Things To Do In Kalamazoo And Growing Up In Michigan’s Upper Peninsula

 

Episode Transcript

Hello everyone. And welcome to another episode of the in Michigan podcast. I am your host, Ryan Radue, AKA that Michigan guy on TikTok, Instagram threads. And we’re here today with my very good friend and YouTube powerhouse, Latasha James. Yes. Hello, Michigan. Should I say? Yes. So I wanted to bring Latasha on because she has experienced kind of growing up in the lower peninsula of Michigan, while also visiting frequently the upper peninsula as well.

So we’re going to talk about all things Kalamazoo UP, being kind of a Yooper at heart, I feel a little bit too. Yeah, you’re born a Yooper. So all that and more coming up. You know, when we have a guest, I like just kind of diving right into the nitty gritty, the new giddy center of the conversation.

So with that being said, what was it like kind of being born in the UP? Being a Yooper. Let’s first talk about the UP experience. Yeah. I’m actually really curious about that. Yeah. I mean, I was born in Marquette, Michigan. Way up there. Way up there. The true UP, the, the biggest city in the UP, which only, I just looked it up recently and I think there’s only like 20,000 people in there.

So it’s the biggest city in the UP, but has 28,000 people. Yeah. That’s crazy. So pretty small. I only lived there until I was two. My mom, So my dad was in the Air Force. There used to be an Air Force base up there. That’s how he got up there. I was curious as to like, yeah, how you even got up there in the first place too.

Right. He was from Baltimore. My mom grew up in the UP though with six siblings. So big family, like, Yooper genes, Yooper legacy, but she just, she always wanted to move just for, there’s a lot more opportunity downstate and especially like with me being biracial, it just wasn’t super diverse up there.

So we moved when I was two, but my family lived downstate. And I still have family up there. I was gonna say you still have family up there. Yeah, and so my sister and I would go up, all my family, but particularly my sister and I would go up like almost every summer and spend at least a few weeks up there with my grandma and grandpa.

And like I said, my mom had. has six siblings. So most of them lived up in the UP too. Lots of family to visit. And then she ended up making her way down to Kalamazoo area. You’re like, you’re, that’s where your parents kind of decided. Yeah. Do you know why they kind of picked that area? Yeah. So my dad actually picked it for us.

He was from well, the Baltimore area. So he was very much used to a city and you know, lots of just totally different world. Yeah. And he was in the air force and then he wanted to go to school. So he went to school to become like an EMT medical field. And he really, it was his dream to go to Western, which is where my alma mater.

So I feel like I did him well by, you know, Living out his dream. Yeah, but that was always his dream to go to Western. I didn’t know that. Yeah, he actually never ended up going to Western. But, yeah, that was one of the reasons that he wanted to live there. And also, like I said, he just kind of knew that it was a good sized city.

Kalamazoo is around 75k. Okay. So, it’s small. It doesn’t feel dangerous and scary, but it’s also it’s very diverse like culturally That was something that like I said was really important to both my parents for raising us and you know Just reflected our family a little bit more. Yeah. No, I get that a hundred percent I didn’t know that your dad wanted to go to western too.

That’s so funny Yeah, it’s like oh, that’s just an adorable story. If somebody was going to kalamazoo for like a weekend Yeah, what would you suggest they do? Should they stay? split it up between Kalamazoo and maybe another city close by and go a little further like to Grand Rapids? Yeah. Or is there like, can, can Kalamazoo kind of have enough in itself?

Yeah, I mean, I think it depends on your vibe. Like Kalamazoo, you know, Kalamazoo and Grand Rapids are different in that Kalamazoo, or Grand Rapids definitely feels like, you know, there’s like this downtown square and like, it’s definitely a bigger city. Yeah, it’s, it’s definitely, I think there’s like 200k in Grand Rapids.

So it’s, It’s quite a bit bigger. So if that’s what you’re looking for, do that. But if you are like, chill, you want to go check out some art, eat some good like farm to table food, maybe listen to some music, maybe go to a brewery, there’s a lot to do in Kalamazoo on its own. There’s also a lot of beautiful nature.

