Tours / Activities

Monday:

Registration and Check-In - Check-in to the Comfort Inn, our host hotel, begins at 4 pm.  Tour Registration will be in the Hospitality Suite located TBD.    

Opening Banquet - Evergreen Resort-  Ideally situated on 327 acres of land just outside of Cadillac, Michigan. The Passage North Fine Dining Room features regional cuisine re-imagined with a cultural infusion from locations throughout Michigan. Food is regionally sourced to create fresh, generously portioned, globally influenced creations you are sure to enjoy. Contemporary American favorites are paired with thoughtfully considered wine and craft beer selections, invoking flavors from around our great state.

Tuesday:

Archangel Ancient Tree Archive -  The mission of Archangel Ancient Tree Archive is to 1) Propagate the world’s most important old growth trees before they are gone. 2) Archive the genetics of ancient trees in living libraries around the world for the future and 3) Reforest the Earth with the offspring of these trees to provide the myriad of beneficial ecosystem services essential for all life forms to thrive. Old-Growth trees are excellent at sequestering carbon dioxide, releasing oxygen, and providing beneficial aerosols and medicines. They are essentially a global warming solution. 

Cotton Creek Farms - Cotton Creek Farms is a working Huacaya alpaca farm located in Thompsonville, MI.  that offers alpaca breedings, sales, boarding, and mentoring. They have an onsite farm store and offer guided alpaca tours. The alpaca herd includes a mix of AOA registered 4-H, pet, hobby, and show-quality alpacas. You can browse the alpacas for sale or herdsires available for breeding right online. 

Hale Auto Museum - Hale Auto Museum in Frankfort, Michigan is a unique, family-owned museum located just steps away from Lake Michigan. It is home to dozens of cars, trucks, and other vehicles from the 20th century and beyond. The museum has a large collection of classic and modern cars from iconic manufacturers such as Ford, Chevrolet, and Lincoln. Other vehicles on display include fire trucks, ambulances, military vehicles, and vintage motorcycles.

Sleeping Bear Dunes  - Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore is located on Lake Michigan near Empire, Michigan. The park covers a 35-mile-long stretch of Lake Michigan’s eastern coastline, as well as North and South Manitou islands. The park is named after an Ojibwe legend of the sleeping bear. According to the legend, an enormous forest fire on the western shore of Lake Michigan drove a mother bear and her two cubs into the lake for shelter, determined to reach the opposite shore. After many miles of swimming, the two cubs lagged behind. When the mother bear reached the shore, she waited on the top of a high bluff. The exhausted cubs drowned in the lake, but the mother bear stayed and waited in hopes that her cubs would finally appear. Impressed by her determination and faith, the Great Spirit created two islands (North and South Manitou) to commemorate the cubs and transformed the sleeping mother bear into a huge sand dune overlooking Lake Michigan

Jomo's Ice Cream - Jomo's Ice Cream Shop has some of the best ice cream and hot food in all of Beulah and Honor. It's definitely worth the stop! 

Wednesday:

Nickels' Auto Woodworking - Nickels is a nationally renowned craftsmen of car bodies for late 1920s to early ’50s woody wagons, having restored and remade more than 100 of them since 1972.

Jordon River National Fish Hatchery - Jordan River National Fish Hatchery was founded in 1965. The hatchery currently raises cisco, lake trout and rainbow trout that total 3 million fish per year for conservation efforts in and around the Great Lakes.  Visitors can see fish from the egg stage to adult. During warm weather months the hatchery is a great place to spend a few hours observing millions of fingerling trout

The Music House - The Museum’s unique collection of instruments provides guests with a walk through the history, artistry and engineering of automated music.  The collection spans from the late 18th century to 1950, going from simple music boxes to early recorded sound and radio. The Music House, located just north of Traverse City, showcases the beauty of the craftsmanship, the history of the era and the complexity of the engineering of the collection as well as allowing guests to hear many of the rare instruments on display actually play.

Mad Swirlz Ice Cream & Eats- Swirling up sweet treats just how you like. 

Thursday:

Cone- Enjoy a tour of Cone-Drive manufacturing facility.  Cone designs and manufactures worm gears, worm gearboxes, slew bearings, slew drives and harmonic gearing. With a history of gearbox manufacturing that spans nearly 100 years, Cone is world leader in precision motion control technology. 

Hagerty Insurance Private Car Collection (tentative) - Informally referred to as The Hagerty Garage, this eclectic group of vehicles is comprised of about 25 autos plus a handful of antique motorcycles, some boats and a few outboard motors for a little variety. This private collection is the property of Hagerty Insurance, the largest classic car insurer in the world. 

Walt & Susan's "Old Barn" Antiques - Visit this 1910 old barn - three floors - packed full with a wide variety of true antiques ca 1840 - 1940. Notice the beautiful wide plank floors and the old cash register still in use! A one family antique business for 58 wonderful years. Be sure to investigate "Walt's Garage" nextdoor, with gas pumps, license plates, vintage signs and slot machines - among other things- also for sale.

Mission Point Peninsula Lighthouse - Mission Point Lighthouse has been a Traverse City and Old Mission Peninsula icon for decades. Located at the north end of a picturesque drive along M-37 through cherry orchards and vineyards, Mission Point Lighthouse stands as a classic piece of Michigan history. While it no longer guides mariners through West Grand Traverse Bay as it did from September 10, 1870 until it was decommissioned in 1933, Mission Point Lighthouse now offers visitors a peek into what life was like around the turn of the century for lighthouse keepers and for others who lived and worked in the area at the time. 

Hessler Log Cabin -  The historic Hessler Log Cabin, which was originally built between 1854 and 1856 by pioneers Joseph and Mary Hessler. As so many of the early pioneers in America, the Hesslers were essentially squatters, and had to obtain citizenship before officially owning the land they built on. They did so on March 18, 1859. On June 11 of that same year, the Hesslers received a land warrant, the next step in the process of land ownership. The final step was to apply for a US Patent Deed, which he did, and which was signed August 15, 1861 by President Abraham Lincoln. The couple lived in their home for about ten years, and later it was used by others as both a small barn and during the 1950’s and 1960’s, living quarters for cherry pickers. Eventually, the house was declared historic and moved to Lighthouse Park for visitors to learn from and appreciate.

Moomers -Moomers milk is processed right on the farm in their creamery in Traverse City, Michigan.  They make over 150 flavors of premium ice cream, and scoop 20+ flavors in store daily.  Enjoy a Moomers ice cream while overlooking the Plummer family dairy farm. 

Friday:

Dutchman Tree Farms  - Dutchman Tree Farms is a Christmas tree farm located in beautiful Northern Michigan. Family-owned and operated by Joel and Gale Hoekwater and Chris and Sarah Maciborski. Joel and Sarah’s Grandpa John Vanderweide planted the first tree, a scotch pine, on the farm in 1960. Now this growing farm and family has its 5th generation working on the farm, growing the Christmas spirit with every tree.

Closing Luncheon - Evergreen Resort-  Ideally situated on 327 acres of land just outside of Cadillac, Michigan. The Passage North Fine Dining Room features regional cuisine re-imagined with a cultural infusion from locations throughout Michigan. Food is regionally sourced to create fresh, generously portioned, globally influenced creations you are sure to enjoy. Contemporary American favorites are paired with thoughtfully considered wine and craft beer selections, invoking flavors from around our great state.

Total Tour Mileage = Approximately 500 miles over 5 days

Other Activities to Consider: