I love Michigan because we get to enjoy each season: spring, summer, fall, and winter! Springtime brings Michiganders tulips, apple blossoms, robins, and maple syrup as we watch the rebirth of the Michigan woodlands come alive. Summertime in Michigan brings us water time fun, carnivals, festivals, county fairs, and barbeques! Fall time in Michigan brings fall farm markets heaped with pumpkins, color touring to view the vivid red and golden leaves, hayrides, corn mazes, and trips to a local apple cider mill. Wintertime in Michigan is a special time filled with diverse activities - indoors and out - amid a snowy white wonderland. Enjoy skiing, snowmobiling, ice skating, and sledding. If outdoor actives are not your thing, or you are ready to come in from the snow, there is plenty of fun to be had indoors during the chillier months in Michigan! Enjoy the many museums around our state, splash around at one of Michigan's indoor water parks, get pampered at one of our state's premier spas, or sample some fine dining selections around our state!

With all that going on in our beautiful state of Michigan, who could ask for anything more! We have it all with spring, summer, and fall! And add winter to the mix and we have your “fix”!

My vision for Michigan is “Let the Good Times Roll”… And the pure joy of some Michigan summertime fun can surely be seen in my granddaughter eyes as she gets her very first ride on a carousel at a local festival as her mom looks up to capture her extreme happiness! Anyone who has ever lived in Michigan has their own fond memories of our state’s many festivals, carnivals, county or state fairs.

We all know that our state needs to figure out a way to bring in more revenue too, right! With a new program to better promote tourism in Michigan, our state can capture those vacation dollars spent and boast our state’s own economy too. My idea for promoting Michigan as the “hottest” vacation spot is to offer some monetary incentives. We could even consider offering some “tax-free” vacation days; like I have seen other states do for back-to-school shopping time, to help in promoting our state’s tourism business.

Donna Bardocz