My grandma lived in Florida for almost three decades, where she became a very discerning shell collector. When we visited the beach with her on our vacations, it was always on the Gulf Coast, at any number of locations along the short stretch between Clearwater and Fort Myers, including the seashell haven of Sanibel Island. …
I have always been obsessed with weather. I can remember a tornado warning one day after school. I was probably in 1st or 2nd grade, and the sky was greenish-gray while my friend’s mom picked her up from our house. And I remember another tornado warning when my mom ushered my brother and me to …
I grew up just a couple hours from Cedar Point, one of the largest amusement parks in the U.S., and when we lived in Florida, we were only a half hour from Orlando, plus we visited family there and I went twice with my high school band. I love roller coasters, but I am generally …
I’ll qualify this post by saying that affordability and distance from family are not considerations for this list. I’ve made it assuming that I could live comfortably in any of these places and have access to those I love most, whenever I want to see them. I also didn’t include anywhere in Michigan, since I …
I am currently on a weekend trip with three of my closest friends from high school. We’re staying in a house just across from Grand Traverse Bay, on the northernmost tippy-top of the Leelanau Peninsula in lower Michigan. It’s an amazing spot, and I love these girls, so I’m a happy lady right now. In …
Welcome to a new series on my blog where, every Saturday, I'll choose a theme and ramble--perhaps coherently--about six different but related topics. Since today is the first installment, I’ll start with Six Firsts, listed in chronological order: First Airplane Ride: When I was 18 months old, my mom and I flew from Detroit to …
October is here, and it’s feeling pretty anticlimactic. October is the month I desperately look forward to each year. For more than a decade, Octobers have been a carefully planned and meticulously executed string of events, carrying us from one weekend to the next until suddenly, it’s All Saints Day. It’s a whirlwind of orange …
I was born and raised in Michigan and lived there (mostly) until I was 24. Then I moved just south to Ohio, where I lived for 13 years. I have a big place in my heart for these two Midwestern states, and writing my book, which is set in both, as well as on the …
Recently I visited a local historic site for the first time. The structure was built in the 1880s, and for the next 70 years, it served as a center of education for African-American students, first from the town, and later, the entire county and regions beyond. It’s a history we’ve all heard, of “separate but …
Our family vacation in the summer of 1990 was a road trip from southeast Michigan, through Ohio and Pennsylvania, to Boston, with a quick stop at the Statue of Liberty. What a whirlwind! I never really thought about it until I had kids of my own, but that was a pretty ambitious road trip, considering …
Andrea Green, Author 