Up North Blog

Bob and family are camping and traveling in the Western U.S. for 2 weeks.  Here’s two more stories from their adventures. Yesterday afternoon, we went on a third hike in Joshua Tree National Park.  This one was called Jumbo Rocks.  The boys dashed down the trail ahead of us.  Around us were boulders stacked in every […]

It’s 10 pm and I just realized I left the kids pajamas in a suitcase in an outside compartment of the camper.   It’s our first full day in AZ and I’m exhausted, so I say, “We’re sleeping in our underwear.”  The boys are fine with that decision and we squirm into our sleeping bags and […]

We are planning our projects for the year.  Would you like to chime in on what work should be our priority?   Serving baked goods and ice creams in our TC store too?  Getting pies baked in Ann Arbor?  Offering tours and contests in Glen Arbor?  A Cherry Republic in Shanghai or Washington DC?  Sound off […]

Steph is on a National Outdoor Leadership School adventure in the mountains of Arizona.  The kids are nearly 5 and 7 so she now has a chance to focus on her own personal growth and renewal.  The new year is a great time to do this. Is it life’s own law that we humans tend to […]

Here are some emails we received when we asked if Cherry Republic had any role in making good memories for 2012: Bob – Your wonderful newsletters full of the touching stories about how you are raising your boys to be such lovers of life, nature and family. Supplying rehearsal lunch guests at my son’s wedding in August […]

As the New Year arrived, I have been working with my staff on our three year goals.  And we put some big growth goals in our A3 that left one of my staff asking “why go to all that trouble to grow Cherry Republic?  What’s the meaning of it all?” There is a fine line to […]

The Lutheran Church surprised everyone in town by decorating their big beautiful spruce with well orchestrated blue lights.  Hawthorn, my 4 year old, even glowed over it.  There is the entryway to Bear Paw Pizza. Here is a view of Art’s Tavern.  It takes them three days to decorate up for for the Holidays.  Christmas in Glen […]

We would love your input on our giving.  Please email us a few paragraphs about who you will be donating to this December and why; and if you give your time to the group as well. Starting on this Saturday, December 1st, we will send out checks of $500 to $10,000 to organizations in Northern Michigan […]

We had some wild weather in the past month.  My friend Charlie Crouch snapped this photo on Sleeping Bear Bay during a big storm. Here is a video of the winds 1000 miles from Hurricane Sandy. Colebrook and Hawthorn OD’d on candy. The boys playing on a giant nest of sticks. Hawthorn posing with a hatchet before […]

Since I was 14, I’ve had a dream of being in politics.  Well, I got my chance at 30.  I ran and won a seat on the Leelanau County Board of Commissioners.  Being a commissioner was without question, the toughest thing I have ever done.  I should have just done one term and gotten back to […]