Wooded Island: White City Respite

Aug 31, 2016 | Great Lake Islands Escapes

On the Monday morning three days after Japan’s March 11, 2011 triple disaster of the 9.0 earthquake and resulting tsunami, topping 45-feet, which, in turn, disabled the Fukushima nuclear plant, my friend Judy’s mom, Delores Coomes, died. The following weekend, we made...

As Good and Saucy as a Coney

Aug 25, 2016 | Great Lake Islands Escapes

This blog posting could be for John Considine, who I met in 2008 or 2012 while working a phone bank for a national presidential campaign. Who suggested I blog about something else besides Great Lakes Basin islands. Let people know what’s going on in my life,...

My New “Mainland” Island Companion

Aug 16, 2016 | Great Lake Islands Escapes

“Travels with Books” is this year’s festival theme for the 14th Annual Kerrytown BookFest, taking place Sunday, September 11 at the Ann Arbor Farmer’s Market. (Check out the very cool festival poster and how it was created by four collaborators...

You Never Know Who You Might Meet

Aug 9, 2016 | Great Lake Islands Escapes

Yes, that is a small plane in the featured photo above. And, yes, that is Tom Daldin, host of the PBS show “Under the Radar Michigan” (UTR). We’ve just landed on Beaver Island.  What’s the story? My return to Beaver Island three weeks ago...

A Bois Blanc Welcome, “Bob-Lo Style”

Aug 1, 2016 | Great Lake Islands Escapes

For those of you who grew up in the Detroit area, as I did, the name “Bob-Lo” may conjure up annual trips to the Bob-Lo Amusement Park, located on Bois Blanc Island, Ontario in the Detroit River  Other than a few ruins, that version of that...

Dispatch from the Pelee Island Winery Pavilion

Jul 19, 2016 | Great Lake Islands Escapes

The sun is shining, the grapes are growing, the wine is good. This is where you want to be with friends on a lazy summer afternoon as it stretches into a breezy evening. And we were there. So were the musicians, Karen Morand and Allison Brown, performing as a duo up...