MI Travel Guide - Page 2

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Megabus is on the Move with $1 Fares for More of the Midwest

July 3, 2012 at 9:46 AM | by | Comments (0)

So at this point it might be a little too late to score a sweet airfare deal for your summer vacation, but that doesn’t mean you have to stay stuck at home. Think outside of the box when it comes to how to reach your final destination, and it also doesn’t hurt to think about taking the bus. We’ve reviewed survival skills to consider before trying to chase after one of those $1 bus fares, and now there’s even more cities from which to choose thanks to Megabus.

Fresh off their expansion down to Texas it now looks like the Megabus model is moving into Michigan just in time for the summer season. New routes include East Lansing to both Detroit and Chicago, and there’s even service from Grand Rapids over to Chicago and Detroit as well. This will especially come in handy for those college kiddos looking to head back to class in the fall, and they’ll be able to pick a bus that best fits their needs with three trips on the schedule on most days. Just don’t look to escape for the holiday weekend, as the buses aren’t set to start rolling until July 12.

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A Modern Pegasus: How One Little Horse Flew on Southwest Airlines

June 28, 2012 at 1:20 PM | by | Comments (0)

True frequent flyers may believe they've seen everything on planes, but travelers at three different airports on Tuesday were treated to something really rare—a service animal boarding a Southwest Air flight. This wasn't just any service animal, however; this was a mini-horse named "Cali," being filmed for a documentary.

Cali's story isn't so different from that of a seeing-eye dog in that she was trained (in Saratoga Springs, NY) and now finds a home helping a blind girl through life. Her owner, Mona Ramouni, is a grad student at MSU in Lansing, Michigan. So, when the Australian show "Sunday Night" decided to focus on Mona and Cali's story, it was only natural to return to where it all began, in Saratoga Springs. For this, the horsey would have to fly.

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Stalking the Empire Asparagus Festival: Long Live the Queen!

May 25, 2012 at 5:26 PM | by | Comments (0)

Here at Jaunted, we spend considerable time and (virtual) ink drooling over weird food festivals. So, this summer, we've decided to visit a few. All this week our Michigan embed Lara Zielin will report back from the Empire Asparagus Festival.

Everything about this year’s Asparagus Festival parade was green—from the clothes to the hats to the face paint, all the way to the parade’s commitment to the environment. No cars or trucks or lawn mowers or greenhouse-gas-emitting anythings were allowed. Other than that, as long as you celebrated the stalk, you could join the fray.

Twice.

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Stalking the Empire Asparagus Festival: Cupcakes and Poetry

May 24, 2012 at 5:46 PM | by | Comments (0)


Blueberry and asparagus cupcakes

Here at Jaunted, we spend considerable time and (virtual) ink drooling over weird food festivals. So, this summer, we've decided to visit a few. All this week our Michigan embed Lara Zielin will report back from the Empire Asparagus Festival.

Empire, Michigan’s ninth annual Asparagus Festival hosted a cook-off with sixteen entries that showcased, if nothing else, myriad ways in which people will meld asparagus with just about anything. Red lentil dahl, blueberry cupcakes with cream cheese frosting, smoothies, pesto; just add “and asparagus” and you’ve got…well, you’ve got something.

Festival attendees can taste all the entrants’ dishes for free. The only requirement is that you stay long enough to hear the top three announced, since eating and bolting is bad form in these parts. And it’s worth it to taste the standouts like winner Janet Golenberg’s asparagus cashew miso dip. A pop of garlic and a fresh, crunchy veggie to scoop it with (not an asparagus spear, thank you very much) made it an easy favorite.

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Stalking the Empire Asparagus Festival: Kick Ass-paragus

May 23, 2012 at 4:22 PM | by | Comment (1)


Two runners who got their Ass-paragus kicked

Here at Jaunted, we spend considerable time and (virtual) ink drooling over weird food festivals. So, this summer, we've decided to visit a few. All this week our Michigan embed Lara Zielin will report back from the Empire Asparagus Festival.

Ron Zywicki, this year's winner of Empire, Michigan’s “Kick Ass-paragus” 5k may have finished the race in 17:39, but the participants who ran more slowly—perhaps because they filled up on the asparagus beer the night before during the town’s annual Asparagus Festival kickoff—probably weren’t phased. It’s not as if the race is all that competitive, especially considering they don’t begin it with an actual clock, but rather by dropping a single asparagus spear on the ground: when it lands, you go.

The real bummer of running the 5k at a leisurely pace is that you get to the Asparagus Festival’s food tent later than everyone else, lengthening your wait time for a slice of asparagus pizza, or an asparagus boule, or get a brain freeze on some asparagus ice cream.

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Stalking the Empire Asparagus Festival: OMG. ASPARAGUS BEER

May 22, 2012 at 3:44 PM | by | Comment (1)

Here at Jaunted, we spend considerable time and (virtual) ink drooling over weird food festivals. So, this summer, we've decided to visit a few. All this week our Michigan embed Lara Zielin will report back from the Empire Asparagus Festival.

