Goodbye to 2017 and this Blog. Hello to 2018 and less Negativity.

A view from the Sleeping Bear Dunes

When I started this blog a little more than four years ago, I was living in Virginia and yearning to return home. A year later, I was happy to be back in Michigan, and I have spent the last three years exploring more of our state than I ever had before. There is so much natural beauty to behold here and many good people to meet. With Michigan's distilleries, breweries, and restaurants, my taste buds were never bored, and my stomach was rarely empty. Our cities and towns are filled with architectural wonders and world-class museums. Our history includes Native Americans, French fur traders, the Underground Railroad, British forts, and the Arsenal of Democracy. There is much to be proud of and to love about our Great Lakes State.

However, there is a dark side to our society, both in Michigan and throughout our nation. And that dark side breeds on the internet in comments sections and social media. Twitter has become unreadable to me. It's just a place for people to shout over each other. The cacophony has made us both angry and deaf. For someone who likes to read thoughtful and informative prose, seeing arguments reduced to ignorant memes and name calling is disheartening. Seeing violent acts committed as a result of Twitter fights and hateful propaganda is heartbreaking.

In this climate, writing positive posts has become too difficult for me. I've also made some other changes in my life that frankly leave me with less time to write. I'd rather spend my free time with my wife, Allison, and two daughters than trying to come up with new things to write. I will continue to travel throughout our great state, and I'll talk to people more. This is my last blog post, but my blog will be up for some time for anyone who wants to read old posts. I'm shutting down my Twitter and Facebook pages in a few days. A conversation can tell me a lot more about a person's character than 280 characters ever will.

With that said, here's to a wonderful 2018 and beyond. Thank you to the very few loyal readers I've had for your comments and support. Thanks to the few guest writers I've had. You added different voices to this blog that I appreciated. And most of all, thanks to Allison for being my editor and biggest supporter.

I'll leave whatever readers I have left with some of my favorite moments and things from Michigan in 2017 that I didn't get around to writing about:

The Guardian Building Tour

I finally went on Pure Detroit's Guardian Building Tour a few weeks ago. I highly recommend this tour. Our guide was a history student at Wayne State, and he gave a great tour that included the history of the building and the city, and background about the architect and the materials used to construct the building. It's a gorgeous building with great views of the city. One last thing: Don't forget to tip your tour guide.

A view of a freighter from the Guardian Building

Noel Night

Unfortunately, this event ended when a couple of idiots with guns ruined the fun for everyone. It was sad seeing the ignorant comments from people saying, "This is why I never go to Detroit," when people are shot in the suburban shopping malls, schools, churches, and homes throughout this country every day. [Sadly, as I type this, the national news is reporting a shooting in a Denver suburb with several wounded and at least one deputy dead.]

The Detroit Public Library lit up for the holidays

Anyway, until the shooting happened, this event was everything I love about Detroit. The Midtown museums were open to the public, and people of diverse backgrounds happily wandered the streets. The highlight was seeing the Mosaic Youth Theatre perform at the Charles Wright Museum. The kids in this theater group were incredibly entertaining. My five-year-old daughter was on the edge of her seat, smiling and clapping at everything these young performers did. I hope to see them again soon.

Detroit Urban Craft Fair

Before Noel Night, my family and I visited the Detroit Urban Craft Fair at the Masonic Temple. I am not a craft person, but there was a lot of really cool art depicting Detroit. I didn't buy anything, but Allison did. It was heartening to be in a crowded space full of artistic people who are proud of Detroit.

Kerrytown Bookfest

I visited Ann Arbor's Kerrytown Bookfest for the first time this year. It is a great event for readers of all ages. Several Michigan authors were present to sign books and give readings. There were tons of kids' books features, which our daughters loved. There were a couple of letterpress companies giving demonstrations, and one even allowed our daughters to use the small press. We also got to make paper.

My daughters making paper

Kuzzo's Chicken and Waffles

Detroit's Kuzzo's Chicken and Waffles is damn good. I of course had to try chicken and waffles, and they were outstanding. I've only been once, but I definitely will return, because I love southern comfort food, and Kuzzo's serves some of the best.

Breweries

I was able to try a few new breweries this year, and all were satisfying.

I visited Grand River Brewery in Jackson with Allison after running a nearby half marathon. Disclosure: The owner of this brewery is a cousin of mine, but I wouldn't let that influence my opinion (if I didn't like it, I wouldn't write about it). The brewery has a pretty big menu, but I could smell meat on the smoker when we walked up to the restaurant. I had to try the beef brisket, and it did not disappoint. I also had an excellent flight of beer.

A beer flight at Grand River Brewery

I also enjoyed my visits to Royal Oak's ROAK Brewing, Black Lotus in Clawson, and Fillmore 13 in Pontiac (I also love seeing some of the revitalization efforts in Pontiac. It has so many beautiful buildings.). They all poured good beer and served tasty food.

Michigan Writing

I've compiled a few Michigan reading lists over the years. Since last summer's list, I've read a few more books by Michigan writers that I found noteworthy. The top of the list is The Undertaking: Life Studies from the Dismal Trade, by Thomas Lynch. Lynch's book explores questions of life and death, but often with an irreverence and humor that make these questions more palatable.

I finally read The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides after seeing the movie a few times. The movie is pretty true to the book, but I enjoyed the book more. It gives more of a feel of what living in Grosse Pointe and Metro Detroit was like back in the 1970s.

I've heard a lot of good things about Bonnie Jo Campbell, so I read her novel Once Upon a River. The novel is set in western Michigan and follows a young woman's journey to find herself after experiencing several family tragedies and traumas. It's an intense book, and some of the traumatic parts were hard to read, but only due to the high quality of Campbell's writing.

