Great Lakes Great Times

In June, Kerry and I had the privilege of journeying around the great state of Michigan with our tour guide dear friend Alice, who is not only a lovely person, but also my very favorite Michigander. Hi Alice!

We started off the trip with just a touch of sightseeing around Ann Arbor, home to the University of Michigan, and more importantly, home to Alice! From Ann Arbor we drove up to the Leelanau Penninsula which is dotted with charming small towns and lots and lots of water. Because Alice loves us she not only secured bikes for us to use on our trip but also let us ride said bikes every day. And also because she loves us she scheduled for some of our bike riding to be around vineyards where we could stop for some wine tasting! Leelanau was such a really pleasant place to spend some vacation days and I can certainly see why it's a popular summer destination for Michiganders.

Most of my photos are from the Sleeping Bear Dunes which we enthusiastically hiked at Kerry and my foolish insistence (against Alice's better judgement). And by enthusiastically hiked I mean ever so slowly and grudgingly traversed because we thought there was going to be some sort of spectacular cliff side view at the end. It was such a very long march up and down those mountainous sand dunes and then at the end you are just at the lake. It's a nice lake of course, but Alice correctly pointed out that we could have just walked 10 minutes from our campsite to get to the same lake. Mwap Mwap. Sorry Alice! Still the dunes were pretty impressive and we did feel pretty accomplished at the end of the hike.

The most pleasant surprise of the trip goes to Traverse City which has an awesome little downtown and a scenic lake-side location. I was somehow picturing Traverse City to be something like Flint (Sorry Flint!!) but that was totally not the case. On my next trip I do hope I can spend a bit more time exploring Traverse City.

On our way to the airport Alice took us for a little tour of Detroit which Kerry and I both really enjoyed. I'm not sure I've ever been to Detroit before but I was surprised by the vastness of it. I love the look of the extra wide roads leading into the city. It felt almost futuristic? Or maybe old fashioned? Alice showed us the Heidelberg Project and took us to the Detroit Institute of Bagels which was delicious. It seems more and more like D.C. might be the only city in America without a decent bagel.

Also, I believe I've also given poor Alice a complex about Michigan with my constant prattling on about my favorite state of Vermont. Lemme just tell you right now that while Vermont obviously has my heat that Michigan is also worthy of great praise. AND I do believe I had the best salad of my life in Ann Arbor.

Until next time Michigan!