TRAVERSE CITY, MI – The Dennos Museum Center never seems to run out of surprises.
This winter, the museum’s main gallery features a series of oils by Leelanau Peninsula portrait painter Fred Petroskey, notable for their bold color, rich detail and wry attention to the sometimes colorful character of their subjects. But the real surprises lie beyond. In one gallery there’s a new exhibit of strange little snapshots by Andy Warhol that’s just been added to the museum’s permanent collection. Nearby is a splendid collection of 80 ancient bronzes from Central Asia on loan from the Arthur M. Sackler Foundation.
Quite a way to while away a winter afternoon here in the “backwoods” of northern Michigan. But the Dennos Museum, in its handsome pine-shadowed quarters of rough-hewn limestone and glass, is itself a surprise to many visitors who find their way to Traverse City. Surrounded by vast forests, endless beaches, and the clear blue water of Grand Traverse Bay, this “Up North” resort community has built a profitable reputation on its identity as a four-season outdoor recreation center.
Fortunately, there’s more to this place than ski hills, golf courses, hiking trails and beaches. In fact, Traverse City is surprisingly well-equipped to handle rainy days, blizzards, or those inevitable occasions when a person decides they’ve had all the sun, snow, sand or scenery they can handle for a while.
The Dennos Museum Center is a good place to start. One of the finest small art museums in the nation, it features an extensive permanent collection (including one of the world’s most extensive troves of sculpture, prints and drawings by Inuit artists of the Canadian Arctic) and hosts an ever-changing variety of traveling exhibits from around the world. Younger visitors will be enthralled by the museum’s hands-on Discovery Center.
Speaking of youngsters, one of the region’s most popular kid-sized indoor attractions is the Great Lakes Children’s Museum, which features lots of hands-on, interactive, family fun focused on water and the Great Lakes.
Just a few blocks south of the downtown bustle is Sixth Street (once known as “Silk Stocking Row”) where local lumber barons built their ornate homes. It’s also home to the Grand Traverse Heritage Center, housed in an elegant 1903 building that was once the city library -- a great place to learn about the region’s fascinating history, from early Native American and European settlers to railroads and sailing ships.
Visitors with a special interest in native culture will want to take a drive north of Suttons Bay to the village of Peshawbestown, home of the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians. Here is the new Eyaawing Museum and Cultural Center, the region’s newest museum. Its upper floor houses galleries, a study center and a store featuring the work of tribal artists, while the ground floor is devoted to collections and classrooms.
One of the country’s most offbeat collections of musical instruments can be found at The Music House Museum, in a converted farm just northeast of town. The focus here is on rare and classic automatic instruments that play by themselves -- everything from music boxes and jukeboxes to player pianos where you can hear “live” performances by great artists of the past who programmed their own keystrokes into the machines.
Not every indoor experience has to be educational, of course. Families with small children will be relieved to know that Traverse City features a great many indoor venues where rambunctious children can run, scream and get some exercise.
At the Great Wolf Lodge, for instance, kids love the 38,000 square-foot indoor water park with its eight waterslides, five pools, two whirlpools and a four-story/12-level interactive Tree House Water Fort. Youngsters enjoy the resort’s log cabin décor, with 281 Northwoods-themed rooms – and there’s a state-of-the-art interactive fantasy game called MagiQuest that allows hotel guests to battle and vanquish computer-generated dragons and goblins throughout the property
Even the Grand Traverse Resort & Spa has gotten into the splish-splash game recently, converting its indoor pool complex into an “aquatics play area” that provides waterpark-style fun and recreation for guests and club members. The 15,000-square foot indoor pool area now includes a 70-foot spiraling waterslide, a “waterwalk” challenge course with overhead and floatable components, and a water basketball court. There’s even a new “sprayground” with floor geysers and bubblers.
For those who prefer to stay dry, there’s a wide selection of indoor recreational choices at Wilderness Crossing, a smoke-free family entertainment center featuring a 16-lane bowling alley, video arcade, two-story laser tag arena, nine-hole indoor miniature golf course and a billiard room. Located in the village of Grawn, about 10 miles south of downtown Traverse City, the new $4 million entertainment center also has a full-service restaurant, the Wild Pony Saloon, with a 120-seat dining area and a spacious 100-seat sports bar with a dance floor and live entertainment on weekends and select weeknights.
Sometimes it’s the adults who need to get away and blow off a little steam, so it’s good to know that Traverse City’s options for indoor fun don’t end when the sun goes down. The local club scene offers plenty of nightlife, whether it’s jazz on Union Street or some progressive rock at The Loading Dock. Traverse City is also home to two friendly casinos – the Leelanau Sands Casino north of Suttons Bay and the Turtle Creek Casino and Hotel in Williamsburg -- both owned and operated by the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians.
