![]() ![]() Food is homestyle, with offerings that include liver and onions, lake perch and burgers. A rotating cast of singers steps up to join the backup musicians. The roadside diner’s Monday Night Jazz Jam draws big crowds, so if you want a table arrive by 5:30 p.m. I always reserve Monday night for a trip to the What Not Inn, also located near Fennville. Ciderfest, a salute to the fall drink of choice, takes place in mid-September and features live music and, of course, cider, which has been pressed here since 1968. If you’d rather skip the fruit picking and go directly to pie-eating, stop by neighboring Crane’s Pie Pantry Restaurant & Winery. In October, pick up a pumpkin grown on site. ![]() Afterward, dive into the 20-acre corn maze, where visitors get lost in corn as tall as an elephant. Pop into the orchards to pick your own for $1.45 a pound. Summer means sweet cherries and peaches, but after Labor Day, the focus turns to apples. Fennvilleįall’s a great time to visit Crane Orchards U-Pick and Corn Maze. In fall, Douglas hosts a small Oktoberfest, complete with German music, Alpenhorns, a parade, keg tapping and a keg toss. I ordered a root beer float and a chili cheese dog and ate them at a wooden picnic table in the shadow of the towering barrel. Restoration began in 2011 and the stand reopened in 2016. The owner planned to demolish it, but that’s when the Saugatuck-Douglas Historical Society stepped in. It stood vacant for 25 years, its wooden staves rotting and weeds growing at its feet. The barrel-shaped root beer and hot dog stand opened in 1952 and closed in the mid-1970s. On your way home from the beach, detour back to the 1950s with a stop at the Root Beer Barrel. The Root Beer Barrel in Douglas, Michigan, serves hotdogs and root beer. It’s also got plenty of charming restaurants and boutiques. Saugatuck has a thriving LGBTQ scene, too. Visitors can explore galleries, take an art class at Ox-Bow School of Art, an affiliate of the Art Institute of Chicago, or catch a live production at the Saugatuck Center for the Arts. Read more: Come for the goats, stay for the Swedish food at Al Johnson’s Saugatuckĭrive 25 minutes north from South Haven to the artists’ conclave of Saugatuck, the art mecca of Southwestern Michigan. And don’t miss my quirky secret indulgence – D&L Sales, a warehouse on the outskirts of town that sells party supplies, including a massive quantity of napkins for 50 cents a pack. Phoenix Street and Broadway are lined with cute boutiques like Renaissance & Papyrus, and Crescent Moon, where you can buy clothing, stationery and knickknacks. Besides exhibits about the maritime history of the Great Lakes, visitors can take a ride on the tall ship Friends Goodwill or the river launch Lindy Lou. The city is home to the Michigan Maritime Museum, which recently completed an expansion. The Kal-Haven Trail in Southwestern Michigan connects South Haven and Kalamazoo. (No lifeguards.) My morning routine includes a stroll to the red lighthouse at the end of the pier. ![]() The beach is the main attraction, and both North Beach and South Beach (the river splices them) feature wide, soft expanses of sand, a marked swimming area and lots of seagulls. Read more: Discover the draws of Door County, Wisconsin South Haven hosts the National Blueberry Festival each August and bustles with tourists from Memorial Day through Labor Day. Then, in 2001, my mom – a single librarian who had been living in Chicago –- rebuilt it and moved in. My mom and her sisters inherited the place, atop a bluff overlooking the Black River as it flows into Lake Michigan. They planned to fix up the crumbling old structure, but my grandma got sick and that never happened. My grandparents bought an old house in the beach town of South Haven in 1970 for $7,000. South Haven, my home base in Southwestern Michigan This year I got to share my summer stomping grounds with a friend from Texas, who now understands why I get giddy at the mere mention of the Mitten State.Īnd while summer means swimming, sipping gin and tonics on Adirondack chairs, and grilling on the deck, autumn brings its own pleasures, like cider and doughnuts, fall foliage and pumpkin patches. ![]() The artsy community of Saugatuck is just up the road, and the even smaller hamlets of Douglass and Fennville have lots to offer, too. In the last 30 years, hardly a summer of my life has passed without a week spent in Southwestern Michigan.įrom a home base in the small town of South Haven, where my mom lived for 20 years, I can dangle my toes in a lake that looks like an unsalted ocean or bike for miles on the Kal-Haven Trail, which goes all the way to Kalamazoo. The sun sets over the lighthouse in South Haven, along the coast in Southwestern Michigan. ![]()
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