I’ll be honest: If I were going to an asparagus festival and they didn’t have asparagus beer, I’d be pissed. After all, the tangy, bright flavor of asparagus is an ideal complement to beer’s bready body. So good thing Right Brain Brewery agrees with me and stocked Empire, Michigan’s ninth annual Asparagus Festival with an asparagus beer that gives you the best of a good beer without losing the flavor—and flare—of the weekend’s favored vegetable.

Right Brain Brewery’s asparagus ale is light and potable. Maybe even a little too potable, judging from the numbers of people who quaffed a glass (or five) at the festival’s Friday night kickoff, then grooved to the sounds of local musicians, The Benzie Playboyz. The band’s name is possibly awful, but you don't need another pint to appreciate the fact that they have not one but two members who play a washboard. And one of the players is under age twelve.

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Stalking the Empire Asparagus Festival: Welcome to Piss-Happy Michigan

May 21, 2012 at 4:16 PM | by | Comments (0)

Here at Jaunted, we spend considerable time and (virtual) ink drooling over weird food festivals. So, this summer, we've decided to visit a few. All this week our Michigan embed Lara Zielin will report back from the Empire Asparagus Festival.

Empire, Michigan may host the only food festival where people talk extensively about pee. A necessary conversation cornerstone, perhaps, when you dedicate an entire weekend to asparagus, the vegetable that can transform a “humble chamberpot into a bower of aromatic perfume,” as Marcel Proust once put it.

Embracing funky pee is just part of the whole asparagus experience trumpeted by Empire residents, from root to shoot. Each year, the 400-person village on the white-sand shores of Lake Michigan swells to hold thousands, all coming together for asparagus beer, the asparagus parade, an asparagus cook-off, the “Kick Ass-paragus” 5k, and (of course!) the asparagus poetry contest.

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'The Five-Year Engagement' Brings a Little Ann Arbor to the Big Screen

April 27, 2012 at 1:47 PM | by | Comments (0)

According to the Chicago Sun-Times, “The Five-Year Engagement” should have been called “I Got a Job in Michigan,” and for good reason.

The movie focuses more on Tom (Jason Segel) and Violet's (Emily Blunt) decision to move from San Francisco to Ann Arbor for Violet's career than it does on their impending nuptials. While Violet is excited about perusing an academic career at the University of Michigan, Tom, a budding chef, feels his career is over.

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And Now, Your Moment of Zen (from Detroit-Metro Airport)

March 8, 2012 at 6:32 PM | by | Comment (1)

If you've flown into Detroit-Metropolitan Airport in recent years, then you know about the fountain. Well, we should really rephrase that to: "if you've flown Skyteam into Detroit-Metropolitan Airport," because flights from this airline alliance are the ones privy to the magic of the water feature in the center of DTW's McNamara Terminal.

Detroit is a hub specifically for Delta, formerly the "largest airline in the world" until the United-Continental merger swept in to claim that superlative. In any case, everything from Delta Connection puddle jumpers to jumbo 747s pull up to gates at McNamara, and the design of the terminal—check out those floor-to-ceiling wide windows—practically allows you to Eskimo-kiss the aircraft.

Still, one cannot forget the fountain. Here it is, in video, in all it's make-you-wanna-pee glory:

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TSA's New 'Chat-down' Security Expands to Detroit Airport

October 24, 2011 at 4:21 PM | by | Comments (0)

We really don't want to be those travel bloggers. The ones who reflexively complain about everything TSA does just because it's really easy to pick on TSA. We try to be fair about moron passengers, we take pains to explain why TSA agents sometimes have to conduct intrusive inspections, and we give the agency credit when they improve their security protocols.

But the more we read about TSA's shift to Israel-style airport security inspections—which are now being called "chat-downs" by journalists and politicians, because naming things is fun—the more worried we get. This is the agency's new SPOT program, where agents ask you personal questions while you wait in line, and then they try to read your body language to determine whether you're making things up. We haven't quite figured out what's wrong but we're pretty sure we don't like it.

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Two Made-in-Michigan Movies Will Battle It Out at the Box Office This Weekend

October 7, 2011 at 1:31 PM | by | Comments (0)

Real Steel and The Ides of March will battle it out that the box office this weekend, and even though the two movies seem like they couldn't be more different, they actually have one thing in common; they were both filmed in Detroit.

Real Steel, a family-friendly sci-fi flick set in the future when giant robots face off in the Robot Boxing League, was filmed at various locations around Detroit. Some notable spots are the Detroit Fire Department Headquarters (which was transformed into a boxing ring), the COBO Center, the Parkway Motel near Holly, MI, and Joe Louis Arena.

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Jason Segel, John Krasinski and Emily Blunt Eat Up Michigan for 'Five Year Engagement'

May 6, 2011 at 1:25 PM | by | Comments (0)

Funnyman Jason Segel, along with co-stars Emily Blunt (and her husband John Krasinski), Alison Brie, Chris Pratt, and producer Judd Apatow, have been eating their way through Michigan while filming Five Year Engagement.

The movie, about the ups and downs of an engaged couple, is filming at several restaurants in and around Detroit these past couple of weeks. Today and tomorrow, they will be filming at Randy’s Roadside Bar-B-Que on US-12 in Brooklyn, MI, which is known for serving smoked meat sandwiches, starting from $4.75.

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