Remember the picnics we had at the springs / The sails in the moonlight, the Sunday night sings / The calm of the lake in the dawn's early light / Leelanau, Leelanau, land of delight. So goes the song quoted in the opening graph of this NY Times piece. And, as the author says, we often add another line "And don't tell anyone else."

That's kinda how I feel about articles like these. I cringe. I'm afraid that Leelanau County will be "discovered" and overrun with tourists gripping their torn-out copies of this or another guide to Leelanau. On the other hand, the piece does remind us (as if we could forget) what an absolutely wonderful place this is.

One last thing. The author details the natural splendors, the restaurants, the wineries. And those are all good. But what is that's so heart-rending about the song quoted at the start of the article? Isn't it the picture of the families singing this song as a summer up north ritual? For many of us, Glen Lake or Lake Leelanau or wherever was the place we came together as families. The families may be gone (replaced by other young families, no doubt). But the place endures.