Great Wolf Lodge in Traverse City is Expanding

Great Wolf Lodge in Traverse City just announced they are expanding their indoor water park and adding condominiums as well. A 41,000 square foot expansion of the indoor water park will more than double the current 38,000 square foot water park. The water park expansion will be located at the site of the current outdoor pool area (which will be relocated). Construction will begin this fall with completion hopefully by next June.

We just stayed up there a week ago and had a great time as always. I can't imagine what they will be adding to the water park. There was already more than enough to keep the kids happy and busy so doubling it should theoretically double their fun :).

The Traverse City Great Wolf Lodge has a pretty cool website. Check it out.

News of the Great Wolf Lodge expansion courtesy of the Traverse City Record Eagle.

To the Top of 'The Mighty Mac'

One of the first stops on Susan Agers summer trip around Michigan was to the top of one of the 552-foot tall towers that hold up the Mackinac Bridge. She received over 1,000 suggestions from readers on where to go in Michigan this summer. You can follow her travels at her blog www.freep.com/gosusan. You can still keep giving her suggestions via her blog. I don't know exactly how she is choosing from such a plethora of options. It has to be difficult to trim down the list and experience a tiny bit of what Michigan has to offer this summer.

I look forward to her the rest of her Michigan trips and will keep you updated on the interesting locales she visits.

Read her first-person account of going up the tower and the beautiful scene she took in at the Detroit Free Press. It had me feeling claustrophobic as she entered the "coffin-like" elevator and weak in the knees at the thought of only having a 42-inch high railing keeping you from falling off of the 552-foot high tower.

Constantine Art Festival is This Weekend

This weekend, June 9-11, the Constantine Community Arts Association is once again trying to bring culture to Constantine with their annual art festival. Hopefully they bring in more artists and visitors than they did last year. I drove through town during the art festival last year and it didn't look any different than any other weekend. Empty. Empty streets and empty storefronts save for a few works of art scattered here or there.

A week or so ago some local joker vandalized the banner advertising the upcoming art festival. They painted an "F" in front of the "A" in Art. So the banner read "Constantine FArt Festival." I'll tell you what, if the crowds don't show up again this year maybe they should switch it to a Fart Festival.

You know Constantine would gain regional and possibly national notoriety just for the thought of having a flatulence festival. There is no such thing as bad publicity. They could even have an advertising sponsorship from Bush's Baked Beans. Again, if this art festival flops again this year I say put the "F" back in art and watch the curious crowds roll in to town.

Just remember where you got the idea and give credit where credit is due :).

Oh yeah, the Constantine Art Festival details -

• Friday from 6-8 pm
• Saturday 9 am to 9 pm
• Sunday 10 am to 4 pm

Call (269) 435-6610 for more information.

Have a great weekend!

TV Ads Invite Visitors to "Pure Michigan"

A $2.8 million advertising campaign for Michigan tourism uses the catch phrase "Pure Michigan." Scenes of our many waterways with a voiceover by actor Tim Allen (from Home Improvement fame) will soon be playing to potential tourists in Milwaukee, Cincinnati and Southern Ontario. These are areas we already receive tourists from and the hope is to greatly increase that number with a series of ads. Will idyllic pictures of Michigan's coastlines, sunrises over Detroit, and hiking trails be enough to entice out-of-state visitors to Michigan? I just don't know. Living in southwest Michigan I see ads for Indiana (Indianapolis) and Illinois (Chicago) and I have yet to hop in the car to visit or vacation there because of a commercial. But, that is just me. Not exactly a full-fledged marketing study of the target demographic, but my opinion nonetheless. :)

Via The Detroit News

CNN Recommends a Visit to Michigan's West Coast

I was at cnn.com this morning looking for more info on the death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi (al-Qaida's leader in Iraq) when I saw a mention of Michigan in the travel section. They cover Michigan's west coast towns from New Buffalo on up to Ludington. The article is packed with glowing recommendations of things to do along Michigan's west coast and there is just too much to include even a brief snippet. It is great to see an "outsider" have such a high opinion of places to see and things to do in Michigan. The only beef I have is that they include Grand Rapids in Michigan's west coast, but they go no further north than Ludington. What about Manistee, Frankfort, Sleeping Bear Dunes, Traverse City, Charlevoix, Petoskey, and the numerous other great stops along our west coast?

Anyway, read the whole article here.

They also have an article on Mackinac Island in reference to the annual Lilac Festival that runs June 9 through June 18. The article is titled, "Wander the fragrant streets of Mackinac Island." I assume they are thinking of the fragrant lilacs, but with all of those horse-drawn carriages there is another prevailing odor that adds its own unique fragrance to Mackinac Island's streets.

Don't get me wrong, I love Mackinac Island. I proposed to my wife there and we honeymooned there as well. I just think that people ought to know that there are three dominant things you smell when you depart the ferries. Lilacs, horse dung, and fudge.

The heat of summer melts them all together into a single scent that wafts on the cool island breezes. Bet you won't read that in a travel brochure :).

Badger Car Ferry Video Clip

This is a neat (and short) clip of the Badger car ferry running from Ludington, Michigan to Manitiwoc, Wisconsin. I had the priviledge of taking this fun trip across Lake Michigan with my grandparents when I was a kid. To be out in the middle of Lake Michigan and not able to spot any land was a new experience for me. It shaved some time off of our trip, but also afforded my cousin and I the opportunity to roam all over the ship instead of being cooped up in the car. I see that they have a restaurant now as well as a movie theater and even a place for the little ones to play.

Check for departure times and pricing at ssbadger.com.

If the video player does not appear just go to youtube.com to view it.

All Things Michigan and Gift Baskets From Michigan LLC are not responsible for the other questionable content that appears at YouTube.com.