Up North

For the first 22 or so years of my life, I could say "I'm going up north," and everyone would understand what I'm saying. Then I left Michigan, and I could have been going to the Golan, New York, Upstate New York, or Malaysia.

Anyways, the real "Up North" is in the tips of your fingers if you hold out your hand like you're showing someone the map of Michigan. For me, it's mostly the tip of the pinky, ring finger and middle finger - then you start moving east of Mackinaw City, and I just don't know that part. Right now we are at my aunt and uncle's cottage in Harbor Springs, which is just around Little Traverse Bay from Petoskey. We love it here, and I have been trying to figure out what it is that I'm so attached to.

Right now it's in the 40's, there are very few leaves on the trees, almost none of the restaurants and stores are open, we can't swim, can't boat, can barely go for a walk outside...if I were on this vacation and had never been here before, I might even say it was boring. But for us it's not. Mostly for me.

I think this is why I love it up here.

• My family came up here every summer for Michigania (this summer will be 31 consecutive years).
• My family came up here almost every winter after 1988 to ski.
• We have rented random houses in Harbor Springs as a family - and had some weird experiences with it (including rotten meat).
• My college friends (and Jeremy) and I started the tradition of renting a house up here on MLK weekend. I think we had about 15 people once, and somehow we all fit in beds (or almost...) in these little cottages that we found. I recall watching the Rose Bowl in 98 on a fuzzy channel on a crappy tv. I also recall throwing a shard of ice and hitting Jessie in the face - causing blood and so much guilt.
• Matt and I came up here when we had been dating for about a month. We stayed in an inn that doesn't exist anymore in Harbor Springs - it was owned my by Jessie's dad's friend (Jessie was my college roommate). We walked all around this area, and it was our first vacation together. I asked him if he would be friends with me if I spoke with a Russian accent. He said he would.
  
• Mike and I came up here sometime after college and went camping and biking for a few days. I don't remember much other than Bell's beer and a guitar and a beautiful camp ground.
• My family and I came up here over Christmas 2003, when I was working at GW Hillel, and went skiing and hiking. That was the last time I saw my brother alive.
  

Basically we have been walking, eating, watching the Tigers beat the Yankees and doing nothing else, and it's been wonderful.