Recent Blog Posts

This past Monday, my family and I went to The Young Americans’ dinner theater for the twelfth year in a row.  For as long as I can remember, I have gone to see the show at Boyne Highlands with my sisters, parents, grandparents, aunt and uncle, and sometimes cousins from out of state. It has alw...
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Categories:  Travel, Petoskey

  [caption id="attachment_5197" align="alignright" width="300"] Example of a REAL polished Petoskey Stone[/caption] There’s a certain feeling of pride that accompanies being able to claim your city lent its name to your State Stone.  It means that your home is also home to a unique a...
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Categories:  Shopping, Petoskey

This week, I've felt like more of a single child than I have in quite a long time.  Of course, I was away from my family at college, but being at home with only my parents is not something I’m used to for any length of time.  Now, my sisters (and a couple hundred other band kids) are only out ...
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Categories:  Petoskey

After last Saturday’s Art in the Park – a wonderful, annual event in which artists of all types gather in Pennsylvania Park to showcase and sell their works – slightly disrupted downtown driving, this weekend’s 49th annual Sidewalk Sales will prevent any vehicular traveling through town. ...
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Categories:  Shopping

Petoskey in 30 minutes or less, is that possible? Yesterday, my college friend was passing through Petoskey with his family and they stopped by to say hi on their way back to Texas.  He asked me what they absolutely had to do in the thirty minutes they had in town.  As he was already in Grandpa...
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Categories:  Travel

Bye-Bye Becky you will be missed!! Back in 2006, Becky Christensen was hired to work at Grandpa Shorter’s.  Her responsibilities were no different from any other employee’s – clean, restock, run a register, and, most importantly, help the customers.  Now, eight years later, she...
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Categories:  Shopping

Weddings in northern Michigan require a local flare, and what better way than with Petoskey Stone wedding favors? Wedding favors play a very import role in a wedding. They are given to the guests present at your wedding and reception as a keepsake and a "Thank You" for sharing with you your spe...
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Categories:  Shopping

Last week, my family had our first bonfire together.  We have a nice above-ground kind of fire pit on our deck, so on nice nights we’ll sometimes bring speakers out and sit around the campfire, listening to music, telling stories, and enjoying s’mores.  We can agree on the songs w...
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Categories:  Recipes

During my last week in Kalamazoo this spring, I went in and talked to one of my professors during his office hours.  He had been encouraging us to go in and chat with him about the class, our work, and life in general.  It was very casual and, as I had procrastinated and waited until ...
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Categories:  Travel

Last July, my six-and-seven-year-old cousins came to visit us here in Petoskey.  As a way to keep them busy while most of the adults walked around and shopped downtown, we took them Waldo Hunting.  We spent most of our wait before dinner going from store to store in search of the little Waldo figu...
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Categories:  Shopping, Travel