Ka3kab

Ok, now I just feel like an idiot. I've seen the movie twice now, once at a theater and once at home on DVD. I didn't even notice, and I usually notice stuff like that. I'll just say it's because I wasn't looking for it.

Ok, so I didn't get out to Williamsburg today. I had to take my girl over to the State Hospital to look for leaves for a leaf collection. Boy, do I miss elementary school. So I took some pictures over there instead. Hopefully though, I will be able to get back over there to the casino soon. Most of these pics are of the more dilapidated buildings still sitting over there just waiting for some help. I understand that it is coming, just slowly. There are some of the buildings that have been finished. Anyway, enjoy. I have to be honest, being so close to halloween, some of these places were pretty creepy even at 2 in the afternoon.

So I was driving out to Bellaire yesterday and came up M-72 East. As we got closer to the casino in Williamsburg I saw something poking out of the sky. Sure enough, the Hotel is practically up, although nowhere near completed. I had forgotten all about it and therefore did not have my camera with me. I will go out there this weekend and put up some pics of it. The thing about the hotel though is that it is right next to the road, pretty far away from the casino itself and they took out some parking lots and put up this god awful looking amphitheater. That looked completed, but I really, really hope not. I was pretty hideous looking. I will show you this weekend.

Here are a few more. The first couple are of the Zoo being demo'ed. Couldn't really get in too close, the fence is still up, and they really haven't tore too much down yet. It is going to be a little wierd with it being gone. It's still wierd with the power plant gone, but its not like the power plant served much purpose anymore. For those that didn't know, it was only fired up (it was a coal fired plant) during really hot summer days when the power grid was near capacity. But the zoo, come on. I hope that they don't just turn it into more parkland. That may sound a little funny, but that whole side of the parkway is parkland. I'm not hoping they develop it commercially, but something else should go there besides more grass and trees. Maybe an amphitheater or skating rink, or something like that. Ok, enough. Here are the pictures.

It's been a long time since I went out and snapped a few pics of town, so I thought with it being 85 friggen degrees in the middle of September, why not. I have a few shots of the new Bank of Northern Michigan (BNM) building in here. It is still not finished on the inside, but you can finally see what it looks like. I'll start with them. The rest are just some randon shots walking around downtown and in the Open Space Park.

Bubba's on Front St. and The Blue Tractor on Cass St. downtown are fairly new, they may have even been open in May '06. Bubba's and the Tractor both offer pretty normal fare. A couple of exeptions are bubba's gigantic burritos and the Blue Tractors huge plates of macaroni and cheese. Friggin' delicious. Other than that, there is a new Mexican restaurant on Garfield called Agave. They have really good tamales. A couple of chain places have opened also (BOOOOO!). Hooters and something else. Hooters is out on 31 near 4 Mile and something else opened in the GT Mall, Garfield's, I think. Dammit I'm hungry. As always, there are a ton of choices for food here. Hope you enjoy.

That is correct. That it why places like MBS in Freeland, Flint Bishop and Ford in Grand Rapids are all considered International Airports. Hell, even Sault Ste. Marie has an "International" airport, now that is a boring airport. It has nothing to do with runway length or terminal specs.

I'm not positive because I have never worked for a hotel, but it seems that the chain hotels lower their rates to around $100 or lower but the locally owned places (at least the nicer ones, Grand Traverse Resort, Bayshore Resort, Cherry Tree Inn, etc.) tend to hover around $125-$150 until winter rates kick in around November. I imagine that it has to do with the fall color tours. Now, full disclosure here, my Girlfriend does work for a hotel in the area and believe me, the $129.00 rate is much lower than the $189.00 they were charging just a week ago for a room without a view, no hot tub and 1 or 2 full beds.

The weekends can still be busy around here, that probebly being the one of the last busy ones, except for when fall colors peak around the first and second week of October. As for things to do, not really much in the way of touristy things. Boat rentals/parasailing closed up this past weekend, although golf courses are still open (at really discounted greens fees ) and the wine tasting places stay open all year. But as far as crowds go, they are much smaller and to be honest, a bit older which is neither a good or bad thing.

