Published: July 05, 2008 09:42 am         

Residents, tourists enjoy Fourth of July

TRAVERSE CITY -- Relatively few people strolled down a sunny Front Street as Reed and Barb Draper enjoyed their coffee.

The Traverse City couple took in the blue sky and mild temperature early Friday morning at a small table outside Good Harbor Coffee & Bakery. They're spending the holiday weekend on their boat, which sat moored in Grand Traverse Bay, and they ventured into town before the crowds arrived.

"We definitely do enjoy Front Street more than the mall," Reed Draper said. "All the places are fun."

But the Drapers knew a rush of people would soon clog the city streets and sidewalks, so they planned to escape to their 31-foot Sea Ray and observe the holiday action from a safe distance.

"We get on our boat and we don't get off it," Reed Draper said with a grin. "...It's just a big people-watching extravaganza."

The crowds came as the hours passed, and downtown Traverse City bustled with people and energy by midday. Residents and visitors hovered around the busy city shops and flocked to the beaches on the bay, and a seemingly endless flotilla of boats choked the beach west of the city marina.

Franklin, Pa., resident Nancy Hoeft, who once lived in Traverse City, drove in for the weekend to visit her family. High fuel prices might have kept her away if she didn't have those ties.

"Without my family I don't think we'd venture this far, and part of that is gas," she said.

Grand Rapids residents Gary and Mary Beth Mitchell made the trip, and the couple leisurely shopped along Front Street. They've been to Traverse City before, and they decided to come again this year.

"The weather in the summer (is nice)," Gary Mitchell said. "It's not too hot, it's not too cold, and being by the water is just great."

High gas prices led them to use their smaller car for the trip, he added.

"When you don't get very much time off, you really want to (get out and) do something," he said. "But we economized wherever we could."

Robert and Rosemary Grozenski, of the Detroit suburb of Washington, have been coming to Traverse City for "years and years." Friday was Rosemary's 80th birthday, and the pair reflected on the changes to the city since they first started coming up in the 1960s.

Among those changes, especially in recent years, is a more vibrant downtown, Robert Grozenski said.

"There's a lot of new stores, a lot of front changes on all of them, it makes it look real nice," he said.

Traverse City still has a small-town feel, the Grozenskis said, but it's become noticeably busier with the passage of time.

"It's just grown," Robert, 81, said. "More and more people seem to be coming up."

Dennis and Susan Woodward of Warsaw, Ind., ventured up to Cadillac for the holiday weekend, and they chose to spend Friday in Traverse City. The region's maritime atmosphere is a big draw, they said.

"I like little harbor towns and stuff like that, and this is kind of a central point to do it," Dennis Woodward said.

Tom McManus eagerly offered his signature hot dogs to the hordes of people who filtered through downtown. McManus' hot dog stand is a summer fixture across the street from Horizon Books, and he laughed and joked with those who stopped by to sample his dogs that "snap but never bite."

"I'm a people person; I just have a lot of fun with people," McManus said.

But those people will exhaust him by the time the holiday weekend is over.

"I can't wait for Monday to come around," he said with a grin. "It gets tiring; the line never ends."

Debbie Murdick, manager of the landmark Doug Murdick's Fudge in downtown Traverse City, busily prepared fudge early Friday. Like McManus, she finds interaction with her customers rewarding.

"I just enjoy having the people come in and comment about the fudgemaking and how neat it is," she said. "The kids are always cute (and amazed)."

Local artist Melodee Rupert sat and sketched a jewelry display in a downtown window. She's glad summer's here, she said, because it brings out the best in the region.

"We're close to the northwoods, and I'm a northwoods person. And the water of course, that's a given," she said. "There's a lot of beauty up here."