That’s one of my favorite things to do in Kalamazoo whenever I go home. I go to this Reserve called AL Sabo. There’s another one. El Sabo? Yeah. S A B O? Yep. Okay. It’s A L Sabo. Just for anyone looking it up. Yeah, it’s my favorite place. It’s E L Sabo? A L. Al Sabo. Okay. Yeah, like El Sabo. There’s another one, Kleinstock.

Like, there’s a lot of really nice hiking trails and stuff like that. I didn’t know that either. Yeah, a lot of nice coffees. So, I mean, for my vibe of just kind of like chill. Yeah. Go to maybe my favorite bookstore in Kalamazoo, which is called This Is A Bookstore. Shout out to them. I mean, there’s a, you can pack a weekend for sure.

If you want to have a little bit more action (in the Kalamazoo area) or maybe if you have kids and you know, they need a little more entertainment or whatever, I say do the beach towns in Kalamazoo. So growing up. My second hometown I would say was South Haven because you know That’s where in high school as soon as we got cars every single weekend that it was nice out It’s 40 minutes to Lake Michigan.

You just reminded me that my friend Steph Because she had friends that went to Western she went to I’m trying to remember but she said that she would always come Up to that area. And so like the after college after classes, they would always go to South Haven. Yes. It’s the place to go. So yeah, I would say, you know, you could do like Saturday, do the beach, do South Haven day, Sunday, go to Kalamazoo, get some nice breakfast, bookstore, hang out.

Like, I think that’s the way to do it. I like that by the South Haven too. Cause I just went there for the first time last summer is the one with the famous red light house. Yeah. That if you’ve seen a red light house or just a light house in any Michigan photography, It is this it is this one Like to me like it is quintessential after someone who’s made Michigan content for so long I can’t tell you how many times that has come across.

Yeah photos videos anything really? Yeah south haven’s a really it’s a really cute Would you would you say that kalamazoo almost has like a cool hipstery vibe? Based on what you’re saying like for people’s definition of what they kind of expect hipster means Okay, so if I had to describe kalamazoo, it gives like My new, my, where I live now is Ann Arbor-ish.

It gives Ann Arbor, but like, way less money. Yeah! So it’s a little bit more Yeah, a little bit more relaxed, a little more blue collar. Like, I like it in that it is very diverse in all ways. In that there are like Very hippie people, but then there are also just like truck drivers and like just like your normal like blue collar People and I love that like it’s a very humble town.

It’s kind of simple But yeah, it does have this very quirky and very progressive slant to it. Mm hmm And it yeah, it’s very welcoming and it’s it’s a special place. I like the word humble town You’re always you’re always very good with just new adjectives that like are associated with things and I feel like that’s nice to hear Kind of like branding for it, too.

Of like a fun, humble town, where you can even have a little bit of beach activity with it, too. Yeah. So going up to the UP, when you would spend your summers there, were you going back to Marquette, all the way up, or were you kind of checking out other areas that other family might be into? Yeah, pretty much all my family lived in Marquette.

My grandparents, though, actually lived in a very small town, maybe 40 minutes away from Marquette, called Big Bay. Yeah, literally Big Bay. There was a movie about something that happened. I’ll have to send you the name of it. Yes, please do. At this like, random bar in Big Bay. It was like a murder. That got famous from this movie kind of scene or something.

Yeah. But there’s literally like, 300 people in big bay. Maybe I’m exaggerating. Maybe it’s like a thousand, but I mean, it is 300 to a thousand for a city size. Nobody, nobody’s there. I mean, shout out if you are. People do for everyone who’s ever seen me on my TikTok lives, the Michigan TikTok forum. I do sometimes get just people calling in from like the really small cities across Michigan and they’ll say it.

I’m like, I’ve never heard of that. And there’s always, every time there’s always one city I’ve never heard of. And that sounds like one of the cities that like somebody would be like, I’m from shout out from big Bay. You know, or I love it. I love it. We love our Michigan small towns. But yeah, so we’d go up there and they had, they had a big, You know, a large amount of property and they actually had a seed company, which is very interesting for like flowers, like just like growing.

Yeah. Just like native. It was it was called Borealis. And so it was all native Michigan seeds. Oh, so they would go out into the woods. And, you know, pick the plants, the seeds, whatever, bring them back, and then, like, send, you know, sell them to, like, the DNR and other government organizations and individuals and stuff, so that was their little, like, post retirement kind of business.

