Aurora Borealis ... with star trails by Ken Scott

The heat is on!! Summer is underway, with the temperature a heartbeat away from 90 degrees at Leelanau Coffee Roasting and much more sun and 80s on the way. The hot times don't end when the sun goes down as Ken Scott's photo from last night shows, so be sure to look up for the aurora borealis!

News from the Week

This week the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore reported that after several years of limited piping plover nesting activity in the Glen Haven area, four pairs of the federally endangered shorebird have made that beach their home for the summer. It's an easily accessible location provides visitors an excellent opportunity to view a rare bird in its natural habitat, as well as have questions answered by National Park Service employees and volunteers who will be on site throughout the nesting season. Click through for all the details and a video!

We also had a cool video on the history of Leland that includes some great old photos.

Jacob Wheeler of the Glen Arbor Sun writes that in addition to the most beautiful place in America, second healthiest place nationwide, Leelanau County is on the verge of becoming a prime bicycle destination too! He took a ride down the nearly-completed first phase from the Sleeping Bear Dune Climb to downtown Glen Arbor on the brand new Sleeping Bear Heritage Trail. The  trail officially opens on June 20, 2012 and could one day stretch 27 miles, from the Leelanau-Benzie County line to Good Harbor! Click here for the video.

The Sun also notes that Leelanau County will collect household hazardous waste and electronics on Saturday June 2.

Come to the Traverse City Wine & Art Festival on Saturday, June 30th

Coming Events

Leelanau Peninsula BirdFest

The Second Annual Leelanau Peninsula BirdFest takes place May 30 - June 3. It's a chance to see more than a hundred different species of nesting birds, including the rare Great Lakes Piping Plover. There's all kinds of field trips and special guests including Jerry Weinrich, "Godfather of the Kirtland’s Warbler" and keynote speaker Greg Butcher, the Director of Conservation for National Audubon.

2012 Leland Wine & Food Festival

The Leland Wine & Food Festival returns to the Leland Harbor on Saturday, June 9, 2012. Come enjoy a day in Leland's historic Fishtown tasting wines from local wineries and food offerings from local restaurants and vendors. There's also live music in the park all day and of course plenty of beautiful views of Lake Michigan and the Manitou Islands. Admission is $12 and includes an etched wine glass and two tickets for wine tasting. Click the link for participating wineries and food vendors.

Some other events include the Fiber Frenzy at the Old Art Building (May 25), Leland Wine & Food Festival (June 9), Leelanau Artists at the Old Art Building (June 1), "Pots and Paintings" at Center Gallery (June 1),  HOUSEHOLD HAZARDOUS WASTE collection (June 2), Traverse Colantha Walker Dairy Festival (June 10), Glen Arbor BBQ and Brew Festival (June 16) and the Glen Arbor Solstice Half Marathon & 5k (June 16).

The Bay Theatre in Suttons Bay has the new Tim Burton film Dark Shadows (PG-13) starring Johnny Depp, Michelle Pfeiffer and Helena Bonham Carter playing through May 31st.

The Weather

It's a glorious 89 degrees under sunny skies  at Leelanau Coffee Roasting in Glen Arbor. The record high for a May 24th is 93 degrees from 2010. That's just out of reach in contrast with the waaay out of reach 25 from 1956. Expect winds to pick up and temps to remain in the upper 80s for the rest of the day. We might get some rain overnight with gusty SW winds at 15-25. Tomorrow will be a little cooler, but beautiful with sunny skies and a high in the low to mid 70s. The weekend outlook calls for a high around 80 on Saturday and then near 90 on Sunday and Monday with a 30% chance of showers all three days but plenty of sun as well!

Chris Johnson shared his photo from last night of the boat launch in Glen Arbor. Click it for a larger view and visit his Facebook page for more!

More weather resources for Leelanau & Traverse City on the Leelanau Almanac!

Empire Bluffs trail by Pettman's Photographic Memories

After a few weeks of crisp temperatures, we've moved quickly through springlike and are headed into summery! Get ready for the 80s because it's going to be an amazing weekend!!

Under the Enough Already with the Mostest Bestest heading comes news that National Geographic has selected Traverse City and the Sleeping Bear Dunes as one of their ten best summer trips. Added to the Sleeping Bear Dunes' designation as the most beautiful place in America by Good Morning America last summer and it's clear that our region is a white-hot tourist destination. Read on for more...

