The Escape Artist

02/06/12

Where to Go This Weekend: Detroit, Michigan

Detroit has taken its share of hits over the years, but the metropolis only a bridge away from the Canadian border is finding creative ways to lure visitors, including a citywide fest this weekend that started as part of Super Bowl festivities seven years ago: The Motown Winter Blast (February 10-12) is expected to draw as many as 75,000 people to the event...

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01/30/12

What to Do This Weekend: Explore Leelanau Peninsula’s Wine Trail

Despite what the greeting card industry would have you believe, there’s no reason to wait for Valentine’s Day to indulge in a weekend of passion. This weekend (February 3 through 5), the Leelanau Peninsula in Northern Michigan hosts the Taste the Passion wine tour, at annual showcase for local vintages from the same parallel as the renowned wine growing regions of France’s Rhone Valley and Italy’s Piedmont region...

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01/23/12

What to Do This Weekend: Tackle Super Bowl in Indianapolis

Sick of hosting Super Bowl parties? Be a guest at one thrown by the city of Indianapolis. Super Bowl Village is a ten-day ‘round the clock tailgate party that starts this year on Friday, January 27 and runs through game day...

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01/16/12

Where to Go This Weekend: Houghton Lake, Michigan

Wussed out on the Polar Bear Club’s annual New Year’s Day plunge into Lake Michigan? You can still prove your cold-water mettle this weekend, although you’ve got to go north to do so. Head for Michigan’s Lake Houghton, and you’ll find yourself in the chilly epicenter of one of the Midwest’s largest winter festivals...

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01/10/12

What to Do This Weekend: Hunt for Antiques in Indiana and Ohio

More than 900 antiques dealers populate the swath along Route 40, which traverses Richmond, Indiana and continues into western Ohio. Thankfully, the Old National Road State Welcome Center has broken things down into a pair of easily navigable antiques trails...

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01/03/12

What to Do This Weekend: Ski with Rats in Jones, Michigan

No, not the one that involves pantyhose and sensible pumps. This one is all about skiing in a non-competitive, just-for-fun race in which you try to out ski rats—or rather “rats,” which are actually humans skiing in suits with whiskers-and-everything head gear...

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12/27/11

Where to Go This Weekend: Fennville, Michigan

And that’s a wrap people. Well, almost. Saturday marks the endgame scene for 2011. If you’re up for a night imbibing in the Viagra Triangle environs, heck, go for it. Our strategy? Get out of Dodge. Where to go? The Kingsley House Bed and Breakfast Inn in Fennville, Michigan, where the closest you’ll get to a mosh pit of beverage-fortified partiers marauding through a balloon drop is watching shooting stars from the inn’s wraparound front porch...

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12/20/11

Where to Go This Weekend: The Irish Inn in Ozark, Illinois

Sometimes Christmas is best spent in tranquil isolation. If you want to spend Christmas Day and the sixth day of Hanukkah amid utter peacefulness and the sort of pampering you can’t get when you’re basting turkeys all day, consider Irish Inn in southern Illinois, run by Belfast-born Brian Marshall and his wife, Lynn Moore McCreery...

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12/12/11

Where to Go This Weekend: Crawford County, Wisconsin

The Kickapoo Exchange holds its annual Not Made in China Holiday Fair from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday, December 17 and Sunday, December 18. You’ll find locally sourced treasures, such as hand thrown pottery mugs, botanical art pieces, traditional baked goods, and hand-made toys, in this celebration of both Native American culture and made-in-the-USA gift giving...

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12/05/11

Where to Go This Weekend: Santa Claus, Indiana

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. And he lives in Indiana. Every year about this time, the post office there goes into overdrive postmarking a bazillion-million (ballparking here) holiday missives from folks wanting their Christmas Cards to bear the Santa Claus postmark...

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