Posted October 16, 20186 yr up in michigan *** late august in the mitt -- dunes, lakes, vacationland, hemingway country, etc.-- enjoy! *** ann arbor (pop. 121,477) frankenmuth (pop. 5,131) lake leelanau narrows (pop. 253) traverse city (pop. 15,479) peterson park leland (township pop. 2,033) petoskey (pop. 5,749) horton bay (pop. 512) charlevoix (pop. 2,514) glen haven (the last resident, carolyn bumgardner, was evicted through eminent domain in nov 2007 after a long battle to keep her property) empire bluff trail (empire pop. 325) sleeping bear dunes (1,280,932 visitors in 2010) suttons bay (pop. 620) lighthouse point / grand traverse lighthouse northport (pop. 525) *** i hope you enjoyed a late summer look around up in the mitt of michigan ***
October 16, 20186 yr Great stuff! "You don't just walk into a bar and mix it up by calling a girl fat" - buildingcincinnati speaking about new forumers
October 16, 20186 yr Driving into Michigan always strikes me as “entering a different world” compared to crossing into one of our other border states. All of their towns and cities, while superficially similar to ours, feel foreign to me compared to driving into some random town in Indiana or West Virginia. “To an Ohio resident - wherever he lives - some other part of his state seems unreal.”
October 16, 20186 yr Author Just now, BigDipper 80 said: Driving into Michigan always strikes me as “entering a different world” compared to crossing into one of our other border states. All of their towns and cities, while superficially similar to ours, feel foreign to me compared to driving into some random town in Indiana or West Virginia. totally agree. even inbetween the towns, another thing that reinforced that otherness up in the mitt were all the creepy highway billboards. about 10-20% were typical billboards for businesses. literally all the rest were jarring anti-choice abortion images or for militia meet-ups.
October 16, 20186 yr Thanks for the pics! I have only been to Northern Michigan one time, and it was about 20 years ago when I was a kid. I remember it being so pristine and just heavenly. We stayed in Harbor Springs, which is an adorable little town right on the lake, but we also made it to Charlevoix, Petoskey, and Traverse City. I took a float down a creek, and I remember you could see every stone at the bottom because the water was so clear and clean. Just perfect up there in the summer. It feels more like Maine than somewhere in the Midwest. I really must get back soon.
October 16, 20186 yr Love it. I’ll show co-workers some of these pics and they’ll have absolutely no idea it’s not Maine or somewhere up in the Pacific NW.
October 16, 20186 yr Nice set of pictures. My family and I have been vacationing up there for about 20 years now, so I have been to most of these towns except for some of the tiny ones. I agree with other posts about how beautiful and pristine it is up there. Mackinaw City and Mackinac Island are also close by and worth visiting. There are no cars allowed on Mackinac Island, so it is a unique atmosphere. The area is also well known for its inland lakes.. Torch Lake, just north of Traverse City, was named one of the 5 most beautiful lakes in the world by National Geographic. The water is crystal clear and is blue/green like in the Caribbean. I have always felt welcome and comfortable there, so I really don't understand some of the posts.
October 24, 20186 yr On 10/15/2018 at 9:28 PM, mrnyc said: totally agree. even inbetween the towns, another thing that reinforced that otherness up in the mitt were all the creepy highway billboards. about 10-20% were typical billboards for businesses. literally all the rest were jarring anti-choice abortion images or for militia meet-ups. I lived in Michigan for 34 years and I don't recall ever seeing either. Even if they existed, that mentality would be in the minority. Great photos. Thanks for the trip down memory lane.
October 25, 20186 yr Author 22 hours ago, subterranean said: I lived in Michigan for 34 years and I don't recall ever seeing either. Even if they existed, that mentality would be in the minority. Great photos. Thanks for the trip down memory lane. yes the billboards exist. it really isnt so surprizing either. for example, i saw one of betsy devoss' many yacht's in lake charlevoix lol. when was the last time your drove around the mitt up there? it's taken quite a turn from family/blue collar back in the days to solid chi chi wealthy lilly white republican land. its basically the northcoast hamptons for that crowd these days.
October 25, 20186 yr I agree with Subterranean. I have been going up to Northern Michigan and have never seen any of these signs. If there are any, it is few and far between. Fake news! I knew all of this was politically motivated. Disgusting!
October 25, 20186 yr Author no, obviously you havent been up there or not in a long while. and the politics there are blatantly up front and real.
October 25, 20186 yr No, you are wrong. I have been up there every year for the past 20 years including last month and I have not seen any signs like this. If you don't like it, then don't go up there.
October 25, 20186 yr ^ omg shut up. If you don't like this thread, don't comment. See how easy that is? ?
October 25, 20186 yr Author doubtful. or obviously you are in such complete agreement you are blind to it. you dont see anything so relentlessly political like that driving across ohio thats for sure. or anywhere else i have been. michigan politics are rather clear cut around that state versus ohio and also they have a well known militia fetish up there, you must not be aware, so its not exactly unexpected. and nothing to do with liking or disliking, just an observation.
October 25, 20186 yr Edale, I have trying to be civil about this, but obviously you are not and are a jerk. But, you are getting your wish as I am done with this and won't even look at your response.
October 25, 20186 yr Author oh come on dearhorn you say you have been going there for twenty years so we will look forward to you photo thread of pics over those years someday and discussion about how politically balanced upper michigan is. until then i stand by my observations. btw i was last up there 30 yrs ago multiple times and was jarred by the changes i saw after this long gap, or maybe didnt notice way back then. whatever again just observation. sorry yr so honked off sheesh.
October 26, 20186 yr mrnyc, Since you are being civil, I will respond to your post. Since we go every year, we don't notice a difference from year to year since the changes are gradual. I was not disagreeing with your political observations as it is mainly a Conservative area as are most of the non urban areas. I was disagreeing with your claims about the signs and do not believe that it reflects reality and misleads readers of this topic.
October 26, 20186 yr Author ok, so maybe its gradual or you haven’t driven the same routes i did this summer or never seen or noticed anything strange about their billboards, fine. but to make such negative kneejerk and obviously trumpian political bashing remarks like “fake news” and “disgusting” and basically saying im lying as you did is just ridiculous. i mean come on yeah keep it civil. i dont know what else to say except that i honestly really dont care about upper mich politics, it was just a vacation, but i saw what i saw and it struck me because it was so unusual. to us anyway. i can pm you our exact routes and you can look closer next summer yourself if you really want to.
November 2, 20186 yr What great pictures! As a native Detroiter, I have so many great memories of heading Up North (and when I say Up North, I mean north of Clare, not Monroe!) and I am way overdue to go back. I loved the area so much, I strongly considered going to college in either Traverse City or the Soo. I can chime in a little bit about those billboards. You do see some in Michigan although they are much more prominent in Mid Michigan and areas around Holland. Those are by far and away the most conservative sections of Michigan and always have been. I can remember seeing Pro-life billboards all around Clare and that was 30 years ago! The map showing Trump's counties is fairly meaningless as I can easily drag out a map from 2008 and 2012 and show a bunch of counties that Obama won. He won overwhelmingly and it wasn't just on the backs on the urban areas. Traverse City itself is fairly liberal. Clinton won there. It might not be Saugatuck but its hardly militia country. Petoskey, Charlevoix and Harbor Springs are more traditional big money Republican resort towns. Then you have the outer areas filled with hunters and fishermen. All in all its kinda a weird area as many vacationers come from liberal Chicagoland.
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