Dunes, cherry mania on Grand Traverse Bay

Ok. This is one of our top two family vacations. Seriously. We have gone "up North" to The Homestead on Grand Traverse nearly every summer for the last two decades.


Our kids love the beach club and great swaths of sugar sand beach and tourmaline water. mmm. We discovered it on our honeymoon.


If there's a more inspiring spot from which to explore Michigan's classic "up north" beach towns than the Leelanau Peninsula, this native Michigander has yet to find it.

The best base for exploring the Leelanau is the Homestead, a family resort of 122 rooms and 700 cottages and condominiums set in the National Lakeshore Park, created when Congress bought 25 miles of pristine Lake Michigan coastline in 1970. Three decades later, it still has that traditional "up north" vibe - red pine forests and miles of big, sandy Great Lakes beaches.

Cradled between the dunes and the emerald cusp of Glen Lake, the Michigan coastal resort of Glen Arbor is blessed with breezily fresh summer days. Cherry orchards and vineyards quilt the hillsides and small fishing villages are strewn along M-22, the old shore road.

The dune-sculpted coast is legendary for its beauty and steeped in myth. Rising 400 feet above an aqua shoreline, the sandy monoliths rise rounded over the Manitou Straits.

According to Chippewa tribal legend, the dunes formed when Mishe Mokwa and her cubs swam Lake Michigan, fleeing a wildfire. Mama bear climbed a bluff to wait for the cubs and still lies waiting for them beneath the sands.

HOMESTEAD RESORT

The Homestead Resort is within an hour or two from Michigan's most popular Great Lakes summer resorts - Mackinac Island, Traverse City and Petoskey.

The resort's 435-acres are heavily forested, pungent pines and cedars scent the air and waterscapes dot the village center at newly redecorated Fiddler's Pond. Cottage-chic suites boast river rock fireplaces and decks overlooking a brook. There's Camp Tam-A-Rack for kids, plus a black-bottom pool with a water slide and hot tub. The action is definitely down at the beach club in summer.

There, the pool deck overlooks a milelong Lake Michigan beach, five tennis courts, the Betsie River (great for tubing and canoeing), and an outdoor heated pool and hot tub. There's also a nine-hole, par-3 golf course.

If You Go

Glen Arbor and the Homestead: Guest rooms from $174, $92 after Labor Day. Wood Ridge Road, Glen Arbor, Mich. 231-334-5000; www.thehomesteadresort.com.

Sleeping Bear Dune National Lakeshore: Visitor Center open 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily Memorial Day to Labor Day. Sleeping Bear Dunegrass and Blues Festival Aug. 3-5. www.sleepingbeardunes.com.

Local tourism info: www.glenarbor.com.

Camping: Tubing from $10 an hour, canoes from $28 an hour, campsites from $15 at www.betsierivercanoesandcampground.com; 231-879-3850.

Grand Great Lakes family vacations

Our kids have a few "greatest hits" vacations. As school gets out and families everywhere load up the grocery-gitter and hit the road, here are some of our favorites beginning with Mackinac Island.

Arrival is by ferry boat and the Grand Hotel sends a carriage to the ferry dock to pick up guests.
Our room for the June Lilac Festival had fabulous views and a balcony. Our daughter, a junior in college here, loved trying on the plush room robes and watching the carriage traffic outside the port cochere from her perch.

Both kids, age 14 and 20 here, loved getting dressed for dinner -- a five course affair featuring fresh and local foods like Great Lakes whitefish. We love the pecan ball dessert with Grand Hotel fudge sauce -- a snowball size ice cream ball.



For true "fudgies," Michigander slang for tourist, the grandest day trip of them all begins with a ferry crossing over the Straits of Mackinac, where Great Lakes of Huron and Michigan meet, to Mackinac Island, a Belle Epoque resort that became a famous respite when the Grand Hotel opened on July 10, 1887.

The island seems to exist in another time zone altogether: Automobiles never arrived on the island and porters wheel down Main Street balancing luggage on bicycles while carriages line the docks awaiting passengers. Presiding over it all is the Grand Hotel, boasting America's longest front porch at 700 feet long - the perfect perch from which to watch the sunset and the lights of the Mackinac Bridge.

