Photo credit: Traverse City Convention & Visitors Bureau

 

Cutline: There’s no nouvelle cuisine at Sleder’s Family Tavern on Traverse City’s West Side – just tried-and-true favorites like bean soup, fried smelt and juicy hamburgers served in surroundings that haven’t changed very much in the past 125 years. But you have to enjoy being surrounded by LOTS of stuffed animal heads!

(High-resolution photos available on request.)

 

 

TRAVERSE CITY, MI – Almost overnight, this Lake Michigan resort community seems to have reinvented itself in a flurry of espresso joints, art galleries, sleek beach hotels, wineries and sushi bars.

 

In short, the place has gotten, well, kind of sophisticated. And not everyone is delighted with the change.

 

For some of us, a true vacation spot should be like Brigadoon – preserved in a timeless limbo where everything remains just as it was (or as our memories persuade us it was) back when we first discovered it as children.

 

Fortunately, Traverse City still has plenty of places where visitors can still experience that simpler, more rustic vacationing style. If anything, the region’s wide sandy beaches, deep green woods and clear blue waters are cleaner and healthier than they were a generation ago. And for every glittering new resort and swanky nouvelle cuisine restaurant, there are lots of old-fashioned mom-and-pop places that hearken back to the “good old days.” Even among the new places, there are some whose owners have made a conscious effort to recreate that classic “Up North” vacation feel.

 

A case in point is the local baseball team, the Traverse City Beach Bums. There’s no better example of old-fashioned fun than a hometown baseball game, and even though they’ve only been around since 2006, the Beach Bums serve up a great blend of wholesome family-friendly entertainment at Wuerfel Park, their cozy cottage-styled field just south of town.

 

Entertainment of an equally traditional kind can be found just down the road in the village of Honor, home to the Cherry Bowl Drive-In -- one of America’s last remaining drive-in theatres. In continuous use since 1953, the Cherry Bowl still runs a traditional program of double-feature films with cartoon and such flourishes as a 19-hole 1950s-style miniature golf course. (In fact, there’s still lot of a miniature golf to be found in and around Traverse City – from Pirate’s Cove and Pebblebrook on the East Bay beach side to the brand-new “Howl in One” course at Great Wolf Lodge -- and you can’t get more “old school” than that!)

 

But since we’re talking about movies, Traverse City now offers two distinctively old-fashioned alternatives to the dreary multiplex theatres one finds on the edge of every town. The ornate 1891 City Opera House, newly restored to its Victorian splendor, offers a full slate of concerts, plays and dances, as well as a unique “downtown dinner and a movie” program where you can enjoy a discounted meal at a nearby restaurant and follow it up with a vintage movie. And the 1949 art deco State Theatre, which reopened in 2007 after an extensive restoration, also provides a schedule of classic movies and art films. 

 

For winter visitors, Traverse City offers a unique opportunity to experience downhill skiing as it was in the sport’s early days. Nestled in a deep bowl of tree-topped hills less than five minutes from downtown, the Hickory Hills ski area has eight runs served by old-fashioned rope tows, a cozy little warming lodge and a simple atmosphere that’s as far as possible from the big all-inclusive ski resorts.

 

Speaking of resorts, the area has several spots where visitors can still experience a simple rustic vacation. There are secluded forest cabins like the Ellis Lake Resort near Interlochen and the Shoestring Resort near the Brown Bridge Quiet Area, and even a full fledged dude ranch in the Pere Marquette State Forest called Ranch Rudolf. There are also quaint lakeshore rentals like the Brookside Cottages on Duck Lake, Moonlight Bay Resort on Spider Lake and Shady Crest Resort on Arbutus Lake.

 

Even on the city’s ultra-chic Grand Traverse Bay shore, there are a few old-fashioned mom-and-pop resorts tucked in among the modern newcomers: Willow Beach Cottages, the Knollwood Motel, Island View Cottages and the Lakeshore Resort -- and even a traditional 1870s-style resort hotel, the 1869 Old Mission Inn in the picturesque village of Old Mission.

 

But nothing brings back memories of times past like a traditional meal – and those, too, are still easy to find in Traverse City. Maybe it’s a basket of smelt and chips at Sleder’s Family Tavern, a 127-year-old landmark in the city’s historic Slabtown neighborhood. Or it could be a chocolate malt and a carload of fries at Don’s Drive-In, a genuine 1950s-style drive-in near the East Bay resort district. Or perhaps a slice of oven-warmed cherry pie at the Grand Traverse Pie Co. – another one of those new places that have worked hard to recreate the quality and friendliness of a bygone age.

 

That same spirit is evident in many of the area’s traditional shops and stores, of which the best example is probably Bahle’s Department Store in Suttons Bay. Bahle’s really doesn’t look as though it has changed very much in the last 70 years; it’s a small department store where the focus is on clothing and accessories, but even non-shoppers like to come here to soak up the stress-free atmosphere of small-town retailing.

 

For contact information about all of these places, help with accommodations and general travel advice, contact the Traverse City Convention & Visitors Bureau at 1-800-TRAVERSE or on line at www.VisitTraverseCity.com.