We usually go to a you pick farm close to Berrien Springs, Michigan. @bozz is probably familiar with this area. There is a ton of fruit farms close to Lake Michigan. Being close to the lake helps from the deep freezes that get down to 0 degrees Fahrenheit.
We got Concord Grapes and Niagra grapes totaling up to 49lb. It is $1 / pound at that farm which is really good in my mind and of course you can just be eating grapes and taste testing the whole time you are picking what you are going to take home.
$ZENA came along for the trip as well.
After getting the grapes we went to an apple orchard and got some apples. We didn't do you pick for that because we needed to get to the beach.
Lake Michigan is one of my favorite lakes. The visibility was probably about 20 feet and the water temperature felt like 75 degrees Fahrenheit. It was really nice and there as been really nice weather in the 80s.
Supposedly the Great Lakes hold 21% of the world's fresh water which is pretty insane to think about.
I usually end up swimming there and in the stone quarrys into October. Let's see if the weather stays warm enough to swim in November.
I've actually never spent too much time down in that part of the state. We usually go North from where I live in the middle latitudes. I do enjoy the Grand Rapids area, and I think my wife and I are going to try and hit the Tulip festival in Holland next Spring. It's pretty crazy how you can travel anywhere in Michigan and hit one of the great lakes within about an hour and a half. I don't think people from outside the area really understand just how massive the lakes are.
I agree. I feel like Michigan is underrated in several ways. Both from a place to survive some catastrophe because of the access to the lakes and how far you could travel on them. Then the land is very fruitful because the climate is somewhat changed by the lakes. Also the lakes that are disconnected from Lake Michigan that are super clear like Torch Lake and Crystal Lake and I'm sure many others.
I'm a clear water guy. After being in the Blue Waters I don't like getting in these mud holes. I see people wake boarding in Florida and places like that with gators around and I'm like, no thanks.
Torch Lake is mostly pee water I have heard from all the drunk boaters :). It sounds like you know the West side of the state quite well, have you explored the east side and Lake Superior area much? Also, you should definitely make a trip over to Beaver Island sometime if you have never done that. My sister in law is from there and it is an amazing place.
I drove clear to Marquette previously and went to Picture Rocks and swam in Lake Superior. I haven't done as much on the East side but I drove down the other side of Lake Huron on the Ontario side.
I do think there is a good opportunity in Marquette considering the real estate in Traverse City got so expensive.
It's all relative but after going to place like Thailand and doing a ton of research about various property values in European nations like Montenegro or in Sardinia it sort of messed with my head a lot.
Property in general is pretty crazy here. Probably not as bad as other areas of the country, but still out of control. Marquette is my favorite city in the UP.
Out of control is the truth in all these places. Everything is overvalued compared to the median incomes for all these areas pretty much all over the United States.
And then it really comes down to what someone is trying to do ultimately and when I look at a lot of these places it can be a prison sentence in some respects depending on how much someone has to allocate to these various properties.
When I look at some of the stuff I feel like there is value in stuff in Northern Michigan that had power ran to it but maybe they didn't build any structures or maybe just a barn. Then I think someone could pull in an RV and work on building something.
After that I can conjure up some sort of value out of the stuff in the Ozarks or down in Tulsa, Oklahoma or Little Rock, Arkansas.
Or some of these One horse towns that would be about 30 minutes outside of the Northern Suburbs of some place like Indianapolis.
Seems like places like Florida and Austin Texas are taking a heavy hit. Some of the stuff is down about 24% from the peak.
Everything would have to fall a lot to seem like a value in my opinion. That's just me and it is all relative and what someone is trying to do.
I think you would want to be someplace that gets a decent amount of sun. That way you can have solar if you want. We have thought about buying property to put our travel trailer on, but we like going to new places each year.
Also I have always been fascinated by the Great Lakes and how big some of the ships were and various ship wrecks.
The lakes really are like inland seas.
In 2023 I went up to Tobermory and that water was so nice and clear. I loved it!
They have glass bottom boats where you can view some of the shipwrecks in some places. Clive Cussler even wrote a book about a shipwreck in Lake Michigan. I don't remember the title though. When we crossed the bridge this past summer we saw a full on cruise ship off the coast of Mackinac Island.
I just looked into it a little more because I was pretty sure large ships could go between Superior, Huron, and Lake Michigan but wasn't sure if someone could go with a large ship clear from the Atlantic all the way into Lake Superior. This is what it said. Pretty amazing.
Upper Great Lakes vs. the full system
The Great Lakes Waterway is naturally divided into two sections by Niagara Falls. The upper lakesโSuperior, Michigan, Huron, and Erieโare navigable by the largest vessels on the lakes through the Soo Locks, but access to Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence Seaway is restricted.
Upper Great Lakes passage
Access: Large vessels can travel between Lake Superior, Michigan, Huron, and Erie by using the Soo Locks at Sault Ste. Marie.
Vessel size: These locks, particularly the Poe Lock, can accommodate vessels up to 1,200 feet long and 110 feet wide. This allows for the "thousand-footers" or "lakers," which are the largest ships on the lakes, to move freely between these four bodies of water.
You might have already researched into the largest ship to go down.
The largest shipwreck in the Great Lakes is the SS Edmund Fitzgerald, a 729-foot (222-meter) long freighter that sank on Lake Superior on November 10, 1975. The ship went down in a powerful storm, taking its entire 29-member crew with it. The mystery of its sinking, the loss of life, and its immense size have made it the most famous shipwreck on the Great Lakes, inspiring a famous song and ongoing historical research.
The Soo Locks are pretty cool. They are actually building a new larger one right now. I wrote a post about them a while ago when we made a visit there a few years ago. After 9/11 things got really restricted and you can't just walk up to the locks now like you used to be able to. They have military barricades and those bullards that shoot up from the ground now to keep vehicles with bombs from getting too close. If you head to the tip of Whitefish Pointe just north of Paradise Michigan, they have a shipwreck museum there. The give the Edmund Fitzgerald a pretty hefty amount of attention there. I also wrote a post about the museum a few years ago. I've been to both those areas probably dozens of times since I was a kid.
Also the premise that there are islands in the Great Lakes where people live always fascinates me as well. I have done quite a bit of research about real estate in Northern Michigan. I really like it up there but the UP is losing population. For me it might be more about visiting regularly unless things really get bad. Like Nuclear strikes and I have to go way North.
Sending you an Ecency vote! ๐๐โจ