Mitten Love | Up North Michigan

You know that feeling when you visit a new place, and you fall in love? I gotta say, Michigan, I didn’t expect this from you.

Over the years I’ve met a few wonderful Michiganites – Michiganians? Michigan folk. And each one of them has been awesome, with common traits of kindness, humility, friendliness, and a down to earth attitude matched with a great sense of humor and adventure.

I think it’s something in the water – which, by the way, Michigan has a LOT of – I guess they call them the great lakes for a reason. The size was definitely great – Lake Michigan looks a lot like the Pacific Ocean at sunset. The color was great – a shade between aqua and emerald, crystal clear and inviting. The activities were great – from stand up paddle boarding to wake surfing, SUP yoga to an evening pontoon cruise, I got to explore the water from in, on, and above.

Oh, and I rode in a car-boat-car. The proper term for this aqueous automobile is an amphicar (ambhibious vehicle), and I had the privilege of going for a sunset cruise in the coolest dinghy I have ever seen.

There is something magical about the sun setting at ten PM – evenings become a time for leisure, for bonfires and hooping sessions and sitting on the deck, savoring the beauty of the moment. And the best part of the trip? Sharing five days of SUP Yoga teacher training with an incredible group of passionate yogis, teachers who came to expand their knowledge and enhance the lives of their communities through our certification program.

These babes were one of the most laid back, mellow groups of chicks I have had the pleasure of meeting during a paddle yoga certification. Their eagerness to learn was evident from the moment they arrived, and in just five short days we formed a bond that will last a lifetime.

Thank you to my sweet friend Leda Jo, owner and founder of Fluid SUP, for inviting me to come experience the beauty of your home state. Your badass-ness quotient has expanded exponentially in my book – the way you hang from the side of a ski boat, hell, the way you drive a ski boat like a bat out of hell while blasting GNR, it makes my heart skip a beat. Bradley Hilton, if you read this, you’ve got a heck of a woman. Don’t let her go.

To my gentle readers – if you visit Michigan, make sure you head straight for the pinkie. Don’t mess around with the thumb, that’s for hitchhikers and the Fonz. No, you want to make a beeline for M22, for the Sleeping Bear Dunes, the sunset in Leland, and the magic that awaits you up north.