by Deb Fellows | Jun 7, 2020 | Up North Essays, Vacation
I have yet to meet anyone, young or old, who doesn’t have tremendous memories of summer cottages in Northern Michigan. First appearing in the July 1985 issue of Traverse, Northern Michigan’s Magazine this column speaks to the timeless gift of Northern Michigan...
by Shea Petaja | Mar 30, 2020 | Live Here, Up North Essays
The found wisdom of a Northern Michigan neighbor, Joyce Groleau Lundberg, 93 years old. I have moved 37 times. You heard me, thirty-seven times. I wasn’t an “Army brat;” I am a builder’s daughter. We danced the spec-house dance. Build, wait,...
by Emily Hopcian | Mar 14, 2020 | Counties, Live Here, Up North Essays
I think you’re either a “cat person” or not. Is there an in between? I don’t know. One of the greatest gifts my mom has given me is a love of animals, especially cats. Her career as a veterinarian and her love of helping animals have given our...
by Joy Martin Omar | Mar 11, 2020 | Counties, Food & Drink, People, Towns, Up North Essays
Joy Martin Omar and her husband, Dave, dreamed of starting an artisan cheese company together. In 2019, the couple’s hard work paid off and they founded Saltless Sea Creamery in Traverse City. If you’d asked my younger self what I wanted to be when I grew...
by Joe Evancho | Feb 27, 2020 | Counties, Food & Drink, History, Towns, Up North Essays
It’s a quirky rite of passage at a historic Northern Michigan restaurant. This is why everyone started kissing the moose at Sleder’s Family Tavern in Traverse City. Sleder’s Family Tavern has been a Traverse City landmark for 138 years. During that time,...
by Andrew VanDrie | Feb 6, 2020 | Counties, Outdoors, Towns, Up North Essays
Shantytowns come alive in the night, as anglers use bright lights to draw Northern Michigan smelt up from the dark bottoms of inland lakes. A frozen lake in the dead of night is a desolate place indeed. Yet, the parking lot at Interlochen’s Green Lake is full,...
by Shea Petaja | Jan 10, 2020 | Counties, Live Here, People, Towns, Up North Essays
A spirited tale from Traverse City native and local personality Shea Petaja, who laces up her skates and braves the ice for the first time since childhood. Featured in the January 2020 issue of Traverse, Northern Michigan’s Magazine. Get your copy. I tend to be...
by Emily Tyra | Oct 1, 2019 | Counties, Live Here, Outdoors, Towns, Up North Essays
Honor’s Cindra Moore is leading a new generation of land stewards in Northern Michigan and teaching us the benefits of forest bathing. Cindra Moore and I talk and walk along the edge of where farm and forest meet; land her great-great-grand-father homesteaded in the...
by Emily Bingham | Jun 26, 2019 | Counties, Food & Drink, Towns, Up North Essays
Neighbors gawking at my brimming bowls as they walked by cheerfully called me the Strawberry Queen. The little blue house at the end of the dead-end street was so freshly mine that the “SOLD” sign was still staked in the front yard, but already I was thinking about...
