Spring Break
 

We are traveling to Traverse City,MI for Spring Break and would appreciate some ideas on what to do and/or see. We have two children 9 and 12 who love to hike,etc. we are planning to go to Sleeping Bear Dunes. Has anyone been there?
Skiing might be ify this time of year. We have never skiied and would love to but don't know if the conditions would be good.

Skiing is going to be a lot less than iffy. There has been a lot of thawing going on. If I was guessing, I think you will find afternoon temperatures in the high 40s to low 50s F with zero snow cover and quite possibly some tulips and daffodils starting to poke through the ground.

OK So if we can't ski what can we do ie, outside preferably. We are visiting relatives so are main purpose wasn't to ski but it would've been nice. Help?!?

I would defer to people who spend more time in that area, but a very nice day trip would be Mackinac Island. There is a ferry out of Mackinaw City. It probably won't be very crowded because the heavy tourist season is still a couple of months away.

Here's a website:

http://www.mackinac.com/

It might also help to know where you are coming from. The Lake Michigan shoreline is an interesting maritime environment for those who don't live near the ocean, but probably not quite as exciting if you already live in coastal area. There is great hiking and wonderful walks along many miles of sand beaches. It's a nice area that gets a lot of visitors, but mostly in the summer months.

Traverse City:
http://www.mytraversecity.com/ (has a calendar of events that may be useful)

Sleeping Bear Dunes:
http://www.leelanau.com/dunes/

Sleeping Bear Dunes is a great place. I haven't been there since I was a kid, but I really enjoyed climbing the dunes.

If the weather is nice, you can walk on the beach as well. You could consider driving up the Lake Michigan coast through some of the smaller towns, but I don't know if your kids would like that.

If your main interest is hiking, search for national park and state park web sites - I know there are sites that list the parks by area, and there should be plenty to choose from in the TC area that would offer hiking.

If you and your kids have any other interests, definitely let us know and I'm sure others can help find suitable activities. Traverse City also has a nice downtown area with fun shopping and restaurants. There is a mall, and an outlet mall as well if the weather is bad and you really need to get out of the house.

You can enjoy a drive north to Petosky. There you can visit Boyne Mountain. The web site (www.boyne.com)shows there are still some open slopes. I'm sure it won't last long, but perhaps worth a try. If you continue up the cost past Petosky you'll pass through Harbor Springs. It's a quaint little town with some unique shops. Once you pass Harbor Springs you get into a beautiful drive along the cost. Eventually you will come to the town of Cross Village. There in town is Legs Inn, (http://www.legsinn.com/) a unique resturant with some fantastic food. We have made the drive from Petosky to Cross village just to eat lunch or dinner. There are a number of things to see and do along the coast. Enjoy your trip!

THanks for all the ideas. We are off this morning. I'll let you know how it goes.

We are back. Thanks again for evryones ideas. We had two sunny, nice days, luckily. Besides visiting with relatives we were able to go to Sleeping Bear Dunes which was awesome. We climb them so it was great exercise and my kids were entertained. It's not very often that you get to climb a sand dune especially living in Indiana. We also drove up the bay and had lunch in Petosky. What a great little town. We continued north to Cross Village but the restuarant was closed for the season. Oh Well. It was a great drive.

Actually the dunes has their own website:
http://www.nps.gov/slbe/