things i love about michigan

[Paul Pless]

http://www.arborbrewing.com/

This state is blessed with great beer.

[Tom Montgomery]

Michigan is a fantastic playground.

[Paul Pless]

Michigan is a fantastic playground.

It really is a beautiful state.

[Norman Bernstein]

Too far from salt water. The great lakes are just big holes filled with stagnant water.... if your boat doesn't have barnacles, you're not a sailor!

[Tom Montgomery]

Bah!

[tigerregis]

Vernor's and Briggs Stadium, two of The Water wonderland's great memories. And Emancipation Day when the city's minority crossed the bridge for celebrations.
Detroit resurgat.

[Jimmy W]

The Au Sable River is nice except when paddling down Mio Pond in a cold rain into a 20 mph wind.

[Bob Adams]

Too far from salt water. The great lakes are just big holes filled with stagnant water.... if your boat doesn't have barnacles, you're not a sailor!

Do Zebra Mussels count?

[B_B]

It really is a beautiful state.

The trees are just the right height, eh?

[leikec]

Michigan (especially Northern Michigan) is my idea of perfection. I am completely smitten by the place.

Jeff C

[Gerarddm]

... And the roads are just right for American cars too! Perhaps all those "right height" trees cast just the perfect shade for miles and miles of happy care-free motoring, LOL.

[Beowolf]

Arbor Brewing is good, but I'm more of a Bell's guys. Friends of mine are shareholders in Michigan Brewing Co, just outside of Williamston, on I-96. If you ever find yourself heading up to Lansing that way, you owe yourself a stop at their brew-pub. Great selection of really great beer.

I grew up near the Au Sable and I still get on it every chance I get. For me, it will alway's be the standard bearer against which all other rivers are judged. By the way, the ponds only get worse as you head downstream. My dad and canoed Foote pond in a November rain once with small white-caps coming at us. By the time we hit the portage, we had steam pouring off of us. The good thing about crossing Mio pond is that it usually involves a trip to Ma Deeter's!

And then there's:
Small boat sailing in Tawas Bay
Hockey at "The Joe"
The Bicardi Party on the Island
Cool Autumn Saturdays in East Lansing
The River Races in Detroit
The River Races in Bay City
The River Race on the Au Sable
Watching the Izzone at the Breslin Center
And absolutely, positively NOTHING about Frankenmuth!

[Paul Pless]

I like Bells a great deal, they make a few of my current favorite beers. But Arbor is only 20 minutes away!

Michigan Brewing co is very good too. Like I said, this is a great beer state! There's a fair sized organic hopps farm just down the road from our house in Hell.

Oh, since Kat's not around I can say that one positive that Arbor has over Bells is that their brewpub often has hundreds of co-eds about, whereas Bells is kind of in a industrial part of town.

The only river I've spent any time on in Michigan is the Huron, which has a tributary (Hell Creek) which basically runs through our front yard. I grew up on a stretch of really nice whitewater in Alabama. I miss that fiercely somedays. . .

[Donn]

I can't think of a state with more fishing spots, especially shore fishing spots.

This used to be one of my favorites:



You could camp in the trees on the north shore of the river, just east of the bridge, and catch salmon until your arms fell off. It was also a great spot for Walleye and Smallmouth.

[Donn]

Another one, on the other side of the state:



I'd sit on a bucket, right at the point, and cast a large minnow upstream, rigged to hang about 10' under a weighted 9" pencil bobber, and catch Browns and Rainbows until I got bored.

[Paul Pless]

Where are those two places Donn?

[Donn]

Where are those two places Donn?

The first one is in Newaygo and the second in Port Huron.

This one's in T-City:



That's the Holiday Inn. In the old days, the lakeshore was just a rock wall at the north end of the parking lot. You could catch Smallies all day long there.

[S.V. Airlie]

Too far from salt water. The great lakes are just big holes filled with stagnant water.... if your boat doesn't have barnacles, you're not a sailor!

The boats with a lot of barnacles indicate to me, the boat hasn't even picked up the anchor and certainly hasn't gone out much..

[elf]

Cherries.

[Paul Pless]

Cherries.

Don't you know it!

and apples!!

[Donn]

I had a dozen drive-up spots between Portage Lake and Barton Pond where Smallies were plentiful:

[Paul Pless]

You know I live about 1.5 miles from Portage Lake. I've found many good fishing holes near my house. Most of the bass fisherman seem to avoid Portage these days and head for Half Moon Lake which is about three miles west of Portage and connects to Hi-Land Lake (which our back yard borders), Blind Lake and Patterson Lake.

[Donn]

I know the area well. I prospected for fishing spots almost every evening when I was staying in Ann Arbor. I carried a large cooler full of soft craws every time I went up there. It seems the Smallmouth in Michigan never saw soft craws. The old timers told me I'd never catch a fish with them. They were wrong. They also used to crow about how good the fishing was in the old days.

[Lew Barrett]

We discussed this last year, and I admit to a lack of local knowledge, but Detroit is getting a wicked amount of good press these days. I think you or Dan told me not to believe everything I read or saw, but it sounds like they are really trying.

