Five Things to do in Michigan this weekend 9/24-9/26

This weekend's Top Five list takes you from the village of Clinton on up to Leelanau State Park. Get out and enjoy some Pure Michigan this weekend!

1. Clinton's Fall Festival - 9/24-9/26. They pack a lot of events into their annual festival - car show, live music, hundreds of arts & crafts vendors, food, bull riding, and a huge parade.
2. Detroit History Highlights Trolley Tours - 9/25. "Climb aboard our nostalgic trolley and enjoy a ride back in time as our experienced guides present the real Detroit story and its role in shaping our nation and the world."
3. 19th Century Lumber Days at Hartwick Pines State Park - 9/24-9/26. "Historic logging demonstrations, Musical/entertainment programs, other historical activities and demonstrations."
4. Curran Black Bear Festival 9/25-9/26. Visit the "Black Bear Capitol of Michigan" this weekend for "displays and information about black bears as well as woodcarvers, live music, wildlife exhibit, vendors and crafts, and food."
5. Leelanau State Park Harvest Festival - 9/25. "Event has an agricultural background with various vendors displaying products, conducting educational programs, leading games and outdoor activities such as nature hikes, apple press/cider making, candle making, nature craft making."

Bonus - Corn mazes and apple orchards abound across Michigan. Check here for a statewide listing and find one close to you!

Double Bonus - enjoy this unofficial Pure Michigan ad created by Leclerc Brothers Motion Pictures.

Monday Morning Michigan Musings

I thought it would be nice to get a new week off to a start by reviewing the past weekend here in Michigan. In the world of sports we saw the Tigers come back to split a four game series with the Orioles and the Red Wings take the first two games in the Stanley Cup Finals. Pittsburgh columnist, Gene Collier, has dubbed Michigan (namely Muskegon) native, Justin Abdelkader, The Magical Michigander after he scored a goal in both games. Speaking of the Stanley Cup playoffs - it was great to see a couple of the Pure Michigan advertisements during the game. What a great idea to showcase Michigan with the home-state Red Wings playing - I hope it was a commercial for the national broadcast and not just our local station (based out of northern Indiana).

Meanwhile, the price of gas has magically jumped in Michigan to around $2.75 over the weekend. While it has backed off a few cents as of this morning, I wouldn't be surprised to see it hover over $3 a gallon before too long and stay that way through the Labor Day weekend. It's still cheaper than what we were paying last summer, but there are more folks without jobs or with reduced wages than at this time last year which makes it just as difficult or more so than last summer.

GM is perched on the precipice of bankruptcy and will in all likelihood announce their bankruptcy at some point today. The rest of Michigan awaits the announcement with baited breath as this will have a huge trickle down affect.

On a better note, it was a beautiful weekend across much of the state and a number of summer concerts and festivals were held. There was the 2nd Annual Ribfest and Krusin' Klassics Fun Run in Escanaba, our local town of Constantine held a concert in the park along with a downtown art hop, and most schools across the state held their graduations over the weekend.

Good luck to the graduates and to the rest of you - have a Great Week!

Constantine Harvest Festival was fun

The weather couldn't have been better for Constantine's Harvest Festival this past Saturday. The annual event was originally scheduled for September 13th, but was washed out by the rainy weekend courtesy of the remnants of Hurricane Ike. This is a nice festival that has improved with age. It started out pretty small about 6 years ago and now is a nice small town festival.

Water Street was closed off for the festival. There were bands set to play all day long (and into the evening, too) at one end of the street. Tons of free stuff like horse-drawn carriage rides, inflatable bouncy rides for kids, and kids games for only a quarter.

The crowd was pretty steady while I was there and it was great to see this festival become a bit more polished than past years.