Everything is done on a grand scale here: The Grand's staff of 600 rivals the entire year-round island population of 550; at summer's zenith up to 1,500 guests might be served in the dining room by tuxedo-clad waiters bearing five-course meals as the orchestra plays. If you opt for an overnight special-occasion splurge, rooms and suites are candy-bright confections done by famed decorator Carlton Varney.

Victorian entertainments are the order of the day at this old-world resort. Croquet and lawn bowling on the lawn, an herb-strewn labyrinth for a meditative walk in the woods, carriage tours around the island and horseback riding - and a bicycle built for two on beachfront eight-mile trail around the island. Avoid the clapboard quaint downtown between noon and 6 p.m. when it's most crowded and stop in at one of the island fudge shops (it's made fresh hourly in the summer) after the crowds thin.

If You Go: Mackinac Island

Accessible by ferries, $21 and $15 kids, the island is home to America's largest summer hotel, the Grand Hotel, open through Oct. 31. Rates from $195 per person per day (tips included), breakfast and dinner daily. 

Reservations: 800-334-7263; www.grandhotel.com. Ferries every 30 minutes through Labor Day Weekend to the island

www.mackinac.com.

Boyne Mountain Resort

Even uncooperative weather couldn’t sap the fun factor from our summer vacation at Boyne Mountain resort. In fact, there were so many things to do, it was hard to fit them all in during our July trip up north.

There were ziplines  and sunset chairlift rides, beaches and outdoor pools — and  a water park and spa treatments when it rained. During our three-day stay, our family still didn’t squeeze in kayaking, tennis, golf or mountain biking. We could relate to the spandex-spangled 60-something phoning home from the lobby to report, “I’ll be home when I run out of things to do.” Decked out in mountain biking attire worthy of a Tour de France contestant, he had clearly just come in from a run down the mountain. Bikers ride a chairlift up and careen down steep trails.

Thirty miles south of the Victorian resort town of Petoskey on Lake Michigan, the 470-room resort is popular with the winter ski crowd, carrying up to 22,650 skiers and snowboarders per hour up a 1,120-foot mountain, laced with 60 trails and 10 chairlifts. Built in 1947, Boyne features a 1-mile run and logs an impressive 140-inch average snowfall — great for tubing, cross country skiing and snowshoeing, sleigh rides and ice skating. When the snow melts, prices drop and there are bargains to be found.

We stayed in one of the resort’s newest accommodations, the Grand Lodge, a timbered Swiss-Austrian ski lodge decorated in vintage ski posters, knotty pine woodwork and Bavarian prints. Its classic ski lodge vibe begins in the lobby with a behemoth stone hearth beneath a soaring timbered vault. Set amid the village at the base of the mountain, it is surrounded by pools, hot tubs, restaurants — Pierson’s Grille, Trophy Room Pub — and a host of shops.

Built to stand up to the hearty ski crowd, it’s great for families. We stayed in a family suite (two- and three-bedroom options) with fully equipped kitchen, dining area, fireplace and balcony overlooking the pool and mountain. The lodge connects to the waterpark — convenient in winter. This mom hit the spa while the boys hit the waterslides, wave pool and lazy river at Avalanche Bay.

The afternoon at the spa was bliss after the 208-mile drive north. The lavender sea-salt scrub, hydrotherapy soak and massage proved so relaxing, I could hardly get it together for dinner at the Beach Club set on Deer Lake.

 We found the scallops garnished with morel mushrooms and crème fraiche rich and savory, and while the batter seemed a little thick on the pecan crusted whitefish, a salad of dried cherries, apple, pecans champagne vinaigrette was decidedly refreshing. One evening we took the chairlift up to the Eagles Nest for burgers atop the mountain (great views, but no air conditioning). 

 Our teen liked the chewy sundried tomato pizza at the pub — and got a great kick out of biker night when a host of Harleys descended on the place. Everyone looked forward to breakfast at Everett’s in the main lodge: blueberry pancakes and cinnamon dusted French toast. We ventured off-site one day and drove four miles into Boyne City to lunch at Red Mesa Grille for a fish taco, enchilada, fajitas and struck it lucky on $3 margarita Tuesday. Follow the Boyne City Road around Lake Charlevoix  along Lake Michigan coastal route 31 into Petoskey for a good rainy day side trip. Stop at historic Bay View, a Victorian-era Methodist Chatauqua encampment boasting one of the best collections of Carpenter Gothic architecture in the country and expansive Lake Michigan views. This trip, we opted for the back road through Hemingway’s childhood summer home town of Walloon Lake.