Last, but not least, is Adam Schuitema's The Things We Do That Make No Sense. This Michigan writer's collection of short stories presents quick, but real, snapshots of life that I found relatable and engaging.

Leland

Leland is one of those towns that I always wanted to visit. We made a quick detour there on the way home from Traverse City this past summer. Unfortunately, it was a rainy and cool day, so we didn't explore as much as we would have liked, but we did enjoy walking around the old fishing village and visiting a couple bookshops. I would like to visit again, but with more cooperative weather.

Leland

The Thumb

Unlike me, Allison is an actual, professional writer. She had an assignment to write about things to do and see in the Thumb. I tagged along and was thinking about writing something, but it wouldn't have compared to her article, which you can read here. Except for the cold and rainy weather, we had a lot of fun.

Sleeping Bear Dunes

Confession: Despite growing up in Michigan, I visited the dunes for the first time ever over Memorial Day weekend. Having run the Bayshore Marathon two days before, my legs were aching from 26.2 miles of pounding on asphalt.

The dunes deceived me because every time I reached the "top," I realized there was another top in the distance. The first "top" gives a majestic view inland of Glen Lake, but I wanted to see Lake Michigan, so I punished my aching legs and continued on, trying to keep up with my daughters sprinting up the sand.

I don't know how many peaks I reached only to see another one taunting me. It must have been two or three, but each view was worth the climb. My sore legs slowed me down, but they forced me to spend more time enjoying the views and the cool spring air blowing in from Lake Michigan.

When we finally reached the bluff that gave us a view of Lake Michigan, I was overcome by dunes' and lake's imposing grandeur. I felt humbled and grateful to live in a state with so many natural wonders, and I still do.

Thank you again for reading. Godspeed!

Lake Michigan from the Sleeping Bear Dunes

The Stars Still Shine at Detroit's Redford Theatre

The Redford Theatre

As a teenager, I saw a handful of movies at the Redford Theatre in Detroit--classics like The African Queen, On the Town, and Shane. Everything about the Redford felt historic, from the organ to the interior architecture to the way they showed Warner Brothers cartoons before the feature and always had an intermission when we could refill our pop and grab more snacks without missing any of the action. I remembered how, once the lights dimmed, the sky-blue ceiling shone with hundreds of tiny lights, giving the audience the feeling that it was watching a movie under the stars.

Until Saturday, it had been a couple of decades since I visited the theater, so my memory was a little fuzzy about the building's architecture. Regardless, I was excited to bring my wife and two girls to the theater. The Redford was showing Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, and my daughters were excited to see it for the first time in a movie theater.

A Japanese-themed painting in one of the staircases

The theater's yellow-trimmed marquee is not as imposing or ornate as those of other old movie houses in Michigan, which only makes the inside of the Redford Theatre more impressive. When the theater first opened in 1928, it had a larger marquee, but it was later replaced. Part of it was used for scrap metal during World War II, not the only change brought on by the war. The theater's original Japanese-themed interior was removed or painted over after Pearl Harbor, and much of it was still hidden when I last visited in the early 1990s.

Things to Do with Kids in Marquette

My family visited Marquette at the end of August, and my two young daughters (age eight and four) loved everything about it. With its many parks and its location on the shores of Lake Superior, Marquette is a great vacation destination for kids.

Shiras Park and Picnic Rocks Park

When we first arrived in Marquette, we immediately headed to the beach. Even though my daughters are used to the warmer waters of the inland lakes near Detroit, they bravely swam in Lake Superior's cool water at Shiras Park's beach. We practically had to drag them out of the water because they were having so much fun. After they swam, we let them play on the playground at Picnic Rocks Park, which overlooks Lake Superior and is directly next to Shiras Park.

Presque Isle Park

A view from Presque Isle

The highlight of our trip was Presque Isle Park. Presque Isle is a 323-acre city park on the north side of town with several foot trails through its forests. My daughters managed to walk the roughly 2 miles around the perimeter of Presque Isle. They loved the views of Lake Superior and frolicking in the water by the Black Rocks as my wife and I took turns jumping from the cliffs.

Marquette also has a lot of indoor activities for bad-weather days or days when parents don't feel like dragging young children around nature trails. 

Memorial Day Parade in Keego Harbor

The front of the parade on Cass Lake Road

Memorial Day weekend is the unofficial start of summer. In Michigan, it's time for backyard barbecues, trips Up North, or fishing, swimming, or boating on a local lake. The frost that still chilled our bones only a few weeks (or less) before has given way to blooming flowers and grass and trees whose greenness always seems to overtake the land overnight.

Memorial Day itself is a time to honor those who made the ultimate sacrifice for our country, and towns throughout Michigan salute them with parades. This Memorial Day, my seven-year-old daughter had the opportunity to march in the Keego Harbor Memorial Day with her dance school.

Keego Harbor Police

Family Fun at the Orchard Lake St. Mary's Polish Country Fair

The Orchard Lake St. Mary's Polish Country Fair

I am not a carnival person. I was as a kid, but I lost my interest in carnival food and fair rides sometime during my twenties. Knowing my daughters would enjoy the Orchard Lake St. Mary's Polish Country Fair, I put my disdain for fairs aside and took my family to the first night of the fair last night.

Traffic was a little heavy near the fair, but we arrived at 6:00 p.m., when rush hour traffic usually is bad on Commerce and Orchard Lake roads. Parking is free on the school's campus, and admission is $5 per person, or $10 per family. To go on the rides, visitors need to buy tickets, but the best deal is a $30 pass that lasts the whole weekend. Visitors can also buy a book of 22 tickets for $25, or individual tickets (that I believe were $1.50 each). Rides cost between 2 tickets for the small kids' rides to 4 tickets for the most popular rides like the Ferris wheel and roller coaster.