Treasure Chest

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When I received my boarding pass to enter the world of Michigan BLUE magazine as its new editor, I was thrilled. Ask my family and they’ll tell you how, even though there have been lots of long faces during these months of pandemic pandemonium, this opportunity provided an exciting wave of happy news.

More than a decade ago when BLUE first launched, I wrote a regular department for the magazine that covered dining on water; then, over the years, I contributed travel features and other topics.

And now, here I am again. A bit about me: I’m a Michigan State Spartan (thus the name BLUE throws me a bit) and have been a writer and editor for many decades, starting at AAA’s Michigan Living magazine and then moving on to Crain Communications and now here where I also edit Detroit Design magazine. Peppered in among the years were long-term writing stints for The Detroit News and Detroit Free Press, among many other publications.

My main charge throughout those years, though, was raising two sons and inspiring them to appreciate our Pure Michigan. Together, my family has toured, hiked, biked, skied, swam, beach-combed, golfed, tubed, RV-ed, canoed, kayaked, and explored the heck out of Michigan (and there’s so much more on our list!).

Each time we venture out, Michigan lifts us, individually and as a family — whether it’s a bike ride around our northern cottage lake or a hike along remote trails where trillium seem to be as prevalent as the steps we’re taking. This “soak up Michigan” quest started before the boys could even walk, and hasn’t stopped to this day (they’re now 20-somethings and plan their own hiking and biking trips not only in Michigan, but around the world).

One of the amusing adventures we laugh about today involved the state’s celebrated natural resource: water. Cruising along M-28 in the Upper Peninsula when my sons were young, my husband and I had the idea of seeing how many bodies of water they could swim in in one day as we made our way back to our cottage after a long U.P. getaway. We started in Lake Superior at the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore (brrrr, but they sure didn’t care), then on to Lake Michigan along U.S. 2 near Naubinway, and the Straits of Mackinac near the Mackinac Bridge at the Straits State Park in St. Ignace. We continued on to Cheboygan State Park for a dip in Lake Huron and then stopped at Mullet Lake, where my husband spent many summers when he was young. The string ended there because the boys were fast asleep when we arrived at our cottage. What a  fun-soaked blue-water memory!

We look forward to hopefully inspiring you to soak up Michigan, too — whether it’s through waterfront cottage-design ideas (we’re bringing additional home coverage to BLUE’s pages), new trail treks, or awesome lodging options. The BLUE team has created new departments and design tweaks in these pages, and you’ll see more in future issues as we roll out additional plans.

Our goal is to always be a veritable Great Lakes State treasure chest, packed with everything from natural resource updates to style tips for your home or cottage to insider destination treats and more.

Now, let’s set sail!


Please email editor Megan Swoyer at MSwoyer@Hour-Media.com or visit mibluemag.com if you’d like to share story ideas on particular Michigan subjects, from things to do and places to go to waterfront home design.

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