time in many years, I didn't the about the Edmund Fitzgerald on the anniversary of her sinking. Listen to the song and remember a good ship and 29 men who just wanted to get home.



















Does anyone know where the love of God goes
When the waves turn the minutes to hours?

"The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald" by Gordon Lightfoot

A Long Winter

Ooo! Look! The first sign of spring in Michigan: the deer are starting to move around:


















Several people e-mailed me this funny picture and I couldn't resist including it here.

This winter has been unusually cold and snowy, like "winter when I was growing up" everyone keeps saying. I found the reason why in meteorologist Mark Torregrossa's column in Tuesday's Flint Journal (Feb. 3):

We know it's been snowy this winter, and it was certainly very snowy last year. The two combined have made for a record. For the calendar year of 2008, a record was set for the most snow in one year. MBS [Midland Bay City Saginaw] Airport near Freeland had 102.5 inches of snow. To do what I attribute this large amount of the white stuff? I believe we are in what I call a cyclical stormy pattern caused by the temperature pattern of the Pacific Ocean. I'm talking about the north half of the Pacific. This pattern is thought to last over 20 years by researchers. That doesn't mean every year is going to be snowy, but we may have above-normal snow for another 10 years or so.

That makes sense! It was very snowy when I was growing up but it hasn't been for the last 20 years, until now. I don't mind, after all this what winter is SUPPOSED to be like.

Yesterday the February thaw hit. It was 45 and everyone was out enjoying the weather WITHOUT coats. Today it's still warm (in the mid-30s) and the most of the snow has melted. I took advantage of the weather and finally took down my outside Christmas lights. I know spring isn't really here (colder temps and more snow are predicted for the end of the week) but winter gets really hard after a taste of spring.

A Winter Poem

The temperatures have plummeted from the 40s to the 20s with a single-digit wind chill. (Translation for our metric-using friends "temperatures have plummeted from 8 C to -4 C with a -14 C wind chill.") In honor of this freezing weather, I would like to share a poem sent to me by my friend Bob in England.

'WINTER'

...............................

SHIT, it's COLD!


The End

Stay in and stay warm!

Remnants of Ike in Kalamazoo

Kalamazoo got about 10 inches of rain after the remnants of Hurricane Ike blew through Michigan. A friend in Kalamazoo sent these pics of the downtown area.

Kalamazoo Kings Battlefield:

















National City at Crosstown and Park:

















Downtown near Bronson:

Great Lakes Trivia

According to Mark Torregrossa's "Weather Watch" column in yesterday's Flint Journal:

The Great Lakes water levels have rebounded some after this snowy winter. The U. S. Army Corps of Engineers reported lake levels last week. All of the Great Lakes are higher than this time last year. Lakes Huron and Michigan (which are the same lake for lake-level purposes) are 7 inches higher than this time last year. I find the most amazing fact of the Great Lakes pertains to the size of Lake Superior. The water of Lake Superior is equal to the water of all the other Great Lakes and five additional Lake Eries. That's a lot of water!

Amazing, eh?

Map courtesy of Great Lakes Circle Tour.

Related Sites:
Michigan Facts and Trivia
Michigan Trivia
Great Lakes Trivia

Charlevoix and Bullfrog Light Co.

On our way home from Traverse City we took a detour north to visit Charlevoix. My husband had never been there and we enjoyed lunch and a bit of shopping in the beautiful downtown. We had good timing: we arrived just in time to see the Beaver Island ferry unload (but weren't quick enough to get a picture!). Imagine the ferry was in the foreground and be sure to look at the cool house in the background and the beautiful fall colors:




















We were surprised to find our favorite hotel in Traverse City, Pointes North Inn, is also in Charlevoix (Points North Inn Charlevoix)! We've decided that the next time we go up north, we'll stay in Charlevoix and visit Traverse City on the way home. I'm looking forward to that! I'd also really like to visit Beaver Island sometime. We like to go up north in the off season (Oct. - April) to avoid the mass of tourists. I assumed the ferry didn't run during the off season but was surprised to see it runs until Dec. 14!

Charlevoix is the home of Bullfrog Candles so we had to visit the Bullfrog Light Co. I've loved Bullfrog's beautiful candles for years. They are not scented but glow from the flame all the way to the base. You can see their many beautiful, seasonal patterns on the web site. I was amused to learn that the store isn't just their factory and store, it's their galactic headquarters. I even took a picture of the sign:




















The store was smaller than I expected but it had a good assortment of all their candles plus a "seconds" room where you can purchase slightly imperfect candles at a discount. (Yes, of course I bought some!)

The saleslady was very friendly and helpful. When I told her how much I love Bullfrog Candles, which ones I owned, which I'd given as gifts, etc., she gave me $7 can of Bellagio Gourmet Mocha for being such a loyal customer. What a nice thing to do! Needless to say, I'm even more loyal now. :)

It was hard not to think about all the work (and stress) waiting for me at home but I really enjoyed our weekend escape.

