12 Ways to Seize Summer North of the 45th Parallel

Little Traverse's must-do dozen

By Lynda Wheatley | July 10, 2021

Summer fades fast in northern Michigan, but there’s one way to make it last: Outrun it. With the 45th Parallel as your starting line, and the woods, waters, and iconic attractions to the north as your course, you can fill what remains of these long but fleeting summer days with the kind of true north fun that makes you feel you’ve seized every second. On your mark, get set, explore …

Fancy a Chukka, ol’ Chap?
Bliss Polo Club, Bliss
For the second year in a row, the rolling hills of Bliss Township are sans the sound of music from one of the state’s most beloved summer music festivals, Blissfest. But those gorgeous hills are alive with yet another brilliant tradition: The Bliss Polo Club. Drawing significantly smaller but no less lively crowds, the lesser-known Bliss Polo Club ranks equally high in its ability to transform first-time viewers into passionate annual devotees. Credit the stunning landscape and the athletic symphony of man, beast, and sport that play upon it, then saddle up to see the show: A surprise July 4 announcement revealed the club’s summer season is on and open to the public. You can catch the next matches 11am Wednesday, July 14; 11am and 1pm Friday, July 16; and 1pm and 3pm Sunday, July 18.  For more, search “Bliss Polo Club” on Facebook. Find the pitch at 9000 Pleasantview Rd., off Sturgeon Bay Trail.

Dine Like Papa
Horton Bay General Store
The cottage on Walloon Lake where writer Ernest Hemingway spent many a childhood summer is off limits to fans of the author (fun fact: it’s still owned by ancestors of the family), but those craving a glimpse of the old Up North that Hemingway chronicled in his “Nick Adams” stories can see and feel it inside The Horton Bay General Store.
Listed as one of the top ten Hemingway haunts in the U.S., the iconic structure has housed a general store since it started in 1876. Hemingway never referred to it by name but makes mention of a Horton Bay general store in two of his novels, and his connection to it isn’t slight; he and his first wife, Hadley Richardson, held their reception here after marrying at the Methodist church (no longer standing) across the road in 1921.
Improvements have been made in the last 145 years — steel replaced the old rotten wood supports, the upstairs living quarters are now a B&B, a small deli replaced the grocery items — but the current (and 28th!) owners have taken pains to reclaim the store’s unique charm, keeping intact its original yellow pine floors, detailed woodwork, many antiques, and a vintage soda fountain that serves up real malteds. Appropriately, an entire wall is dedicated to its most famous customer.
(231) 582-7827, www.hortonbaygeneralstore.com

Toast the Arts
Dart for Art & Crooked Tree Arts Center, Petoskey
Born in a basement in 1971 and moved into the 1890-built United Methodist Church in Petoskey in 1978, the original arm of Crooked Tree Arts Center is a hive of inspiration, awe, and creativity. Credit its ever-growing buzz to its sweet offerings: four galleries —all free and open to the public for viewing — its elegant theater, dance studio, classrooms, culinary arts kitchen, and more community events than you can shake a stick at … or throw a dart. This happens to be one of the best opportunities to support the 50-year-old organization and, bonus: It's happening this week. As of press time, tickets are still available to the preview night of CTAC’s annual Dart for Art fundraiser, Wednesday, July 14, at LOCAL in downtown Bay Harbor. While enjoying heavy apps, wine, beer, and live music, art-loving attendees will have the chance to mix and mingle with the artists behind the 150 pieces of original artwork featured in the Dart for Art gallery — paintings, photography, jewelry, ceramics, sculpture, glasswork, and more. Can’t make it? You can catch “Beneath the Moon and Under the Sun,” the solo show of Dart featured artist, Heidi A. Marshall, and “Past is Present” a retrospective of featured artists from past Darts at CTAC in Petoskey until Sept. 4, as well as several other online and in-person exhibits, lectures, coffee talks, musical performances, and classes (art, ballet, cooking, and more) for kids and adults year-round. Start at www.crookedtree.org

Give Your Family the Royal Treatment
Castle Farms, Charlevoix
Only in Charlevoix can you hide away inside a Queen’s Tavern — think stone-wall-and-timber-topped tower — inside a 1918-built castle while eating lunch, sipping divine house-made wines, and overlooking fragrant gardens as your kids frolic about a fairy trail in the woods, ride a real train, slay a winged dragon sculpture, or gape at the state's largest outdoor model railroad (complete with Oscar Meyer Weiner dog car!). All and more is possible this summer at Castle Farms, an Up North fairy tale come to fantastic life. Castlefarms.com 

Cruise the Hobbit Houses
Earl Young Architecture Tours, Charlevoix
Mancelona-born and Charlevoix-raised Earl Young had a thing for the rocks and boulders left by the glaciers that long ago crept across the land that would become Michigan. He also had a thing for Frank Lloyd Wright’s philosophy: architecture should fit, not interrupt, its landscape. Nearly 10 years after dropping out of the University of Michigan’s architecture program (following just one year of study), Young began building and designing homes made almost entirely of stone in Charlevoix. Over the next 50-plus years, he would use native rocks and boulders, earthy green and white mortars, and wood to build 30 homes and businesses in his own unique style. Often referred to as “mushroom houses” or “gnome homes” because of their squat bearing, undulating roofs, curling eaves, and sprouted-from-the-earth appearance, many of Earl Young’s creations still stand in Charlevoix’s neighborhoods, and there are many ways to see them: from onboard an open-air GEM car (www.mushroomhousetours.com) or on a self-guided walking or private vehicle tour (chxhistory.com).

