Bob Sutherland has had quite the year. On March 6, the Cherry Republic CEO hiked from Pyramid Point across frozen Lake Michigan to North Manitou Island (16 miles round trip). This month, Sutherland’s company Cherry Republic—Glen Arbor’s largest employer and a poster child of the Northern Michigan tourism industry—celebrates its 25th anniversary with a party in Glen Arbor on July 25-26.
By day, it’s Northwoods Hardware. By night—well, Thursday night—it’s Car Central. Every Thursday night from July 10 until the end of August, the parking lot at 6053 S. Glen Lake Road/M-22 becomes a convocation of motorheads. It’s Cruise Night in Glen Arbor.
This summer, Sleeping Bear Surf & Kayak—the originators of Northern Michigan’s surf culture—celebrates a decade of being in business. Located in Empire, this family owned and operated shop is the region’s go-to for everything freshwater activity-related.
Glen Arbor’s Old School Gallery is again bursting to life with art. Over the next few weeks, numerous different artists will showcase their craft within the much loved and lauded Glen Arbor space.
A wander through the doors of Ann Derrick’s Glen Arbor Botanicals gallery can produce exquisite results, but not many suspect that a purchase within those doors can change a life. Derrick, who together with husband Brendan Burrows, owns the Good Harbor Grill and the Pine Cone ice cream shop west of Glen Arbor’s main intersection, spend their winters sailing the Caribbean. It is there that they discovered an island and its people, along with a story and a mission that struck their core.
The Foothills Café and Motel in Burdickville have been under “new” ownership for five years. Thus far, we’ve made only minimal changes to both the café and motel, in order to ease into the community and to honor 50 years of tradition. But this year, our team introduced some new twists on age-old ideas, and launched the Foothills “Pay It Forward” project.
Cedar’s Polka Fest isn’t the only Polish attraction in these woods. The Duneswood Resort along M-109, and right on the popular new leg of the Sleeping Hear Heritage Trail, is a hit with Poles from Detroit and Chicago, and even Warsaw and Krakow. Owner Debbie Rettke began displaying a Polish flag along M-109 last summer because she had employees from the central European nation. Lo and behold, people began pulling off the road to ask her (she recalled in a pronounced Polish accent), “What do you have my flag here for?”
The scenic putt-putt golf course and play area on Oak Street in Glen Arbor is open once again. Gone is The River at Crystal Bend, and taking its place after a quiet 2013 is Dale’s Glen Arbor. The venue is named after the late Dale Sutherland, a principle at Glen Lake School, pillar of the community, husband of Mary, and father of Bob (Cherry Republic), Matt (Foreword Reviews magazine, The Box in Traverse City), Tim (local tennis guru), Mike (now The River Traverse City) and Paul (Financial & Investment Management Group). Dale’s, which is now owned by Paul, will specialize in putt-putt golf, Crystal River tube rentals and Moomers ice cream.
Nearly 4,000 miles and five time zones, different cultures and histories separate England from Northern Michigan. But Julie Mecoli found a way to connect them. Mecoli’s project, “Empire Sunset”, involves showing a live webcam image of the view over Lake Michigan from Empire on screens at two venues in England. The five-hour time difference means that sunsets in Empire happen after 2 a.m., Greenwich Mean Time. The project was part of the Whitstable Biennale (which ended this spring) but continued through June as part of an exhibition in the Kent School of Architecture at the University of Kent, Canterbury.
Folks around Leelanau County frequently ask what Mimi Wheeler has been up to since she sold Grocer’s Daughter Chocolate last spring to food conscious entrepreneurs Jody Dotson and Dc Hayden. The answer—she launched MimisChocolateBlog.com, where she writes about chocolate recipes, traveling the world (Mimi spent much of the recent grueling winter in Guatemala and Ecuador) and introducing her fine food to new friends, and grandkids.