Wine grower Bernie Rink says grapes and tourists are alot alike—both crave sun and warmth. Photograph by Will van Overbeek

| Learn more |

When folks in these parts greet you with a booming, “What part of the mitt ya from?” (and they will), it’s because Michigan’s Lower Peninsula bears an uncanny resemblance to a child’s mitten. Look at your right hand, palm up. The base of your thumb is Detroit. The tip of your little finger is roughly the Traverse Bay region, one of the most popular summer resort destinations in the Midwest.

Sloping sands inspire a mad downhill dash at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. Photograph by Will van Overbeek

Here in northwest Michigan, they call tourists “fudgies.” Evidently, the area produces a powerful craving for fudge, and opportunities to sate it abound. This is also Hemingway Country. As a youth the author spent summers here, and Horton Bay and the General Store turn up in several of his Nick Adams short stories. You can pick a Hemingway mug at the General Store.