During the summer season, the resort hosts hayrides, bonfires, fishing on the pond, a dam tour, outdoor movies in an amphitheater, free chair lift rides and family lawn games. Our teen was most impressed by the exhilarating ride on the zip lines. As was his mom. It was a memorable, action-packed mini-escape — and just the ticket for families.

Petoskey: Hemingway Country

Up the coast from the Leelanau Peninsula on Highway 31 in Michigan find vintage 19th-century summer resort towns of the Victorians, Petoskey and the old Methodist encampment of Bay View.

The nation's first summer Chautauqua arts and lecture series began here in 1887. Today, the Bay View summer arts series runs through August, which includes opera, chamber music and lectures.
We visited Stafford's Bay View inn on our honeymoon. 

Lit types take note: This is serious Hemingway country. The family has owned a cottage on Walloon Lake here for five generations, and it is here Hemingway wrote "Big Two Hearted River." Locals marked Hemingway haunts, the places he summered and drank - copiously it appears by the number of plaques in pubs. Try the Perry Hotel at Bay and Lewis, where the Michigan Hemingway Society gathers to toast Papa.

If You Go

The local historical museum has an Ernest Hemingway exhibit chronicling the 22 summers the author spent here on Walloon Lake. www.petoskey.com; 231-347-2620.

FISHTOWN: LELAND

Just up the road from the Sleeping Bear Dunes and The Homestead Resort lie the fishing village of Leland. At the weathered wharf dock, the Mishe Mokwa ferry has set sail for South Manitou Island since 1918. The ferry leaves the wharf at 9 a.m. and returns 4 p.m. daily through Labor Day.

At the town's historic Fishtown center, the wharves are lined with fishing shanties, pubs and restaurants - try Great Lakes perch and whitefish at the Cove. 

Follow M-22 up the coast to the old lumbering ports of Northport and Suttons Bay, artists' enclaves now home to summer arts and wine festivals. There are 15 vineyards on the route; try Good Harbor Vineyards Trillium, named after a rare local wildflower that blooms in profusion in northern Michigan's cool forests. M-22 ends in Traverse City, Michigan's most populous "up north" town.

In summer, this city is crazy-congested; a six-lane highway runs through town and its shores are lined with fast food,

chain motels and souvenir stands. Head north on Route 37 up the picturesque Old Mission Peninsula, another vineyard mecca, which divides Grand Traverse Bay into East and West bays, and hike the lighthouse trail.

If You Go

Leland: Fishing village and shops, restaurants at Fishtown, the village's historic center where the Mishe Mokwa ferry sets sail for North and South Manitou Island from the Leland wharf daily through Labor Day. $29, $15 for kids. Pack a picnic, no restaurants on the island.

Tourism information: www.leelandmi.com; 231-256-0079.

Butterflies and snowstorms

Admit it. We're all too ready for spring. We've seen over 100 inches of snow this winter at the Lake Michigan house and are done, done, done shoveling and scattering salt.

It's high time for bird feeders, planting tomatoes.

Fighting a bad case of cabin fever, took the teen up to Meijer Gardens in Grand Rapids, Michigan to soak up the tropical vibe of palm fronds, balmy breezes, waterfalls -- and hundreds of technicolor butterflies.

Don't miss the ethereal Chihuly glass sculpture.

Magical. Ready to toss back a mojito by day's end.

Sand snowmen, St. Pete art on the beach

Lovely Christmas break in St. Pete/Tampa area over holidays. Barefoot beach walks, Beach o'clock (rotating mojito/pina colada/margaritas), and bayfront art museum.

My kids loved the glass sculpture and modern art -- especially neon installations. I

fell for a painting that looks like Manet or Hassam.
Quiet New Year's Eve watching fireworks over Tampa Bay. Perfect right up to the tangerine tropical sunrise on the first day of 2011 as we drove out of the perfect 70s beach weather, to icy Tennessee up to frigid Great Lakes -- 60 degree drop in one car trip. brrr.