Everything is popping in the woods and wilds and Sarah has pulled together a great list of forage-able foods that you can find in Leelanau. There's well-known ones like leeks, dandelions, watercress and (of course) morels and also lesser known treats including lamb's quarters, cattails and stinging nettles.

LVR Realty - Your Source for Real Estate in the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore

Coming Events

The Glen Arbor Sun has features on a pair of great upcoming events...

Empire Asparagus Festival

The Empire Asparagus Festival turns a nifty nine this weekend. MSN dubbed it one of the world’s weirdest festivals. It kicks off Friday night eith a screening of the History of the Sleeping Bear Dune Rides at 6:30 PM followed by a dance and pig roast from 7-10 PM with music by the Benzie Playboys, pork by Art's & beer by Right Brain. Saturday features at 5K Kick Ass-paragus Fun Run/Walk (10 AM), Asparagus recipe cook-off (11 AM), the Ode to Asparagus poetry contest at 12:20 (check out last year’s winners) parade at 3 PM and the Asparagus Eats, Wine and Beer Tasting under the tent downtown from 11 AM - 4 PM.

Leelanau Peninsula BirdFest

The Second Annual Leelanau Peninsula BirdFest takes place May 30 - June 3. It's a chance to see more than a hundred different species of nesting birds, including the rare Great Lakes Piping Plover. There's all kinds of field trips and special guests including Jerry Weinrich, "Godfather of the Kirtland’s Warbler" and keynote speaker Greg Butcher, the Director of Conservation for National Audubon.

Some other events include Artist in Residence Presentation at Glen Arbor Art Association (May 17), The Pinafore Pirates at The HAP (through May 20), Spring Dance - Lake Leelanau VFW (May 18), Tweed Ride TC (May 20), the Fiber Frenzy at the Old Art Building (May 25) and the Leland Wine & Food Festival (June 9).

The Bay Theatre in Suttons Bay has the new Tim Burton film Dark Shadows (PG-13) starring Johnny Depp, Michelle Pfeiffer and Helena Bonham Carter now playing.

The Bluebird in Leland invites you to their Ethnic Dinners every Wednesday and Thursday through the winter & spring. Their season is winding down, but you can head out tonight and next Wednesday & Thursday for the "Best on Ethnic Night" dinners to close out the season!

The Weather

It's a glorious 73 degrees under sunny skies at Leelanau Coffee Roasting in Glen Arbor. The record high for a May 17th was 91 in 1903 with the the low of 25 set in 1983 (we got down to 32 this morning so it's quite a range!).  There's a chance of rain overnight but our weekend outlook calls for sunny skies and mid to upper 70s on Friday, sunny & 80 on Saturday and Sunny and low to mid 80s on Sunday. Like it? Get used to it as there's 70s in the forecast all the way though Memorial Day!

More weather resources for Leelanau & Traverse City on the Leelanau Almanac!

Sand & Shadows. by John Levanen

It's been a very busy time at Leelanau.com. More precisely, at Leelanau Communications, Inc., the company that produces Leelanau.com. In addition to a lot of work for the Leelanau Peninsula Vintners Association, including the forthcoming Traverse City Wine & Art Festival, we've been working to redo Leelanau.com to take advantage of social media including Facebook, our Leelanau.com Flickr group and our This Week in Leelanau email.

Last week the northern lights made an appearance over Leelanau, and Ken Scott got out and took some great shots! There's one below and you can see more in his Northern Lights slideshow or on his Facebook.

Northern Lights are usually a rare treat but lately we've been seeing them more often. A little over a year ago astronomer Dick Cookman - who owns Enerdyne in Suttons Bay - noted that we are right in the middle of the best aurora borealis viewing in a decade, so hopefully there's more on the way.

Ken also has a short aurora time lapse and you there are also see two short time lapses by Guy Strong that you can watch here and here.

Real Bikes with Bear Power!

In addition to signs in the sky, we've also seen signs of spring in the form of morel mushrooms and cherry blossoms. Both are out there now, though the morels are fairly elusive and the cherry blossoms sparser than normal. Another sign of spring, pair of Sandhill Cranes, were caught at Glen Lake by Mark Miller.

