Excursions

From expansive vistas to historic discoveries, the best extend something special. The first edition of my book, “50 Hikes In Michigan” (The Countryman Press) appeared in 1991. The latest edition — which is also Michigan’s first full-color trail guidebook, is digitally intergraded with the internet and features 10 extra walks — was released this June. That’s almost a quarter century of searching for good trails.

Sample new foods, cheer regattas on the lake, catch world-class jazz and travel back in time: Adventure abounds across Michigan this summer.

While to-do lists can wait at your favorite vacation getaway, enhance time spent at home away from home by taking in a parade, partaking in a contest, sampling spring’s top wines or hitting carnival lines.

If you don’t have a secluded little cabin up north, take heart. The Michigan State Park system does, 81 of them to be exact. These rustic cabins range in shape and size and from being built in the 1930s by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) to wealthy beer barons.

Take to shorelines and country roads across the Great Lakes State this fall to celebrate the season in hands-on ways, from harvest festivals and outdoor concerts to savory samplings and friendly farms.

Enjoy this summer in Michigan — of the Blue Waters! We promise you a summer you will never forget as long as you live! Fishing, swimming, camping, outdoor sports without end. Cool breezes, blue skies, laughter and play — good health and good times for all who come! Set like a rare jewel in a mounting of great blue waters — bounded on the north by Lake Superior, on the west by Lake Michigan, and on the east by Lakes Huron and Erie, with 5,000 beautiful inland lakes — Michigan offers advantages enjoyed by no other state. Not even the discomfort of the habitual hay fever victim can interfere with vacation joys in Michigan!