The National Cherry Festival kicks off right around the fourth of July weekend. For those of us luck enough to call the region around the 45th parallel home, Cherry Fest is the point in the summer that our sleepy little towns’ populations seemingly quadruple in size and hold steady until the end of September. It’s big do-in’s here Up North. Here’s what the festival folks have to say about it:
The Grand Traverse region, known for its world-record tart cherry harvest, bursts with visitors eager to savor the flavor of cherries tucked into everything imaginable. Each day Festival goers find cherry delights along with parades, family and kids events and entertainment. In all, there are more than 150 events along the shores of Lake Michigan & Grand Traverse Bay. The Festival has been named in USA Todays top ten festivals for several years running.
Yeah, Cherry Fest is kind of a big deal. This year, Hubby took the week off so that we could relax a bit and enjoy the festivities. Well, we enjoyed the festivities, anyway. With so much to do, we were on the go all week long soaking in our festival favorites.
Being that I live with 5 males and therefore take a daily dip in the testosterone pool , the classic car show is a big attraction for us. Hubby likes cars based on the model year, what kind of engine it has, and other guy kind of stuff. All I know about cars is that I’m drawn to purple ones like a moth to a flame.
Like this Ford Falcon. The deep purple color got my attention.
Then the swirly pin-stripping drew me closer–it was just so…so...girly!
But it was the sparkly silver steering wheel that put me over the edge. What’s not to love: great color, girly accents, sparkles. This Falcon is the perfect car for me. Well, except for the lack of seat belts and room to haul around my kiddos. Sigh. Perhaps some day.
In the mean time, I’ve decided that all my van needs to be a sweet ride is a little sparkly bling on the steering wheel. And Holstein print seat covers. Oh, and I’m going to need to have it painted purple. Hubby won’t let me is totally on board.
Son #3 was all about this motorcycle because it had a side car. He declared side cars to be the “coolest thing ever in our world.” He wanted to take a spin on that bike in the worst way. That is until we explained that you can’t drive a motorcycle from the side car. That was a total deal-breaker in his eyes. He briefly mourned the loss of his phantom career as a motorcycle driver.
But he quickly forgot all about it when he saw this zippy little number. Five year olds are fickle like that.
Son #1 thought the Viper was more “his style.” Yep, that’s a quote.
Son #2 spent his time at the car show trying to identify which vehicles were modeled after the characters in Disney/Pixar’s Cars movies. There was no convincing him that the characters in the movies were modeled after real vehicles, and not the other way around. That’s my boy.
Hubby is drawn to boat-like large, fast, imposing vehicles with floating suspensions and big engines. Or something like that.
It was apparent early on that “Car People” have a fun & quirky sense of humor.
I was totally amazed at the sheer number of classic cars on display–there had to be close to 200 spread out over several blocks. We had a great time appreciating the restoration efforts of so many car enthusiasts. It’s fun to daydream about owning one a beautifully restored classic like the ones we saw at the show. With all of our different preferences, our biggest issue would be choosing a car that we could all agree on. Oh, and the fact that none of us knows how to fix or restore cars. Because there is that tiny issue, as well.
Luckily, a classic car replica vendor was on site to cater to the non-mechanically inclined dreamers like us.
And the boys each got a car that fit their personalities.
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