Rick Coates

Features Rick Coates For the past 30 years the Here Comes The Sun Party on the patio of The Cove and Rick’s American Cafe in Leland (Fishtown) has been the kick-off celebration to the summer season.

Dining Rick Coates .

Features Rick Coates Scott Smith was two years old when he became “hooked” on fishing.  Smith, who has a dental practice in Adrian (south of Jackson/Ann Arbor) and place on the Au Sable River outside of Grayling, now shares his love of fishing with others. He will be one of several volunteer instructors at the 43rd Annual Michigan Council Trout Unlimited Fly Fishing School. The threeday school will be held June 7-9, on the Boardman River at Ranch Rudolph, southeast of Traverse City.

Features Rick Coates For the past 34 years Traverse City has hosted the annual St. Patrick’s Day Pub Crawl attracting not only locals but visitors from as far away as Petoskey. Now residents of Petoskey will have their own Pub Crawl this Friday, March 15 starting at 4 pm at Beards Brewery.

“I started discussing the idea with some of the bars and restaurants in Petoskey and they loved the idea,” said Charlie Ferguson, general manager of Northern Broadcasting.

Features Rick Coates

The sturdy, box-shaped building at the corner of Eighth Street and Boardman Avenue in Traverse City looks like it was built to last. And it has -- almost 100 years. But in order to survive, it’s had to become a lot of things. It started as a cigar box factory, then it was a power company service building, then it was a furniture store and then a fitness center.

For the 21st century, the building recently took on another identity -- home.

Features Rick Coates

We caught up with a few of the headliners of this week’s Traverse City Winter Comedy Arts Festival and got their thoughts on comedy, coming to Traverse City and some of their future projects.

Features Rick Coates

After a one year hiatus, Traverse City Winter Comedy Arts Festival is back and with a new partner, The National Cherry Festival.

“For all the right reasons, we’re taking our wintertime efforts that went into producing the Winter WOW!Fest over the past six years, and this year we’re putting them to great use by working together with the Traverse City Film Festival to make a world-class event that will benefit the entire community,” said Trevor Tkach, executive director of the National Cherry Festival.

Features Rick Coates Typically, resolutions are for individuals, but maybe now is the time for Northern Michigan to have a New Year’s Resolution. I have a suggestion. The time is right for Northern Michigan to work collectively to become the “culinary,” “cultural” and “craft-farming” capital of the country.

Features Rick Coates It is a parent’s worst nightmare, that knock on the door, that phone call with the words: “your child has been in a serious car accident.”

That nightmare happened for my family a couple of weeks ago. As I rushed to the scene of the accident on a highway just south of Traverse City, my first sight was several flashing lights of emergency vehicles.

Hot Dates Rick Coates Hometown heroes Jabo and Scot Little Bihlman return to return to Northern Michigan this week to join their older brother Charlie to shoot the pilot for their new reality TV show, "Blood Brothers."&nbs

Features Rick Coates There’s a saying that “blood is thicker than water,” and the Bihlman Bros. plan to prove that with their new reality TV show “Blood Brothers.”

Dining Rick Coates are a lot of schools of thought when it comes to preparing the Thanksgiving turkey. Many food experts suggest preparing two medium size birds (10 to 12 lbs) versus one large 20-plus pound turkey. Then there is the great stuffing in the bird versus not stuffing the bird debate.

Features Rick Coates It was two years ago this week that Liz (Larios) Horn’s life was turned upside down. What seemed like a scene out of a movie became a reality as U.S. Immigration and Enforcement agents arrived in black suits and vehicles to the home Horn shared with her boyfriend Russell Horn.

Dining Rick Coates Finding authentic “fish and chips” is not always an easy task as there are lots of “posers” out there. The Little Traverse Inn Gastro Pub located on the Leelanau Peninsula between Glen Lake and Leland (at the former North location) offers a signature fish and chips dish prepared in the English tradition.

Dining Rick Coates Fish and ChipsFinding authentic “fish and chips” is not always an easy task as there are lots of “posers” out there. The Little Traverse Inn Gastro Pub located on the Leelanau Peninsula betwee