And so that’s what my sister and I spent most of our summers doing, is sitting at the kitchen table, listening to music. My grandpa was a musician as well. He loved music. And we would just sit at the kitchen table, picking seeds apart, cleaning them, getting them ready to be sold. How nature filled, really?

I mean, like, cause if, for anyone who hasn’t been to the UP, to me, it feels like just untouched world. Where like, you walk through the forest, and you’re just like, you can tell people have not treaded here very often, and that it feels very pure still. Getting to have that vibe, plus literally seed, so, like, cleaning?

Like seed sowing, seed something. You I feel like, I mean, you’ve always been very, I think you and I are similar, that we’re like 50/50 city/nature. Would you say that that really, like, one, you have a music interest. Mm hmm. I can’t help but think that was probably huge for you. For sure. To like, be like having this super nature time with music and your family.

Yeah. Like, do you think that those summers really, like, Formed a piece of you and oh kind of like keeps it with you, you know Yeah, absolutely and in the UP in general, they’re really they tend to be very big on conservation, which I really love I mean sometimes they can be I don’t know. Sometimes it can have the stereotype I guess of being a little bit like old school and like You know, not necessarily being a little like Luddite, like, like not wanting to adapt with the times, but I actually love it.

I think it comes from this approach to conservation and like wanting to keep that beautiful land untouched. And so, yeah, that was definitely instilled in me. And then, yeah, the music thing, it’s like, That’s just like small town stuff, you know, I mean, what do you do? What do you do in big bay? That’s the name of the episode.

What do you do in big bay? Make a flute or a fiddle like my grandpa did or one of my favorite photos of him I can share it with you if you want. He made a Bass out of a, a silver garbage can. A trash can. He made a standing bass. Yeah. And like we would just play music in the garage. So what do you do in Big Bay

Yeah. What do you do in Big Bay? Yeah, Big Bay. Yeah. Oh, that doesn’t my mic. Big bay, right? That’s beautiful. No, I feel like I agree with like. When you go to the UP, even the speed limit is like max 45 for the most of the time you’re driving around, I believe.

Don’t quote me on that, but it’s like, you’re not going like 70 like you are in the rest of the state and just like blowing through, like, you kind of have to sit and enjoy the ride almost a little bit. For sure. And yeah, like, for certain things, like, I say stay, stay, like, stay the way, keep it humble, keep it cute, and let nature thrive because I feel like as the world, I mean, Michigan alone with the fresh water situation, we have, I think we have 25 percent of the fresh water in the world is our Great Lakes.

Yeah. So on top of that we have this beautiful nature preserve that is the UP. For sure. It’s nice to know that you have, that there are family members of yours kind of like up there trying to, you know, kind of keep it, keep it clean, keep it pure. For sure. All my aunts and uncles, like, for the most part, I mean, I had An aunt who passed away, but she was a park ranger like so yeah, and her daughter My cousin is like studying birds being amazing.

Like so, you know that culture definitely Also worked in conservation so yeah, it’s definitely like yeah the culture and even you have someone who like went away but still visited. I feel like you still have that. Yeah. Nature. That spirit. That spirit. Yeah. Yeah. I guess with it. Have you been to Tahquamenon Falls?

I have not. Or. Do you know Sufjan Stevens? Side note. No. Okay. Well, we gotta talk about that. He’s a Michigander and he has. Wait, is he the Yooper guy on TikTok? No. No, that’s a little, that’s old time hockey. No, I gotta, you gotta listen to Michigan, the album by Sufjan Stevens. Oh, and he has a song called.

Okay Well also RECCO for everybody else too who’s watching. I’m gonna check it out. But there’s their song about Tahquamenon. Yeah. Oh, okay Well, there you go. And Romulus and all kinds of places. Really? Yeah. I’ve never heard of it. I gotta check it out. Well, Tahquamenon, and then there’s, have you been to Chap, like the Pictured Rocks Lakeshore?

