"If you seek a pleasant peninsula, look around you!" If you prefer latin: Si Quaeris Peninsulam Amoenam Circumspice. This is Michigan's state motto, and it is so very true. Up here in the pinky, we are more spoiled than most. The Lake Michigan shoreline and surrounding lakes and rivers are amazing. It takes my breath away to live in such a beautiful place. Sunrise, sunsets, storms and blues skies, there is no place I would rather call my home. Even in the winter.
One of the fun parts about living in the lower peninsula is the ease of having a map at hand. That is, your hand is your map. People say, I live here, and point to the spot on their hand. That is why I called this blog Living in the Pinky, That is where I live. Right there!
The shape of Michigan and the surrounding great lakes is found just about everywhere!
I love the bumper stickers, t-shirts, and jewelry with Michigan on it. Michigan Roots, Michigan Rocks, the Great Lakes, Michigan, unsalted. Petoskey Stones with either Leland Blue lakes or agate.
 |
| Elizabeth Sheets special mitten cookies she does for Christmas |
 |
| #puremichigan #michiganchamberofcommerce©2016 Gregg Palazzolo — |
 |
| http://quotesgram.com/great-lakes-no-salt-quotes/ |
I love the bumper stickers, t-shirts, and jewelry with Michigan on it. Michigan Roots, Michigan Rocks, the Great Lakes, Michigan, unsalted. Petoskey Stones with either Leland Blue lakes or agate.
The summer I worked at the Sleeping Bear National Lakeshore, we did some work at the Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive cleaning out the picnic area where there were rose gardens and ponds the shape of the Great Lakes. This was a beautiful spot. It is in need of rescuing and the link will lead you to a group who is working on doing just that. Here is a little description from their site.
About the Great Lakes Picnic Garden
The GLPG was the first entrance station to Stocking's scenic
road up and over the dunes. The national park was created in 1970, the road
became part of the park in 1977 and in 1984 the park service moved the entrance
to the road and built the observation platforms. The name was later changed to
Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive in honor of Stocking.
In addition to purchasing admission to the drive at the
entrance station in the GLPA, visitors could get out of their cars and eat
their picnic lunch, find some shade to cool off in, fill their water jugs, or
stretch their legs while walking around flowing pools of water that accurately
represented all five Great Lakes. The water would flow down from Lake Superior
via a miniature St. Mary's River into Lakes Huron and Michigan. There even was
a foot bridge connecting "Detroit" to Windsor."
Blacktop paths led up, into, and around the
"mitten" we know as Michigan, all the while surrounded by hundreds of
different colored rose bushes. There was birch trees planted at strategic
locations representing major Michigan cities. Visitors enjoyed the aroma and
the beauty of all the roses while getting a mini-geography lesson! It was
really a marvelously constructed and maintained American roadside attraction.
This park is worth saving.
 |
| Photo by Sarah Edwards |
The charm and beauty of Michigan needs saving as well: Our
towns struggle with changes in business and economy. The focus on tourism, a
main income source in my area as well as others, drives division between the
locals and our visitors. A balance is needed and new ideas to help grow instead
of stagnate. It is worth working hard to save our beautiful state.
There is no place like Michigan.
