Five Fun Things to do in Michigan this Weekend 7/21-7/24/11

1. Taste of Kalamazoo - 7/21 - 7/23. Great food and music!
2. 33rd Annual Hiawatha Music Fest in Marquette - 7/22 - 7/24. Bluegrass, old-time, Cajun, Celtic, acoustic blues and folk - including singer/songwriters and dance.
3. Vintage Base Ball game on Mackinac Island 7/23 at 6:30pm. This game features the Fort Mackinac Never Sweats against the Bay City Independents.
4. Michigan Antique & Collectibles Festival at the Midland County Fairgrounds - 7/23 - 7/24. Over 1000 Vendors and 80 Acres of Treasures & Memories featuring - Antiques, collectibles, classic car show, a taste of Michigan, and more!
5. Paul McCartney On The Run Tour at Comerica Park 7/24 at 8pm. This is McCartney's first visit back to the City of Detroit since 1976.

Kalamazoo donut shop one of the 10 best in the nation

Sweetwater's Donut Mill in Kalamazoo was recently recognized as one of the 10 Best Doughnut Shops in America. The Kalamazoo based doughnut shop has two locations in Kalamazoo and one in Battle Creek. I have loved their donuts since attending Western Michigan University a while back. My favorite is the Reeses (think Reeses Peanut Butter Cups) Donut. Oh man with that donut and a cup of black coffee I can tackle just about anything (or just sit back with a good book). It's a chocolate cake donut topped with peanut butter creme and a drizzling of chocolate.

Here is what the reviewer, Bret Stetka, had to say about Sweetwater's -

Self-proclaimed peddler of "big, gooey" donuts and known for its rustic, local atmosphere, Sweetwater's offers traditional flavors alongside more decadent donut fare like New York Cheesecake and Peanut Butter Cup. But the shop's tendency toward child-like indulgence is best experienced through its obsession with candy bars: check the Heath Crunch, Snickers and Mounds varieties.

Read the article at MSN City Guides

Sweetwater's used to have a radio jingle and it went something like this - You'll be satisfied when you get your fill, at Sweetwater's Donut Mill.

I was always satisfied with their donuts. Yum!

Congrats to Kalamazoo, Michigan's delicious donut shop - Sweetwater's Donut Mill!

The Air Zoo adds Michigan Space Science Center

The Michigan Space Science Center opened at the Air Zoo this past Saturday. Admission to the exhibit is included in the general admission to the Air Zoo ($19.50 for adults). Many items from the now defunct Michigan Space and Science Center that was located in Jackson are housed in this new 17,000 square foot attraction. The Jackson location closed in 2003 and it is nice to see most of the exhibits find a new home. I remember visiting the Michigan Space and Science Center as a kid and eating freeze-dried ice cream like the astronauts. The novelty of the ice cream almost made up for the crummy taste. Almost.

Anyway, the Michigan Space Science Center exhibit includes -

• Lunar Leap – Hopping craters like an Apollo astronaut, guests will be able to get the feel of lunar gravity—1/6 of the Earth’s.
• Space Sick – Erratically swirling circles make the viewer feel dizzily space sick. A rocking platform adds to the disorientation. Visitors will understand the feeling that many astronauts feel during their first few days in weightlessness.
• Gyro – Visitors will experiment with large locked and un-locked gyroscopes to see how they work and why they are important for guiding rockets and spacecraft.
• Action vs. Reaction – Guests will be able to learn about action/reaction by loading tennis balls into the chamber of an air cannon, which will be mounted to a cart on a track. When the cannon is fired, the action of the ball being shot out of the back causes the cannon to roll forward (reaction). By varying the pressure, visitors will see the relationship between action and reaction.
• Also in the exhibit are a number of original space artifacts such as a Saturn V rocket engine, full-size replica of a Gemini space capsule, a Gemini crew-training simulator, Russian Cosmonaut suit (from Alexandr Kaleri, the last commander of the MIR space station) and Ann Arbor astronaut Jack Lousma’s space suit.

Visit www.airzoo.org for more information.

Second annual Kalamazoo Fretboard Festival is this weekend

The Kalamazoo Valley Museum plays host to the Kalamazoo Fretboard Festival this weekend (March 24). The event celebrates the stringed-instrument history and legacy of Kalamazoo. Guitars have been produced in Kalamazoo for over a century, but Kalamazoo was also home to banjo, basses, ukuleles, mandolins, and other stringed-instrument production. The event runs from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. and admission is free. Various workshops and lectures on topics such as A History of Gibson Guitar, Fingerpickin' Beginner to Intermediate, The History of the Banjo, and much more will take place throughout the museum.

Performances by Great Lakes Grass (traditional bluegrass), Third Coast Ensemble, Royal Garden Trio, and the Fabulous Heftones will take place during the event in the Kalamazoo Valley Museum gallery.

For more information and directions to the museum visit their website - kvm.kvcc.edu.

Via the Kalamazoo Gazette