Coming Events

Artist in Residence Presentation ~ Thursday, May 3rd

Linda Walker from Mattawan, MI, is a muralist and decorative painter while pursuing a Graduate Teaching Certificate in Art Education at Grand Valley State University. She will use her residency to focus on plein air painting with the goal of expanding her professional portfolio. Attend her presentation Thursday night at the Glen Arbor Art Association Office.

Spring Sip & Savor Wine Tour ~ Friday, May 5th & Saturday May 6th

Join the 19 wineries of the Leelanau Peninsula Vintners Association the weekend of May 5-6, 2012 for the Leelanau Peninsula Vintners Association’s annual Spring Sip & Savor wine trail event. In addition to food & wine pairings at each winery, participants are encouraged to participate in the Sip o’ de Mayo Hat Contest try to win one of the prizes that many of the wineries will be offering and the fabulous Grand Prize.

A few other items of interest from our Leelanau Calendar at the Suttons Bay Powwow this Friday from 1:30 - 9 PM, the Traverse City Chocolate Festival this Sunday from 1-4 PM and a pair of Leelanau Chamber events, the Business Expo from 11-6 on Wednesday at the Strongheart Center and the Chamber's Business After Hours next Thursday at 5:30 at Sugarfoot Saloon.

Many more on the Leelanau Calendar!

The Bay Theatre in Suttons Bay has Salmon Fishing in the Yemen (PG-13) starring Emily Blunt, Ewan McGregor, Kristin Scott Thomas ending tonight. Starting Friday is 21 Jump Street (R) starring Jonah Hill, Channing Tatum, Brie Larson, Dave Franco, Ice Cube.

The Bluebird in Leland invites you to their Ethnic Dinners every Wednesday and Thursday through the winter & spring. Their season is winding down, but you can head out tonight for Italian and next week for Southwestern featuring Camarones Cozumel, Tortilla Crusted Snapper, Manchengo Chicken Chili Satays and Black Bean, Corn, and Portugese Sausage Nacho w/fire roasted bell peppers & Jalapenos!

The Weather

It's 60 degrees and raining hard at Leelanau Coffee Roasting in Glen Arbor as severe thunderstorms rake the area. They've dumped buckets of (hopefully) morel-bringing rain with more to come. The record high for a May 3rd is 88 from 1955 with the low of 22 set in 1967. Highs are expected in the low 70s today. Rain and thunderstorms will continue overnight, bringing up to an inch of rain by tomorrow. Expect rain to move out tomorrow by noon, bringing mostly sunny skies with highs in the mid to upper 60s. The weekend outlook calls for sunny skies and low 70s on Saturday and mostly cloudy skies and low 70s on Sunday.

Forecast Radar Cameras Photos

For the latest Leelanau & Traverse City weather you can use the resources on this page.

Coming Events

Check the Leelanau Calendar for events.  You can click that link to add your Leelanau & Traverse City events to the calendar for FREE! Not only will they be distributed with our weekly newsletter, but they may be a featured story on Leelanau.com!

More Weather Resources

Please also check the less pessimistic Weather.com forecast)

Weather Underground is just about as old as the internet (the first net weather service) and is located in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Sometimes the above banner will show personal weather system data from Leelanau Coffee in Glen Arbor, sometimes from Leland and sometimes it comes from a vineyard on Old Mission (it tells you which in the top left of the page it links to).

Buoy 45002 in Lake Michigan is located halfway between North Manitou Island and Washington Island in Lake Michigan. It provides wind and wave data. Also check out Michigan Sea Grant Coastwatch for water temps (the "early evening" images in their archive will give you a better idea of actual temps during peaks swimming hours ... in seasons where you might actually want to swim!).

Ken shot this on Saturday in Omena. Check out his Omena slideshow for more!

Trish took this shot on Pyramid Point - check it out bigger and view it on her map.

Ken caught the sunrise - click to see it bigger and check out Ken's snow slideshow!

This week's photo was taken by Mark Miller at Empire Beach. See more of his great work in his slideshow.

This week's photo is Flying Crane by GLASman1. He captured it this May in the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore . See it background big, on his map or check out more shots in his Sandhill Cranes slideshow. You learn more about these majestic birds and see another shot from Mark on Michigan Birds: Sandhill Crane from Michigan in Pictures!

This week's photo is Sundrenched by jakphoto. See it bigger and in his slideshow and see more photos from this week in Leelanau in the Leelanau(dot)com group slideshow on Flickr.