My husband and I are Re-Locating to Charlevoix MI, I have questions!!! (Holland: medical)

[Michigansnowflake]

Guess my family and kids are better suited to the area than you and yours. We ride Quads, shot the guns, swim, hike, hunt mushrooms, fly kites, canoe, ski, snow shoe, sled, build snow men hit all the festivals in Charlevoix and surrounding area.......there is one every weekend somewhere......I just think you are city folk and need to move to be happy.

[kimba01]

Originally Posted by Michigansnowflake

Thats true and perfectly fine, just dont knock what others love....I love the fact that there isnt a store on every corner, a mall within 10 minutes, big box stores and heavy traffic every where.........different strokes.......but to say there isnt ANYTHING to do in Charlevoix is absurd! The other poster isnt looking hard enough, expects too much (se mi 24/7 entertaiment) and cant see the forest for the trees. That person needs to move to a big city where they can have their every want and need filled NOW!

I have read and responded to many MI threads and I see that you have also. While I am sure that everyone appreciates the input from the N and the S and everyone has their different needs and likes, it seems like you get so defensive when someone does not agree with you.

I understand your LOVE for the North and the fact that you and yours have TONS to do and that is so cool. I wish that I was of the type that loved winter. I can tolerate it for a weekend visit, but not to live in it. I find the beauty of the North breathtaking. I do not necessarily care for the "big city" but I don't wish to travel miles in cruddy weather to cover my needs. I think there are obviously many like me too. It's ok. It is nothing against your interests and the fact that you love it.

I don't know, just seems in alot of your posts, you get so mad and others are just voicing their experiences with the area. After all, that is what these forums are all about, isn't it? Learning different takes on things? I say offer up your experiences and let the others do the same without so much angst.
(Plus, if you talk it up too much, you may just end up with a mall one day!!! Or all the fudgies!)

[nw michigan]

Originally Posted by Michigansnowflake

Thats true and perfectly fine, just dont knock what others love....I love the fact that there isnt a store on every corner, a mall within 10 minutes, big box stores and heavy traffic every where.........different strokes.......but to say there isnt ANYTHING to do in Charlevoix is absurd! The other poster isnt looking hard enough, expects too much (se mi 24/7 entertaiment) and cant see the forest for the trees. That person needs to move to a big city where they can have their every want and need filled NOW!

wow...and you called ME bitter? why are you always so rude?

Everyone does not have the same interests. It is very hard to make the adjustment from big city to small town. I think when someone asks a question they should receive an honest answer.

another poster here SAID it was hard to make friends in Charlevoix...you are proving that one right

[toejamfootball]

haha yeah, think if you had to move back to Detroit, how hard it would be, not being able to do all the things you love. like you said different strokes.

I do like your passion though.

[GlassPipe]

To NW who is soooo miserable in her hubby's 6 figure job and upper class lifestyle in Charlevoix. Do your hubby's co-workers know how awful a place Charlevoix is???

We went all over the place to have fun when I was a kid. Petosky - Pirates Cove, the Pet Store next to the OLD KMart in the strip mall thing on top the hill there, Gas Light District. Charlevoix - Beach, Feeding the gulls, eating fudge at Murdicks, Salmon fishing in the channel and even more salmon fishing at Medusa, the campground south of town, the pier and lighthouse, watching the bridge go up and down for passing boats. Boyne City had a really nice park. The Horton Bay Winter Olympics! Yeah, that was fun... I could go on and on, but you get the point. You have to quit thinking like a flatlander and get out and find things to do. It's a great place to live and grow up. One of the things that stands out the most in my mind is sitting on a hill overlooking the creek and valley that our cows used to graze in. My mom and I were sitting there watching a heffer give birth. Kinda grose, but when we looked to the other side of the hill, there was a red fox doing the same thing we were doing. I had to have been 4 or 5 at the time, but I remember it plain as day. It's the little moments like that that will really stay with your kids - notice I said little. Now that I've lived in Detroit and Lansing, I'd give anything to go back home and give my sons the opportunity to experience some of those little things that helped shape me. Let them spend most of the summer at Grass River Natural Area taking classes, let them spend their time walking through the woods with their buddies and let them just be kids. Here in the city, it doesn't really work like that. It's this giant materialistic hell that I find myself stuck in wanting out. I don't want them to feel that same way in 20 years.

You're there and you're obviously well to do and don't have to worry too much about getting downsized or laid off. That makes you pretty fortunate. I'd love to be in your shoes, you should appreciate what you have already and quit worrying about your trips to the Somerset followed by dinner at Carls Chop House - all in the name of good family fun, I'm sure.

People who just can't appreciate what they have in their hands really tend to get on my nerves. Love it or leave it and open up another job to someone who will actually appreciate it.

[Michigansnowflake]

Originally Posted by GlassPipe

To NW who is soooo miserable in her hubby's 6 figure job and upper class lifestyle in Charlevoix. Do your hubby's co-workers know how awful a place Charlevoix is???