Stop and Smell the Lavender
Lavender Hill Farm, Boyne City
More than 10,000 plants are grown on Lavender Hill Farm, and you can roam their 33 acres — free — from 10am to 5pm every day. A $5 splurge will get you a guided tour aboard a golf cart, but set aside a few more dollars to spend elsewhere: in the gift shop, where more than 80 percent of the myriad lavender products available are made on the farm or in greater Emmet and Charlevoix counties; at one of the many live concerts hosted in the barn (a quintessential summertime outing, trust us); to join a workshop (wreath-making, beekeeping, floral design, tapestry weaving, lavender distillation, cocktail mixology, and more); or for a yoga or Zumba class in the fields. www.lavenderhillfarm.com 

Celebrate the Region’s First People
Native Americans Festival, St. Ignace
Long before quaint towns, boutiques, and bike trails drew modern generations to northern Michigan, the Anishinaabe people loved and lived on this region’s land. To truly grasp a sense of the region’s original occupants (well before Michigan was a state or territory), you’ll want to spend a day at the Museum of Ojibwa Culture’s annual Native Americans Festival. Drummers, dancers, workshops, and lots of sensory opportunities — think: smelling sacred medicines, feeling birch bark, porcupine quills, and other materials used for both function and artistry — are all part of the experience. One of the region’s premier heritage festivals, the Native American Festival will be held July 24 on the grounds of the Museum of Ojibwa Culture in St. Ignace, and festival activities are free to all visitors. www.saintignace.org

Taste the Terroir
Tour the Petoskey Wine Region
Most folks visiting the North tend to look west. And while we’d never dissuade anyone from a prolonged look at Lake Michigan’s shores, sunsets, and horizon lines, we’d be remiss not to remind anyone that finds themselves in the Little Traverse region and thirsty for another kind of liquid beauty to turn their peepers east, too. The 14 wineries that make up the Petoskey Wine Region are all located in and around the Little Traverse Bay area and grant visitors and locals ample reason for some of the prettiest road trips north of the 45th Parallel. Wines made from Marquette grapes are an essential sip in these parts, but there are dozens of winning varietals to sample as your tour, plus beers and ciders. That said, don’t hit all 14 in one day, and consider booking a shuttle so you can stay safe, sample several, and watch out the window as you wend along one of these gorgeous routes. Find links to each winery, four shuttle services, plus excellent spots to stay or eat at petoskey.wine.

Catch a Movie Inside or Out
Lyric Theater & Two Parks at Dark, Harbor Springs & Petoskey
For catching the latest Hollywood releases (and $.25 kids flicks and $2 classics!) in a state-of-the-art theater, you can’t do better than nestling your bum into the plush velvet seats of the vintage-styled Lyric Theater in Harbor Springs. Though not technically a historic movie theater — the triple-screened gem opened in 2016 — it claims some genuine vintage cred: Its home at 275 W. Main St. was originally a Packard automobile dealership, and it’s named after the city’s 1920s-era original, which dropped its curtain for the last time in 1981 just down the street. Can’t bear to be inside when the weather’s good? Check out this summer’s outdoor Movies in the Park at Zorn Park (see harborspringschamber.com for upcoming showings) or head south to Petoskey’s Pennsylvania Park, where every Friday until Aug. 12 brings a Movie in the Park at Dark (petoskeydowntown.com).   

Motor Back in Time
Northern Michigan Antique Flywheelers Show, Boyne Falls
Back in 1988, a couple dozen vintage-engine enthusiasts gathered in a little log cabin in Walloon Lake to make Larry Matthew’s dream of an engine show and his mission to “preserve the past for future generations” a reality. Since then, this homage to the days when life used to rumble by much more slowly has drawn in history buffs and, especially, gearheads whose motors rev at the sight and sound of small engines, large farm engines, chainsaws, buzz saws, cultivators, and other fun and interesting historical examples of vintage power and progress. Woodworkers, blacksmiths, basket-makers, threshers, branders, old school barbers and the Huddlestone one-room schoolhouse are on-site for live-action and exploratory experiences. Musical entertainment, a flea market, food, crafts, children’s activities (the saw dust penny pile and animal farm are always big hits), and much more are on the agenda. Bring the kids and Grandpa to catch the action July 22–25 in Boyne Falls; kids under 12 can enter free; adult entry is $7. www.walloonlakeflywheelers.com

Travel the Tunnel of Trees
M-119, Harbor Springs to Cross Village
If there’s one trek any traveler to the Little Traverse region must take, it’s the Tunnel of Trees Scenic Heritage Route. By bike if your quads are strong, by car if they’re not, this narrow uphill twist up M-119 from Harbor Springs routes you under a sun-dappled canopy so green this time of year, it seems you could slice the glowing scene with a knife. Peeps of Little Traverse Bay to the west, and public farms, antique shops, and storied historical spots like Devil’s Elbow — a steep ravine Indian tribes believed housed an evil spirit — keep the awe factor high with every turn of your wheels. 

Put Some Skin in the Game
Odawa Casino Resort Petoskey
Got a good feeling about Conor McGregor? Put your money where his mouth is. At the on-site sportsbook lounge at Petoskey’s Odawa Casino Resort, you can drop a straight bet, parlay, future, teaser, and more on your favorite (or underdog) MMA master, boxer, golfer, or racecar driver; football, baseball, soccer, or hockey team; and plenty more games and sports. Don’t know a money line from a point spread? Brush up on the basic terms and sport-by-sport explanations here (the How to Bet link delivers great examples, too), but don’t be shy to ask the lounge’s on-site experts; they’re far less intimidating than McGregor and won’t call you a fecking eejit … unless maybe you bet on the Lions making the Superbowl this year.

Pictured above, clockwise from top left: Lavender Hill Farm, Native American Festival, A vineyard on Petoskey's wine trail, Inside the Lyric Theater in Harbor Springs, Antique Flywheelers Show, Tunnel of Trees, Castle Farms