Features

While cottages are synonymous with long-awaited, short-term stays, there’s no need to pack bags and head to another home when you live on a lake year-round.

Ann Arbor-based Motawi Tileworks aims to change the art of the home one tile at a time. The one-of-a-kind tiles have added color and elegance to homes, libraries and hospitals across the country.

For many Michigan leisure seekers, seasonal stays and scenic settings often go hand in hand. Such is the case for Catherine “Cahssey” Augenstein, who has spent summers on Gun Lake in Middleville since she was a kid.

Glen Arbor artist captures all that grows in paintings, drawings and coloring books.

When the powder falls, nature calls. And snowshoes make it easy to indulge in winter’s delights. This ancient form of transportation takes outdoor adventurers and nature lovers high atop bluffs and into dense forests, across deep snow and to places skis, fat-tire bicycles and snowmobiles cannot go.

Skiing beneath fir trees heavy with snow. Speeding through the backcountry on a snowmobile or simply relaxing before a roaring fireplace with a stack of books. Michigan’s lakeside getaways attract plenty of attention in the summer. But winter in the Great Lakes State offers its own beauty, whether visitors long for fun in the snow or some cozy time indoors.

Kristina Lishawa was just a young girl when her grandfather recognized her appreciation for wild beauty. He bought her a camera, something simple, and introduced her to new worlds.

In 2015, “sink logs” — timber that fell to river bottoms or lakes when floating en route to mills — were dredged from Muskegon Lake. Perfectly preserved specimens of this prized lumber found their way to Gabriel Currie, the brains and hands behind Echopark Guitars.

The sweet magic of fall cider draws thousands each year to historic mills where water once powered apple presses. As if under a spell, Michiganders from all over join with family and friends for a pilgrimage to the cider mill. Sweet cider, warm doughnuts and fresh produce take center stage with caramel apples, old-fashioned candy and home-baked pies.

Underwater photographers capture haunting images of a Great Lakes freighter that broke in two and sank during a 1966 Lake Huron gale.