July 28,2008

The Wonders of Northern Michigan

recently consumed

travel: Northern Michigan

tasting notes

My blog frequency has steadily declined as my work blog frequency has increased. I don’t anticipate this to change, as I have very recently taken over as Executive Editor of the ThreeMinds blog for Organic. This means a lot more responsibility and a lot more exposure. So, I think I’m going to have an even harder time with RecentlyConsumed, unless I can train myself to write shorter blogs. I’ll try and work on that.

While I haven’t been blogging much lately, what I have been doing is experiencing the wonders of Northern Michigan, which is a pretty amazing reason to live within this sometimes depressed mitten state. It’s easy to forget when you drive the drive from Canton to Bloomfield everyday just how absolutely beautiful this state really is in the summertime. I almost leaped out of my seat the other day when a girl at my work said, “Michigan just doesn’t have any good beaches”. After 2 weekends up North, I have been feeling some major Michigan pride and understanding why SE Michiganders head up their in droves every weekend.

Some of the pictures are not ideal because we forgot our digital camera and bought a disposable for the weekend, but here is a run down of my favorite in North Michigan experiences…

BOWMAN LAKE
For 4th of July weekend, we drove out to Baldwin area, a nowhere town a few miles east of Ludington. We experienced hiking around Bowman Lake for hours without another human being in sight. We did, however, run into two very sleepy and scared baby raccoons lying right in the walking path (adorable). They arched there back like little kittens trying to look fierce as we approached them.

Bowman Lake represented my near ideal campground: highly wooded, highly secluded, a crystal clear lake, hiking trails. We ended up staying at Gleason’s Landing, which was also fairly gorgeous, despite it being mosquito mating season.

ARCADIA BEACH
I love mild weather beaches… I love them more than warm weather beaches. I would take rolling sand dunes with tall grasses any day over flat and sunny Florida or California beaches. Perhaps I’ll find a love for Hawaii beaches someday, but ultimately my heart belongs to Lake Michigan, a constant reminder of my childhood. There is something more peaceful to me about that scenery. Every year, my friends and I will spend a full day at the beach, grilling and swimming (if we dare, it can be chilly), playing trackball, making a fire, and watching the always remarkable sunset.

NORTH MICHIGAN WINE
I can’t believe I’m actually saying this, but Northern Michigan has some great wine. Why I’m surprised is that before these two weekend visits, I had judged Michigan wine solely on some experience with southwest Michigan. The cooler Northern climate does quite well for the off-dry whites, the fruit wines, and the sparkling wines.

While I still find that there isn’t a good red wine to be found, and that some of the drier whites fail to pack much flavor, I was thoroughly impressed by many of the wines I tried… and certainly impressed by the price. Whereas Long Island wine has similar characteristics, good and bad, to N. Michigan, their bottles range from $30-50. At L. Mawby, Tom and I picked up some incredible sparkling whites in the $10-20 range.

LOCAVORE MOVEMENT
This was something I hadn’t even thought to notice before, but after finally finishing The Omnivore’s Dilemma, I was paying close attention. I have been inspired to try and eat more locally grown food, but now that I no longer work in Ann Arbor, my ability to buy local food has been greatly diminished to my own backyard. As soon as you step up North though, you will start to see signs everywhere. It’s all about sustainable restaurants and locally grown, seasonal cuisine. Restaurants and shops proudly feature foods and wines from the area. Even the gas station in Arcadia had bottles of local milk (the chocolate milk tasted like melted ice cream, yummm).

With the quaint towns and the vast amounts of nature and available land, it’s hard not to fall in love with up North. The locals show a good amount of pride and for good reason. As winter comes and as the snow makes my already ugly drive even longer and harder, I will look back on this blog and remind myself of just a few of the reasons why living in Michigan is still worthwhile.