scubish.com: Scuba diving Michigan - USA

Understand

Michigan is the only state in the U.S. consisting of non-contiguous non-island territory. The Lower Peninsula has the majority of the population (primarily in the south), while the Upper Peninsula, separated from it by Lake Michigan and a bit of Lake Huron, is mostly rural. Until 1957 the only way to drive from one to the other was to go all the way around Lake Michigan, or take your car onto a ferry.

Each Michigander carries a map of the state at all times. Stick out your right hand (palm toward you) and you have a map of the lower peninsula. Stick out your left hand (again with your palm facing you, fingers pointing to the right) and you have an approximate map of the upper peninsula. So don't be surprised if a resident tells you where a city is by pointing at his hand.

Michigan's economy was previously dominated by the auto industry, but has diversified somewhat as that and other traditional manufacturing industries have moved their facilities elsewhere, and it's beginning to attract more information technology, life sciences, and high-tech manufacturing jobs. Tourism is a growing segment of the economy, focusing in winter on activities in the snow, and in summer on the state's extensive beaches, lakes, and rivers. Hunting, fishing, and sailing are also popular outdoor activities.

Eat

If you're planning a trip into Michigan and you want to check off the "must-eat" local specialties, then there are four things you really should be sure to try while you're here. Interestingly, they're all centered around the northern parts of the state, so if you want to try them in their homeland, you'll want to be sure to visit the area from Traverse City to the UP.

The pasty (which rhymes with "nasty", not "hasty") is a traditional food in the Upper Peninsula, made with meat (usually beef), potato, onion, and sometimes rutabaga, wrapped in a light dough with a crimped edge. They originated from Cornwall, in southwestern England, and were brought to the area by Cornish miners who emigrated to the UP. The miners' wives would take everything that was left from the Sunday dinner, chop it up and wrap it in a semicircular pastry case, for their husbands to warm on their shovels and eat for lunch. These days, you can find pasty shops along highways in the UP, although their hours of operation may be limited.

Michigan produces rich, creamy fudge, made from milk, sugar and usually chocolate, although you can find vanilla, peanut butter, mint, praline, cranberry, and many more flavors. The most famous fudge in the state has been made on Mackinac Island since 1887, still by hand, shaping and cooling it on marble slabs, right there at the shop.

Not surprisingly, lake fish is popular in Michigan, particularly whitefish and lake perch. Most restaurants in Michigan that offer seafood will have at least one of the two somewhere on their menu; you can find it broiled, fried, smoked, made into salad, or planked on cedar with whipped...