What's Your Favorite Thing About Michigan? (Battle Creek, Grand Blanc: work, housing, diversity)

[athletesfoot]

Which is why we are moving back next year after being away for almost 10 years. Here is a quick partial list:

Family and friends - roots and a hometown feel that you can't get most places where everyone is a new transplant

Red Wings!! Chris Draper

The Detroit Thanksgiving parade

Food I've missed while away - White Castle Hamburgers, Captain Nemo's subs, decent pizza, DUNKIN Doughnuts (what the heck are these nasty little fake Krispy Kremes anyway...even the name sounds disgusting), I'm sure there are more, I just can't think right now!

Reasonable traffic on the roads and GOOD DRIVERS!! Believe me, you haven't experienced traffic and horrible driving until you've lived in Vegas or at least CA.

Seasons

UofM - Go Blue!

Block's Stand and Greenhouse in Romulus - best and most inexpenisive corn on the cob you'll ever find

All the festivals - cherry, pumpkin, apple, etc.

Trees

Great schools

[jeffncandace]

Originally Posted by athletesfoot

Which is why we are moving back next year after being away for almost 10 years. Here is a quick partial list:

Family and friends - roots and a hometown feel that you can't get most places where everyone is a new transplant

Red Wings!! Chris Draper

The Detroit Thanksgiving parade

Food I've missed while away - White Castle Hamburgers, Captain Nemo's subs, decent pizza, DUNKIN Doughnuts (what the heck are these nasty little fake Krispy Kremes anyway...even the name sounds disgusting), I'm sure there are more, I just can't think right now!

Reasonable traffic on the roads and GOOD DRIVERS!! Believe me, you haven't experienced traffic and horrible driving until you've lived in Vegas or at least CA.

Seasons

UofM - Go Blue!

Block's Stand and Greenhouse in Romulus - best and most inexpenisive corn on the cob you'll ever find

All the festivals - cherry, pumpkin, apple, etc.

Trees

Great schools

Wow--all these positive posts! Good to see.

That being said, here's my bones of contention!

White Castle--YUCK, IMHO!

Dunkin Donuts is good enough, but I love me some Krispy Kremes! And, BTW, KK is here now!

And...IMO, drivers here suck as much as they do everywhere else!

Just giving my precious little opinion! Not that anyone asked!

And welcome back to Michigan!

[athletesfoot]

OK - I had to respond -
White Castle--YUCK, IMHO! How can you say that?? I mean, I know they're technically "gross", but they taste so darn good!! I didn't eat them too often when I lived there, but now I have to have them several times when I go back. Guess you always want what you can't have!

Dunkin Donuts is good enough, but I love me some Krispy Kremes! And, BTW, KK is here now! I know, I know...they're invading everywhere. My problem with them is that they aren't actually doughnuts...just puffs of air with sugar glazed onto them. At least DD is moving out to Vegas before the end of this year, with 60 some odd stores on the way in the next several years. Guess enough people fled MI and other areas that there is a market for them out here now.

And...IMO, drivers here suck as much as they do everywhere else! You've obviously never driven daily in Vegas. Seriously. I am not even close to exaggerating. I thought maybe I was just imagninging things and drivers were bad everywhere, so I really paid attention the last time I was in MI. Trust me, there may be a few rotten apples out there, but for the most part, people know what they're doing.


And welcome back to Michigan! Thank you!! It'll be a year before we can leave Vegas, but looking forward to being able to own a little land and see friends and family every day! I also forgot to add Sander's Hot Fudge to my list of things I miss...every once in a while, my mom will bring or mail some out to me so I can make hot fudge cream puffs at home...

[jeffncandace]

Originally Posted by athletesfoot

How can you say that?? I mean, I know they're technically "gross", but they taste so darn good!! I didn't eat them too often when I lived there, but now I have to have them several times when I go back. Guess you always want what you can't have!

Yeah, my co-workers laugh at me because I don't "get" White Castle. I think I needed to be young and drunk at 3am in order to have a proper appreciation for the Castle! (We have Jack in the Box for that in Cali )

Originally Posted by athletesfoot

I know, I know...they're invading everywhere. My problem with them is that they aren't actually doughnuts...just puffs of air with sugar glazed onto them. At least DD is moving out to Vegas before the end of this year, with 60 some odd stores on the way in the next several years. Guess enough people fled MI and other areas that there is a market for them out here now.

I think my problem is I just like donuts.

Originally Posted by athletesfoot

You've obviously never driven daily in Vegas. Seriously. I am not even close to exaggerating. I thought maybe I was just imagninging things and drivers were bad everywhere, so I really paid attention the last time I was in MI. Trust me, there may be a few rotten apples out there, but for the most part, people know what they're doing.