Autumn Wine

One of the fun things about Traverse City is the variety of restaurants and wineries.

Saturday night we decided to try something different and made our way to Boone's Long Lake Inn. They not only get a demerit for the apostrophe error on their web site, I don't recommend the restaurant! After hearing how good it was, I was very disappointed. The rustic lodge is beautiful, popular, and the service was good, but I found the food quite ordinary, especially after eating at Amical (a French Bistro and one of my favorite restaurants) the night before.

My husband has been reading Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails by Ted "Dr. Cocktail" Haig so this weekend we explored Traverse City's many wine shops look for unusual ingredients. You might think northern Michigan is too cold for grapes but the Leelanau Peninsula is full of Wineries! I hardly ever drink but do like very dry red wine. This weekend I discovered two new favorites at Cherry Republic. Their store in downtown Traverse City offers free samples of all their wines and they tell all about each one as you are tasting it.We tried two: Cherry Red Wine and Cherry Spiced Wine. Cherry Red is a very dry mix of 80% grapes and 20% cherries. It's not expensive and it is the best wine I've ever had. Cherry Spiced Wine has cinnamon and orange in it and is good at room temperature or heated (aka mulled wine). I'm so glad we found Cherry Republic! They also ship if we can't find a local distributor after our supply runs out.

Traverse City In November

We're getting away from it all in Traverse City this weekend. Because of the unusually warm October weather, the fall colors are now reaching their peak. The color is usually gone by now, so the timing was perfect for our trip.

This is the view from our hotel room. Isn't East Grand Traverse Bay beautiful?

Cool weather, pretty fall colors, a calming view, and the U of M-MSU game is on. Who could ask for more?

Mastodon in Traverse City?

Today in the news: Possible mastodon carving found on rock in Grand Traverse Bay. The Traverse City Record-Eagle included this caption with the picture above: "Mark Holley explains what he thinks is an ancient carving of a mastodon carved into a rock recently found in 40 feet of water in Grand Traverse Bay. The red lines follow etchings made in the rock, he said."

This is interesting because Mastodons didn't live that far north (or so we've always thought) and because it's underwater. I wonder how they're going to get petroglyph experts, who usually aren't divers, to examine it?

Compare the Mastodon to the Sanilac petroglyps near Bad Axe:

















I have no idea what the petroglyphs depict, but to me the Mastodon does look similar.

Beautiful Manistee

After leaving Chicago, we went to Manistee, MI. For those who are not familiar with our state, Manistee is a Victorian port city on Lake Michigan, between Ludington and Traverse City. According to the Cities Unlimited web site the population of Manistee is similar to Davison, but Manistee is bigger, older, and tourist-oriented. We drove through on our way home from Traverse City in early Oct. and wanted to go back and explore this pretty little town.

We enjoyed the downtown stores and I was especially delighted with the Manistee County Historical Museum. It's in an old store front and is remniscient of an old-fashioned general store, only better! Here's a map, and picture of the building, and a link to their impressive genealogy collection.

The entrance fee is only $2 and you can wander around by yourself, or a volunteer will show you the exhibits. A nice man showed us around and I was glad because he told us a lot about the special Christmas exhibits. The Christmas exhibits are so popular that the museum's busiest months are July, August, and December.

The main room, which looks like a general store, featured a Victorian Christmas tree. The oil lights had been converted to electric but there were still some (unlit) clip-on candles to convey the sense of what the original tree looked like. In keeping with the German tradition, the full-sized tree was sitting on table:


Under the tree is the "putz" or Christmas Garden which features the Nativity:


In America we changed the tradition: we put the tree on the floor and updated the village to reflect a Victorian or modern look, often with trains:

I never knew that this German tradition was the origin of our ceramic Christmas village!

After visiting the museum we had a delicious Italian lunch at the Tuscan Grille, then visited one of the downtown antique stores before driving home. It was a nice getaway but we were tired and glad to get home, where our cats were very glad to see us (despite good care from their human grandparents).

TC in the Fall

My husband and I spent the weekend enjoying Traverse City. It's one of our favorite Michigan vacation spots: close to home but a good place to get away from it all. There's a wonderful bookstore, lots of fabulous restaurants, and great shopping. We like to stay at the Pointes North Inn so we are right on east bay. Just watching the water is relaxing and the view is wonderful. This is a good time to visit: they have a lot more fall color than we do in southeast Michigan (although the colors are not yet at their peak).

On the way home we decided to drive over to Sleeping Bear Dunes and follow the lake shore south before turning east to head across the state. It's a beautiful drive with lots of scenic views of Lake Michigan. The National Park Service and the Sleeping Bear Dunes Visitors Bureau have tons of info about it on their web sites. We didn't see the actual Sleeping Bear, but the other dunes are beautiful and interesting. We stopped at several of the scenic views and the Point Betsie Lighthouse.

