National Cherry Festival Day One
I hope that posts will be a mix of Traverse City happenings and Internship happenings, I will try to find a balance, but I would be remiss if today, July second, I did not start by writing about CHERRIES.
I had never given much thought to our national “cherry capital” but that’s because I had never had the opportunity to spend time in Traverse City Michigan. You don’t have to be here long to realize that Traverse City is just that, the cherry capital of the country and, therefore, host to the National Cherry Festival. If you didn’t notice from the Google searches, the cherry souvenirs in all the gift shops, or the street banners on every street light, you would certainly have to notice now. Now that the festival has officially begun.
There is everything: cherry socks, cherry peanut butter, cherry spreads, cherry shirts, cherry jam, cherry aprons, cherry ice cream, cherry pie, even cherry underwear, if you can imagine it, probably you can find it here with a cherry on it. But what is surprisingly difficult to find are actual Michigan cherries. Or at least that is what I hear.
Apparently, cherry festival was once later during the cherry harvests, but was moved years ago to take advantage of the fourth of July tourism. And it worked. Today the streets were packed, the beaches were more crowded than I have seen in a month, and Saturday Farmers Market was relocated to make way for the largest collection of fair rides I have ever seen. (Yes, there are TWO Ferris Wheels)
So after I made my way through the neon lights and over to the two stages, vender area, and beaches, I had gotten over my initial surprise about eating potentially WA grown cherries in an area of MI so focused on local food. I bought myself a cup of cherries and happily weaved my way through the sweaty crowds. I am sure there will be more festival related adventures in the next week, but taking my first handful of cherries for the summer, was certainly a good way to start.