Kitch-iti-kipi, The Big Spring, Palms Book State Park, Michigan’s Upper Peninsula

To be as clear as Kitch-iti-kipi…
GreatLakesGazette.com is our passion and the personal project of tourism and communications professionals. This is not a comprehensive, all-inclusive travel guidebook. It’s more of a travel journal, with specific recommendations, based on our experiences and observations in Michigan, mainly, as well the other seven states and the Canadian Province of Ontario that make up the Great Lakes region.

GreatLakesGazette.com is about the places, people and things that we find interesting, think others would like to know about, and believe are worthy of sharing with the world.

All material is copyrighted and may not be used without permission.

All stories and photos are by and the property of Kath Usitalo unless noted (with the exception of certain file or archival material—I wasn’t there to photograph Sousa or Einstein, for example).

In pursuit of content for GreatLakesGazette.com we:

• make most of our discoveries on our own by setting out on a deliberate course or by making a wrong turn (no GPS in our vehicle) and stumbling across something cool.
• follow-up on tips from readers and tourism office experts, and occasionally join a media tour or take an individual, guided press trip.
• often pay for our travels and meals on our dime, although sometimes we are offered a press rate and we do accept invitations from destination marketing offices, lodging properties, museums or restaurants if we think they will be of interest to our readers.
• accept review copies of books, music, films, gear and other consumables, but often purchase the items we write about.
• generally feature only those things we’ve experienced first-hand, but at the Great Lakes Gazette Blog we post info about upcoming events, contests, free resources, trivia and places we’d like to visit that sound interesting enough to share and have put on our “To Do” list.

At all times we promise to share our honest impressions and useful information in the most entertaining way we know how.

More fine print about GreatLakesGazette.com:

• We provide links to the subjects we cover to make your research and planning easier; we accept no payment for the links and have no control over the content at those websites.
• Stories are based on our impressions and our experiences; we cannot guarantee yours will be the same.
• All information at GreatLakesGazette.com is current at the time of publication.
• Although we do periodic updates on the material we cannot be held responsible for changes, closures or Acts of God that may occur at the locations we feature. Check before you go!
• We are not liable for any actions, events, losses or damages that result from your reading, planning, traveling, sharing or otherwise using the information found at GreatLakesGazette.com.
• We’re not lawyers, travel agents or tour operators. We are independent travel journalists who want to tell you about Michigan and the Great Lakes region as we know how—through our impressions, words, pictures and drawings—and hope that you have a great time exploring the region with the information we share.

For information contact kath@greatlakesgazette.com