By Norm Wheeler Sun editor The Manitou Music Festival brings the enormous talent of folk & jazz performer Susan Werner to Glen Arbor for a concert at the Leelanau School on Sunday, July 31, at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are only $15, and patrons are encouraged to bring lawn chairs or blankets for what promises to […]

By Susan Pocklington Sun contributor Each August, amid the pastoral setting of meadows, maples, barns, farmhouses and corncribs, the Port Oneida Rural Historic District awakens from its peaceful slumber and comes alive with activity true to the period when it was a community of robust settlers. Once again visitors are invited to step back in […]

By Jed Jaworski Sun contributor “If only those weathered old timbers could talk,” people often remark as they explore the ancient forests, gracefully aging barns and bleached shipwreck timbers along the shores of Benzie and Leelanau counties. Herein is the tale of an aged boat sinking into the muddy headwaters of Betsie Bay, a fishing […]

By Codi Yeager Sun contributor When people begin trickling, and eventually pouring, into Glen Arbor in time for the lazy, summer months, they come for a number of reasons. Pristine beaches, excellent restaurants, good old, up north fun, and of course, shopping all attract these travelers to our usually quiet town. Visitors and locals, alike, […]

By Jo Anne S. Wilson Sun contributor In the winter of 2003, I fell in love. I was living in one of five stone cottages on an old restored lavender farm in the Provence region of southern France. Several weeks ago, I returned from residing for 10 months at that same farm, and I’m still […]

By Codi Yeager Sun contributor It’s girls’ day on the town. You choose the hairstyling studio as your destination, and the car fills with lazy summer excitement. From the eager looks upon everyone’s faces, it’s easy to tell that you are imagining how you will look in a few hours. Images of the perfect hairstyle […]

By Helen Westie Sun contributor Empire’s biggest event of the year, the Anchor Day festival, will be held, as always, during the third Saturday in July, which falls this year on July 16. The celebration commemorates the raising of the village’s famous anchor from the depths of Lake Michigan in July of 1977, and its […]

Press release One of the most-anticipated events of the summer, the Manitou Music Festival’s annual Dune Climb Concert, will be held Sunday, July 17, at 7 p.m. Free to the public, this popular event opens the Festival and is held at the base of the Sleeping Bear Dune Climb. Families are encouraged to bring chairs, […]

By Jacob Wheeler Sun editor Occasional summer resident and a lovely young woman, Sarah Armbrecht commented several years ago how thrilled she was to dig her hands into the womb of Mother Earth, and get paid for it, as part of her summer job at Wildflowers. What a wholesome way to make a living, she […]

By Jacob Wheeler Sun editor Ever so slowly the burro trudges along, down the Callejon de Los Muertos, named for the graveyard at the end of the street with the neon-lit crosses. The donkey is carrying big bags of sugar, and his owner raps on every single door with his walking stick to advertise the […]