[sionnsar]

I think I’ve flown over Michigan, does that count?

Not at all! I've flown over it a lot, once over my hometown (I have photos) and even through DTW, the airport from which I departed, but you're not seeing Michigan at all unless you're on the ground.

That got brought home some years ago when my new travel regime took me to Ohio some years ago. Headed from meetings to the airport, I ended up for a stretch on a state highway (not freeway), and particulars of the neighborhoods I passed just leaped out at me, they were so different from anything West Coast and so much like what I remembered.

I'm not sure that even touring one would get the real sense of the place, or the people.

A couple years back I saw my hometown from the air; next year I intend to see it from ground level, 40 years after my family moved away.

[Monkey Face]

Like I said ~ I’m not done travelling, yet!

And right now, I’m traveling to bed! See you tomorrow!

[grellis]

Even from the ground, you're not seeing Michigan unless you really travel the whole state. I've lived here all of my life, and I am still amazed at the state's geographic diversity.

I grew up in Oakland County, in Rochester Hills, before it became a giant strip mall. I thought all of Michigan was like that area--rolling hills, an occasional creek, lakes and ponds all over the place, a city here or there. We vacationed up in Leelanau every summer, which is much the same--only the hills are bigger.

Mid-Michigan is totally different...hardly any hills at all. Total bread-basket. Ten minutes north of Lansing and you hit farmland as far as the eye can see. Not many lakes in this area, and those which we have are often man-made. We do have some great rivers around here, though, including the beautiful (and occasionally mighty) Grand. I've gotten used to being around rivers and farmland, as opposed to lakes and hills, in the nearly twenty years since we moved to Lansing. Again, I was thinking, this is all Michigan is--hills to the north and south, farms in the middle. Nothing prepared me for the alien landscape that is the Upper Peninsula, which I visited for the very first time this past summer.

That's a whole thread in itself!

[grellis]

BTW--a good friend of mine moved out to Oregon about fifteen years ago. She only makes it back to the mitten once a decade. Every few years, her dad sends her a care package with, among other things--Vernor's.

Like I said, I've lived here all my life. What are some other Michigan staples that other states lack? Besides Canadian governors, I mean.