We went all over the place to have fun when I was a kid. Petosky - Pirates Cove, the Pet Store next to the OLD KMart in the strip mall thing on top the hill there, Gas Light District. Charlevoix - Beach, Feeding the gulls, eating fudge at Murdicks, Salmon fishing in the channel and even more salmon fishing at Medusa, the campground south of town, the pier and lighthouse, watching the bridge go up and down for passing boats. Boyne City had a really nice park. The Horton Bay Winter Olympics! Yeah, that was fun... I could go on and on, but you get the point. You have to quit thinking like a flatlander and get out and find things to do. It's a great place to live and grow up. One of the things that stands out the most in my mind is sitting on a hill overlooking the creek and valley that our cows used to graze in. My mom and I were sitting there watching a heffer give birth. Kinda grose, but when we looked to the other side of the hill, there was a red fox doing the same thing we were doing. I had to have been 4 or 5 at the time, but I remember it plain as day. It's the little moments like that that will really stay with your kids - notice I said little. Now that I've lived in Detroit and Lansing, I'd give anything to go back home and give my sons the opportunity to experience some of those little things that helped shape me. Let them spend most of the summer at Grass River Natural Area taking classes, let them spend their time walking through the woods with their buddies and let them just be kids. Here in the city, it doesn't really work like that. It's this giant materialistic hell that I find myself stuck in wanting out. I don't want them to feel that same way in 20 years.

You're there and you're obviously well to do and don't have to worry too much about getting downsized or laid off. That makes you pretty fortunate. I'd love to be in your shoes, you should appreciate what you have already and quit worrying about your trips to the Somerset followed by dinner at Carls Chop House - all in the name of good family fun, I'm sure.

People who just can't appreciate what they have in their hands really tend to get on my nerves. Love it or leave it and open up another job to someone who will actually appreciate it.

Perfectly stated!

[nw michigan]

Glasspipe, I will only respond by saying thank you for the ideas. I did notice most of them are out of Charlevoix, though, just as I said.

[ImaMichigander]

Wow, we have two people that came to the area from Downstate and Florida. They have had 2 different experiences. Both were answering the questions of the post. Let it go at that.

Somehow the poor woman looking into where to live and take her dogs has gotten into some oddly voiced turf war. Per my previous post, in my limited experience, you know on which side that I land. But jeez... Leave the poor lady from Florida, by way of Charlevoix, alone. She has said what her experiences are and she qualified them. She has every right to, and not get jumped on. From what she does with her kids to her husband's job and, apparently, now salary have come under criticism. Seems like too much to me.

Michigansnowflake, fine you're from SE MI and now embrace the north. Good for you. But look at your posts that reference SE MI-- you seem no less "bitter" in your descriptions. Guess what, I live here-- have all my life and I love it-- and I have had the restraint not to go off on you and your criticisms, which have been plentiful.

Glasspipe, welcome to this thread, which has been winding itself tighter and tighter over the last few days. It's great that you have fond memories of your childhood hometown-- you actually have had the most detailed post of things to do! But just because you don't live there now, doesn't mean that you can beat up on someone who does. If you like it, move back. I'd be interested to see how your wife-- you didn't indicate that she is from Northern MI-- and your kids who have grown up in Detroit and Lansing as you indicated will handle the transition. Because that seems to be what we're talking about here.

[Michigansnowflake]

Youre right, I do bash on Se MI...and I didnt just discover I love the NOrth, I spent March through November every weekend and all summer in Mesick as a kid as my parents built their home. I hated the city then and I hate it now........but not because I *just* discovered I love the North, but because I lived there and I know from experience I dont like it.......I admit I am wrong to bash on Se and then jump on people for bashing the North.....everyone has their preference and opinion...I apologize

[GlassPipe]

Not jumping on her or criticizing her, that's not my intention. Just stating the obvious.

And needing to hop from town to town is what makes each of them unique experience. Saturdays were reserved for a Cherryland Mall trip to Traverse. Sundays we'd go to Barnes Park in Eastport. During the week, hanging out on the lake after dad would get home from work. Not like jumping from the Star Theater to ChuckECheese's in an afternoon and then hitting up Coldstone on your way home. Each little thing you can do up there is unique to itself and that's what makes it special. Like I said before, you're in a pretty fortunate position. You should enjoy yourself a little more and venture on out. You'll be suprised.

This weekend try and take a hike out to Deadman's Hill by Penny Bridge along 66 in the Jordan Valley. Nice time of year to do it and you'll probably be able to find a few morels. Just be sure to take your camera! And the more seasonal roads you take, the better it gets.

And yes, I'd love to move back up there. Finding work is the problem. I work in IT and was previously in construction for a few years. Neither of which are doing so hot up there. I'd take just about anything that would pay the bills. It's getting out of our house in Lansing that would be a problem. Thanks to our local housing situation our house has depreciated over $16k in the past year since we bought it. Seems like half the city is foreclosed or up for sale. Just a matter of time is all.