[Paul Pless]

We discussed this last year, and I admit to a lack of local knowledge, but Detroit is getting a wicked amount of good press these days. I think you or Dan told me not to believe everything I read or saw, but it sounds like they are really trying.

+ 1

But good or bad, Detroit is such a small piece of Michigan.

[Donn]

I have many fond memories of Detroit. Back in the 70's, I had a great customer, right on the river in downtown; Big Rapids Distribution. They were the premier distributor for underground comic books and other dubious products, as well as having a front business of distributing magazines and paperbacks.

Their warehouse parking lot was directly on the river, and they had a dock with two fishing boats parked there. We'd work for a while, sit out back getting high for a while, and then go out in one of the boats.

They were a wild bunch, with a caricature of Karl Marx on their delivery trucks, but they knew how to sell books as well as have a good time. They got too big, and went bankrupt in 1980, but they took care of me before filing. They paid me in excess comix inventory, which I had no trouble unloading.

[Dan McCosh]

Too far from salt water. The great lakes are just big holes filled with stagnant water.... if your boat doesn't have barnacles, you're not a sailor!

I'd say that the Great Lakes are the best thing about Michigan. The trip from one end of Lake Huron to the other is as long as sailing from New York to Maine. The coastline length is exceeded only by Alaska. Towns and ports every 30 miles or so. Also some of the most isolated landscape on the planet. Elevation changes along the shoreline from marshland to 1,000 ft. cliffs. No sharks.

[bobbys]

Only know 2 peeps from Michigan and can only come to the conclusion Michigan is for Lovers!

[Lew Barrett]

+ 1

But good or bad, Detroit is such a small piece of Michigan.

True, but I hear "good Delis, intereting food scene." You know me......

[Beowolf]

Paul is surrounded by great food.

Terry B's in Dexter

The Common Grill in Chelsea

Gratzi in Ann Arbor

Order the minestrone every time you go to Gratzi. It's always awesome, yet never the same.

[Dan McCosh]

+ 1

But good or bad, Detroit is such a small piece of Michigan.

Only 2/3s of the population.

[Donn]

Only 2/3s of the population.

And the best clubs and food.

[Beowolf]

I'd say that the Great Lakes are the best thing about Michigan. The trip from one end of Lake Huron to the other is as long as sailing from New York to Maine. The coastline length is exceeded only by Alaska. Towns and ports every 30 miles or so. Also some of the most isolated landscape on the planet. Elevation changes along the shoreline from marshland to 1,000 ft. cliffs. No sharks.

...and little marinas like this.



Damn, I wish I could keep it there all summer long.

[ccmanuals]

Picked up my first Chris Craft in Hessel to haul back to Maryland. Hit Detroit on a Friday about 5 pm (rush hour) in a driving rain storm. Traffic, rain and pot holes made for an interesting drive.

Loved Macinaw Island!

[Robert Meyer]

...and little marinas like this.



Damn, I wish I could keep it there all summer long.

Possibly The Elk Rapids Marina on Grand Traverse East Bay? (A really great town to visit - or better yet live in)
A boat on Elk Lake, a box of cherries, a rainbow trout on the line.
If you're an old timer from Michigan you will recognize my avatar.

[Beowolf]

Jerry's Marina inside Tawas Point

[leikec]

One of my favorite places in T.C.

Jeff C

[Robert Meyer]

One of my favorite places in T.C.

Jeff C

We lived part time around the corner from Sleder's on Cedar street for awhile while my mother was at the Pavilions.
We try to visit TC every year. Sleder's is certainly a fun stop ... did you kiss the moose?

[leikec]

We lived part time around the corner from Sleder's on Cedar street for awhile while my mother was at the Pavilions.
We try to visit TC every year. Sleder's is certainly a fun stop ... did you kiss the moose?

No, somehow I resisted the urge--but my niece still gets embarrassed when I remind her that she did when she was a kid

Jeff C

[ccmanuals]

Smelt, uck.

[leikec]

Jeff C

[leikec]

You could fit five Long Island Sounds in Lake Superior and have room left over for a Cheapeake Bay. And that's just one lake. There are 4 more.

People in Vermont and eastern New York would argue that there are 5 more.



Jeff C

[Mrleft8]

Do Zebra Mussels count?

No, but they're pretty good at spelling.
(And why was I dumb enough to think that Slim's line was going to be:"Katherine, and our lovely house"?.... )

[Mrleft8]

I'd say that the Great Lakes are the best thing about Michigan. The trip from one end of Lake Huron to the other is as long as sailing from New York to Maine. The coastline length is exceeded only by Alaska. Towns and ports every 30 miles or so. Also some of the most isolated landscape on the planet. Elevation changes along the shoreline from marshland to 1,000 ft. cliffs. No sharks.

No, but they have "pecker pike".... Worse than sharks by a lot... If yer a boy....

[Tom Montgomery]

I can imagine retiring to Michigan. The climate suits me. And all that water!

[ccmanuals]

Pecker Pike? Ok, now you have my attention. Please elaborate.