Andria Baker made a deal with her dad when she was in the 4th grade. She saw in the paper that an area senior with perfect attendance got a new car when he graduated because he had perfect attendance all through school. She had perfect attendance up to that point and made the [...]

Any group wishing to preserve part of the field and home plate grandstands of Tiger Stadium is running short on time. June 1 is the official deadline for groups/individuals with a plan and, more importantly, money to save a portion of Tiger Stadium.

The Things They Carried, originally uploaded by All Things Michigan.

This photo is from last year’s 4th of July Parade in Constantine, Michigan. With yesterday being Memorial Day and thinking of parades and our soldiers both past and present I thought I would share this photo.

This photo (and blog post) is titled ‘The Things They Carried’ as that is what popped in my head when I saw this mother/soldier marching in the parade. I have read Tim O’Brien’s “The Things They Carried” which deals with the mental and emotional aspects of war and immediately thought that this photo illustrates just that both metaphorically and physically.

She is surrounded by the things she carried.

God Bless our Veterans and current service men and women. Thank you for all that you do.

We stopped and bought a paper today because we wanted to know what time the local Memorial Day parade was going to be. The front page of the Kalamazoo Gazette said in regards to Memorial Day Parades, “A Complete List is on B-2.” Cool, I thought.

When I looked at B-2 only Kalamazoo areas had their parade times listed. What kind of a complete list is that?

So, I turned to the internet and searched - White Pigeon Memorial Day parade. The first result was ironically enough for the Kalamazoo Gazette blog at mlive.com.

Greensky Bluegrass got their start in the Kalamazoo area back in 2000. The members are - Michael Arlen Bont (banjo), Dave Bruzza (guitar), Anders Beck (dobro), Michael Devol(bass), and Paul Hoffman (mandolin).

I first stumbled upon Greensky Bluegrass while searching for Bluegrass music at internetarchive.org. There is a good amount of live recordings from various Greensky Bluegrass concerts available. My current favorite is the December 2006 performance at the Acorn Theater in Three Oaks, Michigan.

The Detroit News has a very well put together interactive display online of Michigan’s many lighthouses. There is a map of all of the lighthouses that line Michigan’s coast (both lower and upper peninsulas are included) and all you have to do is click on one of the icons marking a lighthouse and you will get pictures of that particular lighthouse and some facts and history as well.

To make the main photo disappear just click it. It took me a few seconds to figure out that was all you had to do to access the entire map.

The place to be this summer for Michigan residents is . . . Michigan, of course. Gas prices will most likely range from $4 to $4.50 a gallon this summer which means summer trips might be restricted to in-state trips.

Not that there is anything wrong with that.

Michigan has plenty to offer and a lot of places are even offering discounts and gas cards to make sure you give them a try. An article in today’s Detroit Free Press has the details on what different towns and businesses are doing to help out with the high price of fuel.

For ideas on what Michigan has to offer check out these Squidoo pages I have created:

Camping in Michigan
Best of Michigan
Mackinac Bridge
Indoor Water Park Hotels in Michigan
Michigan Vacation Getaway
Top 10 Michigan Wonders

15-year-old Jennifer Sharpe has a future in sales from the looks of her cookie selling success. She sold 17,328 boxes of cookies from a Dearborn street corner.

That’s a lot of Thin Mints and Samoas :).

Ever wonder where the money raised from cookie sales goes?

The revenue raised from cookie sales remains in the local area in which it was sold. Per GirlScouts.org -

This revenue is used to benefit girls, some of it directly by remaining in the Girl Scout troop/group treasury and some of it indirectly by subsidizing the cost of providing the Girl Scout program in the local area.

For more information about Girl Scout Cookies visit:
www.girlscoutcookies.org
Girl Scout Cookie History

With the benefit of a wet April, the Great Lakes water levels have begun to rise. The lake levels are projected to be no worse, perhaps even better than last summer.
This is one increase that I am sure all Michigan natives (and tourists to the Great Lakes State) can get excited about. [...]