A few months ago, we visited the lovely town of Holland Michigan. The city is truly inviting with a downtown filled with cute shops, boutiques, and amazing restaurants. And there is no excuse not to visit during the winter months, as the sidewalks and streets are heated to remove all snow and ice! Amazing! On…
Tag: michigan
Garden trip: Japanese garden
Last month we visited the Frederik Meijer gardens in Grand Rapids Michigan. A new Japanese garden installation was completed last year and covers eight acres of the space, which also includes a variety of other gardens, a conservatory, greenhouse and other educational gardening spaces. We were most interested in seeing the Japanese garden this year,…
Summertime gelato
Today feels like fall to me in Michigan. I already have a sweatshirt on after the bursts of rain came down these past couple of days. So, I decided that I better catch up with my blog, and post some of my favorite summertime memories. We tasted some amazing gelato this summer up North at…
A garden walk on Old Mission Penninsula
Last week we had a wonderful day touring gardens along the Old Mission Peninsula in northern Michigan. The annual garden walk was organized by the Friendly Garden Club of Traverse City, which is a member of Michigan Garden Clubs, Inc. The garden club has many community service projects which…
a visit to cranbrook gardens
Summer is a time for spontaneous day trips. Last week Monday we decided to take a drive to Cranbrook Gardens in Bloomfield Hills Michigan, for a tour of the property and gardens. Cranbrook House and gardens was established in the 1900’s for the daughter of the founder of The Detroit News, Ellen Scripps. By the…
Kilwins chocolate kitchen tour
Kilwins Chocolate shops are located all over the country in many states from Florida to New York. But, Michigan is home to 24 shops. Just about every small town up North has a Kilwins, which is known for delicious boxed chocolates, taffy, caramels, fudge, caramel apples, handcrafted marshmallows and even ice cream. Walking into…
Tom’s Mom’s cookies
Located in Harbor Springs Michigan, Tom’s Mom’s Cookies is a wonderful place to visit. We heard about this cookie shop when watching a travel Michigan television program. Having won several awards while being in business for more than 30 years, we decided to visit the shop last week. The shop was busy when we visited,…
Up North flowers
Each summer when we travel up North, I am always delighted to admire the lovely window boxes and street flowers that fill the shopping districts of the Northern Michigan towns. Here are some of my favorite flower boxes — but, realize that there were so many more that were equally beautiful. The…
Visiting Bay Bread Co.
Last week, we were in Traverse City Michigan enjoying the lovely weather and the view of the water. Every visit we make to the city includes a stop at this wonderful bakery. Visiting Bay Bread Co. is a tradition for us, since the charm of this bakery and the delicious baked goods are worth the…
trip to a cider mill
Two weekends ago, we stopped at a cider mill in Fenton, Michigan. The historic Parshallville Cider Mill is a 136 year old grist mill on the North Ore Creek in Livingston County. It is one of the few water powered mills left in Michigan today. Formerly, it was a flour mill for Success flour. Today,…
a five-course dinner
since i consider myself a real cooking enthusiast, we choose to eat at home most evenings. in fact, we mostly only dine out when there is a reason. for example, the power is out or we have a dinner event. so, when we do dine out, i love to be inspired with fine food,…
great lakes tea and spice
great lakes tea and spice company offers an incredible variety of artisan tea and herbal tisane blends ranging from black, oolong, green, and white. a majority of them are certified organic, single estate teas, while others have been carefully blended with spices, herbs, and inspired flavor combinations. all of the tea blends are of premium to…