Now that my husband is teaching Michigan History at Baker College (Flint campus) we are trying to visit more historical sites. We'd like to visit Mackinaw City and Mackinac Island soon, and eventually do the lighthouse tour. I grew up in Michigan and spent a lot of time up north, but much of "up north" is new to my husband. I found state sites that have lots of good travel info to help us find places to visit: State of Michigan Travel and Recreation and Michigan's Economic Development and Travel Site.

Michigan Slogans

Today I got an e-mail from brother and sister-in-law with Michigan trivia. It ended with a list of Possible New Slogans for Michigan that was so funny I couldn't resist posting it here:

The one that looks like a mitten, you moron.
Where used cars from Florida brings top dollar.
No hurricanes here.
The Orange Barrel State.
So close to Canada, you can hardly tell the difference.
We know the rules to euchre.
Got fudge?
Two Mystery Spots. No waiting.
Yes, the Porcupines are real mountains.
Soda? We say pop here, buddy.
The Midwestern "M" state without a wrestler for governor.
No riots since '67.
More than just boarded up auto plants.
Casino fever -- catch it.
Sandy beaches without severe undertow.
Happiness is a warm pasty.
Imagine an island where horse manure still litters the streets.
Water enough for any drought.
Visit Hell, Paradise, Christmas and Climax. (Can do it all the same day!)
Birthplace of Meijer Thrifty Acres.
Where Ontario is a shortcut to New York.
Gerald Ford slept here.
It's called snow. Get used to it.
Where the names of high-toned suburbs needlessly end with "e."
Deer processing available here.
Not as flat as Indiana.
Try eating corn flakes without us.
Hardly any annoying lizards or poisonous snakes. Big on flannel.
It's not the heat. It's the humidity.
Smoked fish sold here.
Good people with camping trailers.
We moved American history to Dearborn.
No toll roads and proud of it.
Our biggest bridge makes yours look puny.
Nearly went to war with Ohio once and will do it again if they pull any funny stuff.
Land of snow machines and bass boats.
#@?!* mosquitoes.
We know a place where wooden shoes are always in style.
Where lousy teams get new stadiums.
Speed limit is back up to 70, so move it!
The Red Wings State.

I thought of a couple more:

Where octopus is synonymous with hockey.
If you don't like the weather, wait five minutes. It will change.

Traverse City

My husband and I spent the weekend in Traverse City enjoying the fall colors. If you've never been to TC, you are missing a treat. Yes, the outskirts look like every other overgrown mall you've ever seen, but the downtown is terrific! It's several blocks of turn-of-the century buildings with a variety of shops, several art galleries, and lots of restaurants, all on Grand Traverse Bay. There are two bays, actually, separated by a peninsula, East Bay and West Bay. We stayed at the Pointes North Inn on the East Bay.

One nice thing about Pointes North Inn is that all rooms face the bay. Our room was on the first floor and the beach was just a few steps from our porch. There are lots of seagulls, ducks, and swans on the beach and they aren't afraid of people. The hotel forbids feeding them. Don't worry, though. Judging by their size, they are not starving.

Speaking of food, Friday night we ate at Mountain Jack's on the East Bay Harbor Marina. From our table we could look out over the marina and see Salmon jumping in the water. Our waiter told us the marina was seeded with about 200 Salmon, so they always have fish there to watch. Very cool!

Saturday we had breakfast pasties at Cousin Jenny's. It's a nice little British-looking cafe that specializes in pasties. They don't have a web site but are mentioned in this article: Delightful Delectables. We didn't realize they are closed on Sunday so we were not able to bring home pasties to fill our freezer. For everyone who is not from Michigan: pasties, pronounced "pass-tees," are the local version of Cornish meat pies, filled with steak, potatoes, and rutabagas. They are especially tasty with brown gravy!

After enjoying the fall colors Saturday, we ate dinner at Amicale, a French cafe. They don't have a web site, but that's probably because they are too busy creating fabulous food (a new menu every season, apparently). They are usually very busy, so while waiting for our table we took advantage of the free wireless Internet at Horizon Books, one of our favorite bookstores just a couple of doors away from Amicale, and checked our e-mail on Roger's laptop. He even posted to his blog! It was the first time I've ever checked my e-mail on a wireless network via a wireless laptop (literally: no power cord or mouse)! I felt so technologically savvy.

The only downside to an otherwise wonderful weekend was the inevitable traffic backup on I-75 south on the way home. We got off at West Branch and made our way back to M-15. Usually taking the old roads is about as fast as the expressway, but this time it took us an extra two hours to get home, probably because of the back up and heavy traffic.

If you are looking for nice place to vacation that's not too far away, I heartily recommend Traverse City. Just avoid I-75 if you possibly can.