Top Ten

6 We Like Big Boats, and We Cannot Lie

Since buying your own yacht isn’t likely this year — see our p. 12 story, “Boat Dreams … Sunk?” — what’s the harm in dreaming bigger? The best place to do it is Bay Harbor June 18–20. That’s when the village hosts its annual In-Water Boat show, an event that draws dozens of drool-worthy vessels to the marina’s docks, as well as the latest and greatest in watercraft and boating accessories to the marina’s grassy grounds. Even landlubbers disinterested in looking at floating palaces will find there’s fun to be had; live music is also on the agenda — Chris Callaja on Friday night, and the Petoskey Steel Drum Ensemble Saturday night — Bay Harbor’s on-site boutiques, eateries, market, and distillery will be open, and any kids in attendance will receive a free Bay Harbor coloring book to keep em entertained while the grown-ups play. The event starts at noon Friday and concludes at 3pm Sunday (Father’s Day, hint, hint). See www.bayharbor.com for more details.

Do Not Go Dumbly into This Good Summer: Stock up on IAF Smarts First

Summer brain drain — aka the “summer slide” — is the theory that students stop learning and sometimes even forget much of what they learned during the school year, and — get this — research shows it’s a real deal.

Before you start worrying about the hard-earned smarts your third-grader is going to lose after breaking free this week, consider your own cranium for a minute: When was the last time you fed it something more nutritional than a 30-minute series of three-minute stories on network news (or, OK, TMZ)?

For those looking to fire up their synapses before summer turns their adult brains even mushier, consider joining the International Affairs Forum’s last hurrah of the season: Its annual “Foreign Policy Mashup,” a panel discussion will dive deep into issues that’ll keep you thinking until at least August: civics in an age of partisanship, President Biden's evolving foreign policy, global COVID-19, the international reverberations of the Black Lives Matter Movement, climate policy, and more.

Bill Clifford, president and CEO of the World Affairs Councils of America, will lead the discussion; you, engaged global citizen, are welcome to draft advance questions for what is always a vigorous Q&A session. Plan to join the think tank at 5pm June 17 via Zoom. Register first by searching “IAF” at www.nmc.edu. $10 suggested donation.

EXPERIENCE THE GREAT LAKES

on the 77’ schooner Inland Seas

Great Lakes Discovery Sail Fishes of Lake Michigan Steady the Ship Great Lakes Under the Microscope What’s in the Great Lakes Food Web?

Stuff we love More Opportunities for Live Music Up North

And the hits just keep coming. Shortly after we released our Summer ’21 Mega-Music Guide, which you can peruse in perpetuity at www.northernexpress.com, Interlochen Center for the Arts announced the return of its Interlochen Arts Festival, albeit in abbreviated for, for August. Tickets will go on sale June 22 at www.interlochen.org/concerts-and-events for these performances: Chicago, Aug, 3; Harry Connick, Jr., Aug. 10; The Greatest Hits of Foreigner, Aug. 14; Jake Owen, Aug. 26; the Old Crow Medicine Show (with special guest Molly Tuttle) Aug. 28; and Buddy Guy with Robert Randolph & the Family Band, Aug. 29.

At Boyne Highlands Resort, a limited number of tickets are available for a revamped Young Americans Dinner Theater, which returns for a series of Tuesday through Saturday runs June 25 through August 28, with a bonus set of show-only (no dining) matinee performances on 2pm each Saturday and Sunday between. Call (231) 526-3152 for tickets.

Finally, we just checked, and there are still some tickets available to see Traverse City’s own The Accidentals play the City Opera House in Traverse City this fall. The trio will take the stage Sept. 28 and 29, and they’re bring along a bonus: former The Voice phenom Sawyer Fredericks (think: sweet-faced bluesy-country boy with long hair and a hat who could wail on a guitar like he’d been doing for decades). See www.cityoperahouse.org to buy tickets.

bottoms up V.I. Grill’s Grateful Dead

We assumed there would be no way to improve upon our early summer ritual of basking in the sun at Suttons Bay beach, then flip-flopping our sandy feet across M-22 to sip a cocktail at the V.I. Grill’s summer patio bar. Then we tried the Grateful Dead. And we were never more thankful to be alive on a summer day in Northern Michigan.

What the V.I. humbly calls “A psychedelic twist on a Long Island Ice Tea” — vodka, gin, rum, triple sec, and lemon and lime topped with Chambord and Sprite — did not, in fact, have us hallucinating. Yet we couldn’t help but wonder if it was our imagination that the Grateful Dead, dare we say, tasted even better than a Long Island, the traditional backbone of our very best beach days in Suttons Bay summer history? Rather than sweet, this tall and artful treat lent itself to a more confident level of pucker. Brightly sour and refreshingly light (credit to the genius combo of Chambord with Sprite, two things we’d never think to put together), the Grateful Dead perked us up instead of laid us out and provided exactly the kind of gas we needed to keep us on our sandy feet for our post-cocktail dessert: a slow and steady SUP ride back at the bay. Northern Express Weekly • june 14, 2021 • 5