What I did this summer

Well, today is the first day of school for kids here in Michigan and with that in mind I thought I would give a report on "What I Did This Summer" just like we used to have to in grade school. The Summer of 2008 went by entirely too fast as do most summers. While we had wanted to get away for a vacation - we didn't. The end of summer caught up to us from behind and surprised us. We are planning a vacation to the U.P. for next summer though. Don't worry, I'll let you know far in advance when we will have the gift basket store closed ;).

We started off the summer with a bumper crop of strawberries from our garden. A lot of time was spent harvesting berries and getting the rest of the garden up and going. Unfortunately, we had another dry summer here in southwest Michigan so that meant watering the garden on a daily basis. I missed watering the raspberry canes too often and we lost quite a few of the new plantings.

We took lots of walks with the kids amongst many visits to the local library. I finally took the time to take some photos from around White Pigeon. I had been wanting to do that for a long time and was always too busy or had another lame excuse. I finished up that photo walk with an excellent chocolate soda at the neat old soda fountain in the Tasty Nut Shop.

Blueberry picking was fun, eating Michigan cherries and peaches was tasty as always, and just plain having fun as a family. It seems that I mention food a lot. Well, I don't know about you, but a lot of my memories of summer seem to revolve around food. There's always barbecues, homemade ice cream, 4th of July parties, and evenings in front of a campfire.

My only regret is not getting away and heading up north. We'll remedy that next summer. Now we've apple picking to look forward too and all the pies, apple sauce, and apple crisp that goes along with it.

There I went talking about food again ;).

We will be closed on Labor Day, September 1

Just a quick programming note - We will be closed on Labor Day, September 1, 2008. All baskets ordered over the weekend and on Monday will ship Tuesday, September 2nd. Hope everyone has plans to enjoy the last big weekend of summer. Whether you are going Camping in Michigan, visiting one of Michigan's Indoor Water Parks, walking the Mackinac Bridge, or visiting one of Michigan's Top Ten Wonders - have a Great Weekend!

Drive Safe and Have Fun!

Online resource to help navigate Michigan roads this weekend

Don't forget that the state of Michigan has a great resource to help you know about possible traffic delays due to construction. Michigan.gov/drive has updated information on lane closures, detours, and even lane speeds in Metro Detroit. This way, you can plan your Labor Day Weekend trips to avoid long delays and burning up expensive fuel while sitting in traffic. You can click on an area of construction (noted by little orange construction barrels) and it will tell you the work being done, how long the construction will last, and the time that will be added to your drive due to the delay. It's pretty slick.

As usual, MDOT has put a temporary stop on some of their projects for the Labor Day Weekend Holiday. Starting tomorrow, August 29, at 3 p.m. about 65 percent of roads with lane closures will have the lovely orange barrels removed for the weekend to cut down on drive time.

Would you be interested in a Yooper Gift Basket?

I'm trying out this poll feature I just added to the All Things Michigan blog last night. I am working on putting together a Yooper Gift Basket that will feature products from Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Not sure yet on what all I will be putting in it, but I am working on some prototypes of the gift basket design.

Anyway, I want to see what kind of demand there would be for an extremely unique Yooper Gift Basket so please vote :).

[poll id="2"]

Article on driving Michigan's U.P.

It's nice to see Michigan's Upper Peninsula get some more love from the national media. The only downside? Where's the love from Michigan's media in the lower peninsula? We have such a treasure north of the Mackinac Bridge that (in my humble opinion) does not get touted enough. Anyway, back to the aforementioned article on the U.P. It's written from the perspective of a native Detroiter whose last visit was as a child and is now returning to look for nature and antiques. At least, that's what I took from the article.

It's a brief foray into the wonders (both the natural and those built by man) of the U.P. In fact, I would say that my biggest complaint about the article is that it is too brief. It only mentions traveling from the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore on up to Copper Harbor and all in between. My second biggest complaint is that there seems to be a preset notion in the writer's mind that comes through in his writing. It's like he expects to find that the U.P. is some backwards locale with a garage sale economy.

However, with that said, my favorite quote from the article might have been meant as a jab, but I take it as a complement -

the U.P. is an out-of-the-way, out-of-the-past American preserve.

I like the fact that the U.P. has not yet (and hopefully never will) become part of the homogenized, cookie cutter, chunk of America that has Wal-Marted it's way across small towns rendering them nearly identical to the one you previously passed through.

The U.P. and it's residents are unique and I would never change that.

With all that said, if you want to read the article - click here.

Apple picking time at Hubbard's Corey Lake Orchard

UPDATE: I created a new page with a rather comprehensive listing of Michigan Corn Mazes and Michigan Apple Orchards - Michigan Fall Colors. We stopped by Hubbard's Corey Lake Orchard on our way home from church yesterday to pick up some fresh veggies and we were pleasantly surprised to find a few early varieties of apples for sale. Gala, Jonamac, and everybody's favorite Honeycrisp. We picked up a bag of the Gala apples with the promise that we would definitely (and we will) be back to do some picking.

It's only $8 a bushel (that's a lot of apples, folks) to pick your own and if you've never been apple picking - you should. For three quick reasons - 1) It's a great family outing, 2) Isn't it nice to know exactly where your produce is coming from and 3) That you're supporting local farmers.

One thing to note, I think it is $12 (or more) a bushel to pick the Honeycrisp apples. Plus, they don't have as many Honeycrisp apple trees so if you snooze you lose. In other words, he who hesitates will miss out on the Honeycrisps.

We've been picking our apples there for the last few years and it's just a lot of fun for us and the kids. The Gala apples are nice because they are so versatile. They make excellent apple sauce (my wife's homemade apple sauce is THE best), pies, apple crisp, apple butter, and for just plain eating as well.