Never driven daily in Vegas, but was born and raised in So Cal so I've driven to and in Vegas plenty of times. I think there are bad drivers everywhere...So Cal is famous for it's clogged freeways and road rage. I've also lived in Tulsa, OK, and if I'm being truthful that town had the worst drivers I have every personally experienced! I think its because so many that live there are not from Tulsa, so you have driving styles from all parts of the world meshing together in one small city!

[Great Lake Boy]

Oh that is easy. That its a blue blue state.

[jst333]

I just back from a LONG weekend in the U.P., We were about 20 miles west of the bridge, and I found paradise along hwy2 on the sand dunes. What a beautiful place, lake michigan was a little cold, but what a unmolested piece of Michigan. Actually, I've never been that way, the sand dunes were sweet! We had our own Beach, about a mile long in each direction. If you travel up that way, You have to check out the dune's between St. Ignace and Brevert. God, the strait's area is beautiful!!

[Cato the Elder]

Originally Posted by jeffncandace

And...IMO, drivers here suck as much as they do everywhere else!

To my eyes, MI drivers are a little better than the East and West, but I agree there are bad aspects to the driving culture everywhere. In Philly, my biggest gripe was the total non-use of turn signals. In San Fran, it was the lack of road awareness - driving in a vacuum, we called it. In MI, it's the need to cut people off. No one could be behind you for half a mile, but someone will speed up, go in front of you, usually slow down, and then turn, which brings up why they couldn't have just pulled in behind you?! It's apparently a sin to slow down and merge BEHIND someone no matter how fast they are going or how far ahead they are. The other peculiarity is the use of medians as a driving lane (almost up there with using it as a parking space like South Philly). In Chicago, we were taught that you couldn't enter the left turn lane until the yellow line opened up - not half a mile before. But you eventually adjust - I've started to merge into the left turn lane early after almost getting rear-ended by speeding, early-mergers.

[pjmiami]

Having lived in S. Florida, namely Miami, for the past eight years I have to weigh in on the driving thing. I do agree that there are bad drivers everywhere but I also think there's bad and then there's BAD and the degree of bad matters! (Did that make any sense at all? Probably not, but hopefully the intent came through anyway :-).

In Miami, the degree of bad is off the charts. The going speed seems to be 80-90 mph; there is no requirement in this state that drivers take any sort of drivers training before they are handed a license and, therefore, NO ONE has any idea what the rules of the road are let alone bothering to follow them. For whatever reason, levels of aggression are high here as well so road rage is quite common and driver's etiquette is nonexistent. I lived in Michigan for three decades and never, not even in Detroit or Ann Arbor, saw the kind of insane driving I see here on a daily basis. Yikes, its scary!

Oh and on the donut thing (very important issue!), I very much like the description of Krispy Kreme's as sugar-coated puffs of air. My daughter loves them but I think the only REAL donuts are the ones that are made in the Fall at apple orchard cider mills--the ones with the cinnamon and sugar sprinkled on them, dunked in hot cider, yum! Can't wait til October!

[pjmiami]

Adding to the Michigan favorites list:

-Apple picking at all those great orchards
-Gene the Pumpkin man just west of Kalamazoo
-Roadside stands in the summer all along the Michigan country roads
-the wonderful wild blueberries that grow outside our wonderful cabin in the UP
-Kid Memories of Castle Rock (St. Ignace), Paul Bunyon and Babe the Blue Ox!
-Whitefish, anywhere, anyway, as long as its in Michigan
-Swimming in Lake Superior waiting for our legs to go numb from the cold water!
-Grindstone City
-Gwen Frostic prints and visiting her wonderful shop

[magellan]

Originally Posted by pjmiami

Having lived in S. Florida, namely Miami, for the past eight years I have to weigh in on the driving thing. I do agree that there are bad drivers everywhere but I also think there's bad and then there's BAD and the degree of bad matters! (Did that make any sense at all? Probably not, but hopefully the intent came through anyway :-).

In Miami, the degree of bad is off the charts. The going speed seems to be 80-90 mph; there is no requirement in this state that drivers take any sort of drivers training before they are handed a license and, therefore, NO ONE has any idea what the rules of the road are let alone bothering to follow them. For whatever reason, levels of aggression are high here as well so road rage is quite common and driver's etiquette is nonexistent. I lived in Michigan for three decades and never, not even in Detroit or Ann Arbor, saw the kind of insane driving I see here on a daily basis. Yikes, its scary!

Oh and on the donut thing (very important issue!), I very much like the description of Krispy Kreme's as sugar-coated puffs of air. My daughter loves them but I think the only REAL donuts are the ones that are made in the Fall at apple orchard cider mills--the ones with the cinnamon and sugar sprinkled on them, dunked in hot cider, yum! Can't wait til October!

The one thing that bugs me about Florida drivers is all the dark tinted windows (which are illegal in Michigan). So ominous, and you have no inkling of what people are doing (you can't see them glance over their shoulder before they lane change right into you).