I haven’t. I have not been anywhere in the UP. See, that’s interesting, though. Except for Marquette. That’s, that’s all the more reason why I’m happy to have you on here, because I feel like you’re offering where I haven’t personally gone myself, UP wise, like I’ve never been to a Marquette area. Yeah. But I was going to say, for anyone going to the UP, there is Marquette, which if you want to keep driving to There’s even Copper Harbor, which is where the aurora lights are said to be, like, very pretty.

It’s one of the more northern parts of Michigan, but then from there, I don’t know if you have, if you read up on this at all either or have been to that area You can like take a plane from copper harbor to Isle Royale Okay, I have a good Isle Royale story. Okay, give me it. Well, so my grandfather He was one of the original people.

Okay. I don’t want to mess this up I make this sound way better way cooler than it is, but if i’m not mistaken He is one of the people who like mapped Isle Royale when it was becoming a state park. Yeah, so yeah, I have a cool claim to fame there casual You Yeah. Like Casual Michigan. Cool. Claim. It was a young, yeah.

I think he was like in his twenties when he, you know, got this job to go help map it out. Yeah. Him, I believe, and his brother did too. And there’s also a really good movie about I io I, it’s hard honestly. io right? . We don’t like to pronounce letters. Period. Here in Michigan, let alone Isle Royale.

Yeah. It’s called Angelique Abandoned. And it’s just about a movie about Isle Royale? Yeah. You’re giving us all these media recos with songs and movies that we probably have not heard of. I mean, I haven’t heard of these things. Yeah. I feel like there is a lot of cute Michigan content out there that probably hasn’t made it to, you know, I mean, part of the reason why I’m even making Michigan content myself is to like surface what beauty Michigan has.

So I’m really happy to have you on here to like share like there’s media. There’s a song about Michigan that I actually use in a lot of my early TikTok videos. Yeah. That people were like, Oh my gosh, I cannot get that out of my head now. I forget the name. I’ll try to find it and link it in the description.

But it’s like Michigan. So it’s very pretty little like. And it talks about things, but But yeah, Isle Royale is the official most northern part of Michigan. I believe. Because it’s an island that’s like past Copper Harbor. And you can hike on it. I mean, you can hike the trails that literally have been set forth to us by someone Grandfather in this room.

But, oh my gosh, that was Man, we went, we went deeper into the UP than I thought we were gonna get there. I know, if you ever want to do an aisle, Isle Royale trip, let me know, because that is That could be our, I was just thinking that me and you have to do another trip. Yeah. And I know that you can actually fly up that way.

Yeah. It’s on my bucket list. Yeah, me too. But it is just kind of like you have to be a little more intentional about it, because it’s not just like, oh, let’s fly up. And it’s nature heavy. The people that I know that have gone up there, they said you can camp, but it’s very like, you have to have just like the tent and then you might encounter a lot of wildlife that, you know, like wolves, things like that.

And that you can do the different hikes, but you can have a center base. Or you can really rough it and like be backpacking it, doing the hikes up that way too. So leave a comment down below. Honestly though, cause I mean the Michigan community, in the comment section on anything or feel free to shoot me a message.

If you know more about Isle Royale, I’d love to share it on my stories because I think it is like going to the tippy top, you probably get a very, just different Michigan than you probably ever experienced before. So I definitely want to give people that reco and I kind of want to put on my in Michigan site too.

So as a blog post, but well, I feel like we really went deep on some Kalamazoo and UP recos. If anyone doesn’t know, LaTosha is a big YouTuber, she does videos on freelancing and really helping anyone who’s starting to freelance figure out a path, maybe digital media wise, into how you can be your own boss and really sustain yourself.

Is there anything you want to say? Shout out outside of that. I love, I love Michigan. No, seriously. Thanks for what you’re doing for the Michigan community and thanks for having me. Yes. Well, thanks for coming on and for everyone listening, feel free to leave a rating on this podcast. If you like this episode or shoot me a message, if you can I just like, I’m just saying it and I heard you say, If there’s things you want us to talk about on the podcast or certain guests they want to have on, feel free to shoot me a message on Instagram.

Check out other videos I have about Michigan. Of course on Instagram, TikTok, I’m starting to, like I said, post some threads more of just a little more off the cuff things that you can kind of join and be more conversational with. And other than that, I will see you all again. Bye.