Still no progress on Federated's building site that has been cleared. It just sits there empty and fenced off. No news on their other development (the eight story across the street from the above mentioned project). Nothing new to report on about Snoden's two buildings slated for Front and State St. Work is almost finished on the interior of the new downtown branch of the Bank of Northern Michigan (no pictures to post, sorry). Thought I would update since there has been no activity here for quite some time.

Never heard that one before. Sometimes when it rains, just like any other coastal Michigan town, it smells like fish by the water. Other than that, I've got nothing.

Here are a couple of articles from the Traverse City Record-Eagle about a couple of the projects intended for west Front St. downtown. A quick rundown of them is that Federated Properties Michael Uzelak (the Traverse City manager) is leaving the company for reasons not given. The President of the company says that all plans are still a go and that he will be taking over. On the other side of the street, Federated says they are almost ready to break ground and start work on their 4 story mixed-use building with a completion date set for early '08. TCRE - Uzelak Gone TCRE - 124 W. Front a go

So I did make it down to the Cherry Fest Three times this week, but man, did I not take a lot of pictures. So I'll share what I have, but I didn't get any shots from the Open Space. Walking down Union Street between Front and the Parkway just before we got dumped on by the rain. Hooray for the Carnival. Some crazy guy juggling fire and knives and doing it while on a unicycle, all the while talking like a pirate. Saturday night before the fireworks.

Poor, poor me. The new view from my new office. Plus my sweet company vehicle. Ok, I'll stop. I'm going to finally go down to the ol' Cherry Festival tonight. I will post some pics later of it.

Great, like the Detroiters and Chicagoens weren't bad enough. Now we have to put up with a bunch of New Yorkers. Oh, come on now. I'm just kidding. Great article, escpecially if you are a wine person. If you haven't been to any of them and you like wine, you should really check them out. They have come a long way in the past 10 years.

Who doesn't get swimmers itch in that lake. One poor kid was covered from head to toe in the stuff, he looked miserable. As for working there, it's pretty fun actually most of the time.

Yeah, like he/she said. They will be back next year. As for keeping the economy going, I know it does. It just gets so crowded in this tiny little town, remember it is a very small city even though the locals will have you believe we're only five years away from being as big as Detroit (I swear to God, I have heard people say this). If you get out and go down to the festival it's fun, if you have to sit out and take care of these people, it's a pain in the ass. Just for your information, I work for the DNR at Interlochen State Park just south of Traverse City and it has been a very busy, loud, complaint filled week.

It has begun. National Cherry Festival 2007 is in full swing, and as much as I think I'm begining to dislike it, I went down anyway. I had to, I can't become one of these jaded locals who end up becoming a hermit the first full week in July. So, I went down to the airshow. Have to be honest here, if the Blue Angels aren't in it, it's kind of boring. Here are some pics anyway, enjoy.

They are/were old, but nothing like the kind you would find in Central or Old Towne Neighborhoods. Nothing like that, if thats what you meant. These were just a few dumpy looking places right on Munson (US 31).

A little late in replying to this, but today is the first day I've been done that way. One of the houses has been demo'ed and is lying in a pile right now, the other two are just sitting there still with the tape on them. No idea what they are doing to the property though.

Nothing that I haven't posted in the past week. Just waiting and waiting for the Cherry Fest. go get here and get over with. I hate it, I'm becoming a complete local, I used to love the festival. Now I just want it to get over with. Too much traffic, not enough infrastructure. Oh well, at least I'll be way out in Interlochen most of the week.

Haven't seen it. I haven't been down that way in a while, now that I'm driving to Interlochen to work now.

It looks nice down there in the square with the green grass.

OK, I will respond to my own post. It said in the Record-Eagle today that while demo work has begun on work at the 3 story Federated site, nobody seems to know when actuall construction will start. That includes the city, county and Federated themselves. It really is a bad time of year right now for projects like these. The cherry festival gets in the way of everything until the 14th of July. I bet sometime after that date everyone will have a better idea.