by Tracy
(Michigan)
Several years ago my husband and I took a trip from our home in Southeastern Michigan to Manistee, a beautiful little town along the shores of Lake Michigan. It was love at first sight.
This first trip was a weekend getaway with friends. We stayed in Frankfort, Michigan which is a little ways North of Manistee. The motel we stayed in had been converted from an old school building and it had all the charm of small-town Northern Michigan.
We did a lot of driving around and exploring that weekend and that is when we drove through Manistee and fell in love. Manistee seemed to have it all. Small-town atmosphere with the amenities of city life nearby and easily accessible. There were amazing restaurants and miles of beaches along the shores of Lake Michigan.
We took several more trips back to Manistee after that first weekend and loved it so much we strongly considered moving there. We went so far as to investigate the schools and connect with a realtor to show us some homes for sale.
We spent many hours dreaming of what it would be like to live "Up North" instead of just vacation there. In our minds it was like heaven on earth. In the end we decided that we did not want to be so far away from family and friends, but Manistee still holds a special place in my heart as the representation of a life that could have been.
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