Leelanau Part-Timers
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We live in downstate Michigan for most of the year. Still, at least one weekend a month we call Empire Village in Leelanau County our home. We've been making this monthly getaway "up north" for years. Good friends of ours have a similar routine, traveling back and forth to Empire from Northville, Michigan. Now that we're nearing retirement, and the kids are long gone, the talk often turns to becoming full-time Leelanauers. I've always thought that would be the life for me. My wife - not so much. But our friends made me rethink when they suggested that being part-timers is what makes the trips up north so special. Maybe they're right. It's true that every month I take what feels like a mini vacation to the enchanting landscape that is Leelanau, "the delight of life."* I hike the dunes, play in the lakes and breathe in the sweet, fresh air. And it never gets old. But maybe this land would lose its delight if I awoke every morn