Love letter to Michigan: 27 quirky ideas to express your love of the Mitten

I love Michigan. I love living here, I love raising my kids here, I love that I get to host the Outdoor Book Club here and I love vacationing here. Michigan offers an amazing range of cultural, natural and environmental treasures: long winding roads through orchards and glacier-carved mountains, an Upper Peninsula where the woods look the same as when Hemingway fished there, and rivers teeming with fish and spirit. Michigan is essentially an outdoor adventurer's paradise.

But the people are pretty great too. I graduated from high school in Troy, but now make my home on the west side of the state in Grand Rapids, and have felt at home in both places. The combination of blue-collar honesty plus the focused creativity and fostering of entrepreneurship makes Michigan one of the best places on earth. Seriously.

Still need convincing that Michigan has cornered the market when it comes to awesome? Here's a list of places and activities you can only do in Michigan, mostly in the summer and fall, that proves it:

1. Go on a Crystal River rafting trip. You and he whole family can splash through its gentle currents and explore its winding curves.
2. Drive a dune buggy or ATV through the Silver Lake sand dunes.
3. Beaver Island is the largest island in Michigan and can only be reached by plane or ferry. Fun fact: it's often called the Emerald Isle, a nod to the island's original Irish population.
4. Mackinac Island — The ultimate "Up North" Michigan tourism location. Go beyond fudge and bicycles and spend some time getting to know the fort and back side of the island.
5. Get your zen on  this summer with yoga on Belle Isle.
6. Fall down the dune climb in Sleeping Bear Dunes. Try not to face plant, but realize we all do it (at least if we've really put our hearts into it).
7. Hunt for Petoskey stones.
8. Look for agates near Lake Superior (ignore the fact that this link on how to find agates is from a Minnesota paper — everyone knows Michigan has the best agates).
9. Hike the Porkies.
10. Hear wolves on Isle Royale, Michigan's only national park.
11. Tour a copper mine (pick axe optional).
12. Ooo and ahhh at the musical fountain in Grand Haven — Vegas has nothing on this lakeshore treasure.
13. Bike the orchards along the Macomb Orchard Trail.
14. See a concert at Interlochen.
15. Stand halfway between the equator and the North Pole.
16. Wine trails! 
17. Zip line! Enjoy the amazing views of Lake Charlevoix from six tree-top platforms.
18. Go on a culinary tour of Michigan's amazing farm-to-table food.
19. Hang out with your dog at the Grand Haven Dog Beach.
20. Meet a cow on a Country Dairy tour.
21. Plan a college reunion float trip!
22. Try your hand at a flight simulator at the AirZoo.
23. Go back in time at Fort Mackinac.
24. Dive shipwrecks in the great lakes.
25. Go to race car driving school.
26. Take amazing photographs on a guided Great Lakes photo tour.
27. Book an eco-tour to experience the biologically unique habitats, wildlife and natural beauty in the UP.

What about you? Share how you love the state you're in with your favorite Michigan outdoors activities in the comments below.

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