"Akron is NOT in the NORTH!"

Here at the start of 2014 I have come to the realization that I have raised a climatically-conditional snob!  Believing, as Calvin's father does, that cold weather, does indeed, build character...

my son has taken issue with the recent car commercial featuring a Santaesque salesman who, when asked about where he goes up north, kindly and matter-of-factly replies, "Akron". To that my son vehemently responds to the television, "Akron is NOT in the NORTH.  Michigan is The North!"
To honor his dedication to The North and the State of Michigan and to present my mother with a keepsake gift this Christmas, I took inspiration from an old map I found up at the cottage of Houghton Lake and translated it through Foam.

 The finished piece is 12"x12" and fits nicely into a collectible t-shirt frame.  I can't wait to present it to my mom, who still lives in the cottage on the East Bay of Houghton Lake (the REAL NORTH!) that her father and mother built by hand in the 1940's, but the weather and distance have kept us apart this Holiday Season. 

To you and yours...a very HAPPY and SAFE NEW YEAR!!