I had the opportunity to take advantage of some extraordinary experiences and participate in some wonderful cultural exchange this past year. It was truly wonderful and I cherish these memories, and as this is the time of year to look back and plan ahead I want to share some of those memories and cultural experiences from around the world.
Three years ago, before I left for Thailand, I spent quite a bit of time researching and contemplating buying snowshoes. And then I reminded myself that I was moving to a nearly tropical and certainly snow-less country for just over two years and that would be a ridiculous purchase to make and that I should just wait. Well, now that I’m back in Michigan, and winter is supposedly approaching (though this El Niño affected weather system has me fooled), I thought this is the time to get those snowshoes.
Then I learned that there is a snowshoe making class at Ludington State Park offered several times in the late fall and early winter, that provides all of the materials and an instructor to make your very own traditional snowshoes and I jumped on that opportunity and decided to make a bit of a trip out of it.
“You’re in charge of the last of the Truffula Seeds.
And Truffula Trees are what everyone needs.
Plant a new Truffula. Treat it with care.
Give it clean water. And feed it fresh air.
Grow a forest. Protect it from axes that hack.
Then the Lorax
and all of his friends
may come back.”— “The Lorax” by Dr. Seuss
Nearly all of Michigan’s Lower Peninsula was logged in the 1880s and 1890s. When the “Panic of 1893” pausing the clear cutting for a brief window, a stand of trees, now protected by the Hartwick Pines State Park, to escaped unscathed. Hartwick Pines is one of about a dozen remaining locations that the state recognizes as “Remnants of Michigan’s Early Forests.”
Smart phones and apps have reached the point of ubiquity, even in many developing nations. As a result, many more people are traveling with their smartphones in tow and leaving larger laptops at home. The nature of smartphones and their software being bundled up in apps means that there are so many niche apps out there that can do some pretty specialized tasks, many with traveling specifically in mind. These are some of my favorite apps to use when I’m out on the road.
Went I went up to Isle Royale in September, I had dreams of seeing the aurora borealis lighting up the night sky. I had done my research and knew that they were most active around 10-11 p.m. and just before dawn in the morning. Around the equinoxes is also a time of high activity.
However, I failed to account for the fact that I would be hiking an average of 10 miles a day with a 30-pound pack and that with the lack of electric lights that I would be sound asleep by at those times. I think I may have seen them one early morning, having been woken up by bright flashes in the sky, but I’m not entirely sure.
I got a second chance earlier this week though, when some kind of solar storm kicked up the solar winds enough to knock the Northern Lights a bit further south than usual.
The joke about the seasons in Thailand is that there are three: hot, hotter and hottest. Truthfully, there are still three seasons, hot, rainy and cool, which leaves much to be desired by people who are accustomed to places that are truly four season wonders, such as Michigan.
While summers in the Midwest get the glory for the outdoor activities and the winters are hailed for the glorious snowscapes and spring brings out a multitude of flowers, nothing quite compares to the autumnal foliage colors.
Chocolate. Milk chocolate. White chocolate. Dark chocolate. I’m a sucker for chocolate. So when my friend from high school Alexandra Clark opened up her very own chocolate shop right here in Detroit, I was all about it. In fact, when I had a six hour layover in Detroit on my way to Washington, D.C. for the Blog It Home Top Bloggers Tour in 2014, I had my friend pick me up at the airport and my first taste of America was a bon bon from Alex’s shop, Bon Bon Bon.
And Wednesday, Bon Bon Bon set the world record for the World’s Longest Box of Chocolates, clocking in at 313 feet long. (Detroit’s area code is 313, in case you were wondering why that length.)
D Town. The Motor City. Hockeytown. Rock City. Motown.
Ah, that Motown sound. The label that created that sound, and in 1975 was producing the most 45s, was headquartered in Detroit, Mich., and has been a museum for the past 30 years. Visitors can learn about the start of the label, its rise to success, how they got those rich vocals and see the studio where it all happened, plus a bonus of Michael Jackson’s famous fedora and sparkly glove.
The sun shone down on my face from the peak of its daily ascent. I lay there, on some of the oldest rocks in the world with my feet dangling over the edge of the ridge, dozing in the mid-day heat and taking a break from my ritual of the day.
The ritual of meticulously placing my hiking pole in a spot that would support and balance me as I swung my foot up onto the rocky ridge in front of me, pushing myself forward on the stretch of trail that is routinely referred to as “the hardest trail in Michigan” only to catch myself as I picked my way down the rocks back into the boreal forest. The process would repeat itself less than a quarter mile later.
I lay there, along with the lichen, soaking up the late September sun and allowing it to turn the sweat on my brow into salt lines, giving me a faux aged look, until the call of a bull moose rang out from the wilderness below my feet spurred me up and onto my destination for the day, still a few hard miles on down the trail.
Earlier this week, I went to lunch with my grandma. I had wanted falafel and she knew the best place to get that would be East Dearborn, which is home to a large Arab-American population. On our way back, we passed the Arab American National Museum, which until that moment, I did not know existed, and I was intrigued. I resolved to research and visit the museum soon. Thursday ended up being the final day for an exhibit showcasing some of Khalid Albaih’s political cartoons and so I made it a point to go and check it out.