Racine, WisconsinThe drive: 1.5 hours Among travelers whose plans center on food, I’m of a particular subset: I map out trips around baked things. And if we’re talking a hyperregional specialty, all the better. (Ask my husband, whom I’ve dragged on tours of the sfogliatelles of Naples, the bagels of Montreal, and all the clangers … Read more
Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, MichiganThe drive: 5.5 hours On a glorious late-summer day a couple of years ago, my wife, Rebecca, and I hiked the modest incline in Sleeping Bear Dunes that leads to Pyramid Point, not far from the town of Glen Arbor. We ascended 1.2 miles through the beech and maple forest … Read more
Garden Peninsula, MichiganThe drive: 6 hours The Garden Peninsula, which I discovered on a drive around the Great Lakes nearly 20 years ago, is out of the way even for the Upper Peninsula. Hanging off the bottom of the mother peninsula, it is a 22-mile-long knuckle of land reaching from Michigan toward Wisconsin’s Door Peninsula. … Read more
chicago to milwaukeeThe bike ride: 10 hours Friendships are based on two things: common interests and complaining. My friend Patryk excels at the latter. For years, he complained that I never invited him on my long-distance cycling trips around the Midwest. When I asked him to ride with my bike team, he complained about that, … Read more
Port Washington, WisconsinThe drive: 2 hours Port Washington is a place where time stands still — the view from Franklin Street up the hill to St. Mary’s Church always postcard-perfect, the caw of seagulls in the near distance reminding you of vacations gone by. Even the music playing in the boutiques is stuck somewhere in the yacht-rock … Read more
New Buffalo and Three Oaks, MichiganThe drive: 1.5 hours I could tell you that my lifelong besties and I make an annual pilgrimage to southwest Michigan’s Harbor Country for the sunsets, which turn the sky and lake into a painter’s palette of lavender and saffron and indigo and invite us to contemplate the fleeting nature of … Read more
Sheboygan, WisconsinThe drive: 2.5 hours Sheboygan has long been known as the home of the bratwurst (and more recently as the go-to spot for Vera Pizza Napoletana–certified wood-fired pizzas at one of my favorite restaurants, Il Ritrovo). But what I love most about this small city halfway between Milwaukee and Green Bay is its lesser-known … Read more
Around the lakeThe trip: 7 nights When my husband, Kurt, and I bought a 2004 Chevy Astro conversion van with two bucket seats and a convertible bed, we envisioned a future filled with epic road trips launched from the curb in front of our home. For starters, we decided to take on the Lake Michigan … Read more
Muskegon, MichiganThe drive: 3.5 hours I’ve been obsessed with ships for as long as I can remember. Perhaps it’s because I grew up in Iowa, and the largest body of water I saw as a kid wasn’t big enough for more than a rowboat. Even now, I still geek out over just about anything that … Read more
