Pathways to Sleeping Bear and the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore has released a dazzling new video that extolls the virtues of the Sleeping Bear Heritage Trail, the 27-mile multi-use trail that will parallel M-22 and M-109 in and near the National Park. Construction will begin on the Heritage Trail late this summer.

“Sweet Summer,” a painting exhibition of cupcakes, donuts, pie slices and other food for the senses, opens Friday, May 27, at the Center Gallery at Lake Street Studios, 6023 S. Lake St., in Glen Arbor. Eastport artist Margie Guyot returns to Center Gallery with new oil paintings that celebrate the food she loves as well as the local landscapes that inspire her.

On May 20 and 21, join the Village of Empire for its eighth annual Asparagus Festival in downtown Empire. Help celebrate the arrival of this welcome spring bounty by penning a tribute and submitting it in the 2011 Empire Asparagus Festival Poetry Contest.

The Homestead resort north of Glen Arbor is opening a new beauty salon this summer, and your help is sought in giving it a name. Submit salon names to The Homestead to win prizes such as a hair style, manicure, pedicure, lunch at Cavanaugh’s Deli, dinner at Nonna’s or memberships at the resort’s New Leaf Health & Fitness Center.

Author Thomas Lynch will read from his latest book Apparition and Late Fictions, on Wednesday, May 18th at 7 p.m., at the Glen Lake Community Library in Empire. This collection of short stories was selected as a 2011 Michigan Notable Book by the Library of Michigan.

Donald Jay Weeks, 51, of Elk Rapids, died May 2, 2011, at Munson Medical Center in Traverse City after a short illness. 
Born June 11, 1959 in Lansing, he was a graduate of Glen Lake Community Schools in Leelanau County and Michigan State University.

This weekend, May 6-7, the Flow for Water Coalition will team up with the Great Lakes Water Studies Institute, Northern Michigan College and Michigan Citizens for Water Conservation to present the 2011 Conference “Saving the Great Lakes Forever”.

The national wedding magazine, The Knot, has named The Homestead resort north of Glen Arbor as the 2011 Best of Weddings pick among wedding venues nationwide. The Homestead, as well as other northwest-lower Michigan wedding destinations including the Inn at Bay Harbor in Petoskey, Crystal Mountain Resort in Thompsonville and Mission Point Resort and the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island were featured in a story today in the Grand Rapids Press.

With a storefront right on M-22 in downtown Glen Arbor, owners of Crystal River Outfitters, Matt & Katy Wiesen are opening “M-22 at Crystal River Outfitters”. This store will feature the full line of M-22 apparel and accessories, plus a wine-tasting bar.

Every Saturday afternoon for the “Saturdays at the Lakeshore” programs at 1 p.m., a Park Ranger awaits you at the Visitor Center in Empire to introduce a topic and then lead a car caravan a short distance to where the walk will begin. Each week features a different topic and location. The programs last 1 to 1½ hours and are no longer than 1½ miles.