It doesn't take long to fall for the small town charm and fabled Midwest friendliness of Traverse City and the surrounding areas. The local paper's cover story is about a stray cat who found his way back home after 32 miles of prowling.

Naturally, cherry-themed services are offered Grand Traverse Resort & Spa 10,000 square foot spa. I try the relaxing cherry essence massage and buy a cherry body scrub to take home. After cracking the lid to smell it, I am hungry (again). Fortunately, the health benefits of cherries outweigh the calories.

The resort, owned by Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians, is also the home of the Native American Cup, being held on one of its three immaculate courses. It sprawls over 900 acres of woodlands, punctuated by the lakes and rivers on the shores of Lake Michigan (for a bird's eye view, check into the tower). Trillium, the resort's top restaurant has received a Wine Spectator Award of Excellence. I am interested in the local wineries and sample a Black Star Farms merlot, perfect with cherry-studded bread. The local raclette cheese fondue is fine, as are the organic field greens with dried cherries and white balsamic vinegar and tuna steak cranberry with three potato hash. Through the floor to ceiling windows, the sunsets striated clouds tint mauve, tangerine, violet, pomegranate before fading into an indigo night.

The next day, we head to Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore to make the meandering drive through the forest. Massive dunes from the Ice Age carved out the Great Lakes, creating the area's unique topography. A melancholic fable says that a mother bear and two cubs were driven into Lake Michigan by a forest fire. The cubs swam and swam but the tired, lagging far behind while their mother reached the shore and climbed to top of bluff to wait for her offspring; they drowned. Today, the sleeping bear is a solitary dune and the cubs are the Manitou Islands.

Back in town, we visit the Museum House Museum, which features rare player pianos, pipe organs and photographs, and the ornately carved amaryllis, the second largest dance hall organ in the world, 18 feet high and 30 feet wide. I've heard that Michigan sits on the 45th parallel, the same as Alsace, so the climate is perfect for growing grapes. We visit Black Star Farms Winery (there's an entire wine route on the Leelanau Peninsula); the melon and fig-scented pinot gris is noteworthy. I learn that the Leelanau Cheese Company, which shares the winery grounds, received a gold medal for their aged raclette at the World Cheese Awards in London. Local ingredients, local artistry, is how one local dubs the culinary bounty.

I decide to putter in the tidy downtown in the afternoon. I visit Folgarelli's, an Italian and imported foods market with slanted hardwood floors, a great selection of local wines sandwiches with names like the Ugly Turkey and Chimp Boy Gravel Pants. I while away some time at Horizon Books, one of the country's largest independent bookstores, with two floors of books and a basement full of remainders. Cherries and books -- this town is heaven.

The chef at the resort has agreed to take me to Trattoria Stella for a meal. Formerly an asylum, the blonde brick has been buffed to a monochromatic chic-ness and the food is amazing: white pizza with ricotta, mozzarella and Parmesan cheese, finished with roasted garlic and chervil oil and cavatappi pasta tossed with baby spinach, Parmesan and garlic cream sauce, topped with a grilled chicken breast. As I ponder dessert, I wonder who's crazy now?

If You Go: The lower peninsula of Michigan is an ideal summer getaway from the sweltering South, thanks to its mild temperatures and the Cherry Festival. Fall is spectacular. If you want to try ice fishing, consider winter.

A former Navy brat who traveled and lived abroad extensively, Suzanne Wright is a fulltime, freelance writer based in Atlanta. She has written numerous travel, food and decor features for numerous international, national and regional publications. Her articles have appeared in Elite Traveler, Wine & Spirits, Veranda, Atlanta Magazine, The Tennessean, Atlanta Homes & Lifestyles, Piedmont Review, Charlotte Place, Where, On Magazine and others. A suitcase is always packed and her passport always up to date.

© 2005

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