Michigan Top 5

Today, farm markets still have a magnetic draw, and so annual girls’ weekends have since detoured toward corn mazes with slices of fresh pie, and every fall color tour seems to have a market at its center.

Just as he carefully sketches his human characters, best-selling author Wade Rouse gets intimately acquainted with Michigan, the setting for all of his novels, making him both a travel and literary expert.

Michigan has many bodies of water, but some offer more fun than others.

Colonial Michilimackinac is just one centerpiece this year during the 125th birthday party the state is holding for a collection of Straits-area stops that make up Michigan’s original state park.

Maybe it’s the gift of unscheduled time, maybe the inspiration of lake and woods, but no trip to our family cabin has ever ended without the practice of art in some form.

Everyone likely can agree on this: little sounds more romantic than lacing up ice skates and — as soft flakes fall — gliding around a skating pond illuminated against the night. Even if the reality can be a bit, well, clunkier, the scenes still rival a Hallmark Christmas special in the best possible way.

I’m not a hiker, but I love to saunter. When I amble down a Michigan forest path, especially in fall, I’m the one wandering a bit slower than the crowd, contemplating the way light hits the trees, setting colorful leaves aglow. I revel in the crunch of my shoes on the leaf-covered path, love trailside fun like racing leaves in a flowing stream.

Michigan has a lot of lakes, but some are very special.

I’d still count card games, bike rides and falling stars among my favorites, but today, I’d add hunting for Petoskey stones and agates, watching (and photographing) sunsets and sunrises, and most anything you find at Michigan parks, which celebrate their 100th anniversary this year.

Fun animal encounters for families and friends each spring.