All Things Michigan — Michigan happenings, places, and travel

What is Pure Michigan to you?

August 21, 2009

I realized I had not put up a poll question recently and after reading the behind the scenes for the upcoming “Fresh” Pure Michigan ad. I am highly anticipating this new ad that’s set to start airing this fall. The commercial features scenes from Michigan’s bountiful harvest and many other delicious Michigan products [...]

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Bell’s Brewery Octoberfest Beer

August 19, 2009

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Bell’s Octoberfest Beer, originally uploaded by Tom Bricker (WDWFigment).

Bell’s Octoberfest Beer is hitting the shelves this week (week of Aug. 17th). It normally is available from September through the middle or end of October. [...]

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Classic Faygo Black Bart Commercial

August 18, 2009

SeekingMichigan.org has a great post today about Faygo and Vernors which included a link to this commercial. I thought the commercial was too interesting to not post, so here it is:

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Anchor and limestone cliffs at Fayette harbor

August 13, 2009

It wasn’t until recently that I knew such limestone cliffs existed on the northern shores of Lake Michigan. As a lifelong Michigan native I had always had the notion that the southern edge of our Upper Peninsula just gently sloped on into Lake Michigan.

It was the natural harbor and close proximity of the limestone cliffs that drew the Jackson Iron Company’s agent, Fayette Brown, to locate their iron smelting operations here. Limestone is a key ingredient in the smelting of iron ore.

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Take a shortcut across Lake Michigan on the S.S. Badger

August 7, 2009

I was eleven or twelve years old when my grandparents took my cousin and I on the S.S. Badger car ferry out of Ludington. We were on our way to northern Wisconsin where my grandpa grew up and he wanted my cousin and I to experience a trip across Lake Michigan. What an [...]

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The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg

August 6, 2009

Last week I watched a superb documentary, The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg. It was recommended to me by someone on twitter (sorry, I can’t remember who it was) and before that recommendation I had never heard of the documentary. Hank Greenberg was widely known as the first Jewish baseball superstar in the major leagues.

He was constantly taunted with racial epithets by fans and ballplayers alike. He was also the first sports star to enlist in the armed forces when war was declared in WWII. He came close to tying/beating Babe Ruth’s home run record with 58 home runs in 1938 – only two short of tying The Babe. This is really a well put together film that really gives you an in-depth look at Hank Greenberg, the man, in addition to Hank Greenberg, baseball player.

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Stop in at The Ice Cream Shop in Mears

August 5, 2009

On a recent trip up north to Manistee the family and I stopped at The Ice Cream Shop in Mears. It’s under the umbrella of the Oceana Fruit Company in a string of neat little stores along the downtown area. Anyway, it’s a great “old timey” looking ice cream shop with a huge [...]

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Our phones are up and running

August 4, 2009

Due to a software issue of some kind from our phone provider calls were not going through and to customers calling in it sounded as though we were closed for the day (we weren’t, but I wondered why things were SO quiet ). Well, things are all corrected now so you can [...]

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Our phones are down, but you can still contact us

August 4, 2009

Just wanted to let folks know that for some reason our phones are down. While we work with the phone company on a workable solution you can still contact us. Drop me an email with any questions/comments at anorton [@] giftbasketsfrommichigan.com (without the brackets and spaces of course). Also, if you’re on [...]

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