BerettaFest 2012 Traverse City Michigan Proposal

[DTMAce]

BerettaFest 2012 Traverse City Michigan Proposal



Click picture to view Traverse City Guide!

June 21-24 2012

Get your swimming trunks and your sand castle tools... We are hitting the beaches!!

Welcome to Traverse City Michigan! There are literally hundreds of places to visit, things to do, and sights to see! Not to mention dozens of public beaches, beautiful lake sights, plenty of opportunities to get out and about!

Itinerary (to be finalized)

Thursday, June 21st

12am-4pm check in at the hotel. More hotel details to follow!

5pm to 10pm - There are many options. Go-Karting, ZipLine, Mini-Golf, and... Bumper Boats, complete with water canons to shoot each other with! Prices are pretty decent actually. And there are other activities as well, all this in one place! Or you can go roam the city!

Friday, June 22nd

10am-4pm - We will be taking a driving tour of the city. There are a couple of museums, as well as lots of places to see, with a stop for lunch. I will be your guide, as I'm planning a route with stops at various locations, ending with a visit through The Pierce Stocking Scenic drive. This particular 7.4 mile trip, goes through beautiful scenery, beaches, even a tunnel bridge. LOTS of opportunity for pictures! Yes, the beretta's will be seen all over town!

5:00pm - 10pm - Drag racing available (1/8th mile) at nearby (~30 min) Northern Michigan Dragway. There are some 1/4 mile strips, but they are much farther out. Will update this post with the closest soon. (unless someone beats me to it, lol)

5pm-whenever - For those not interested in drag racing, there are casino's in the area. Those who might want to take a small gamble and try their luck, we can check them out. There are also plenty of things to go do and see as well, and since this is pretty much YOUR free time, do what you want to do! I will have a full list of places/activities/restaurants available in your package details.

Saturday, June 23rd

~10am-4pm - Picnic! Planning to have the picnic at a local state park. Currently working details out. Regardless, one park or another I'm planning for a beach side or beach location.

5pm-6pm - Group picture time. I will be organizing the location for this so we can hopefully have a smooth and short time of it. We may even be able to squeeze this in at the park.

Rest of the day is yours to spend however you want! Click the picture above for ideas!

Sunday, June 24th

We say our goodbyes and farewells. Lets make BerettaFest 2012 a great event!

[DTMAce]

Yes, I'm still working to finalize items for this proposal, just a matter of
confirming some pricing for various things and location requirements for the
picnic. I have calls/e-mails sent and inquiries done. I will also be taking a
trip myself to TC to help plan things very soon. Look through the Traverse City
site, if there are things many of you want to see or do, we can make sure its
part of Friday's events.

[ShaneLT(ShaneZ26)]

I like it. Would be good for us from Ontario. I know its only acouple hours from sault ste marie and like 3 hrs from Detroit. I know I would try and go. PR even St. Ignace and we could go to Mackinac island for a day or something. Just a thought.

[Beretta_gal]

I am all for this location!!!! Vegas for me is just too far away!!! Traverse City has my vote!!!

[heavywoody]

Maybe those complaining about heat and or natural scenery should look into MI... Upper Michigan and the UP offer some fantastic scenery; something most people that don't live in MI know little about.

[DTMAce]

Just got a call back from the go-kart place. If we had even a minimum of 20 people to drive, the cost can be as little as $5.20 a person and it gets cheaper with more people. We can stage heats if we have a lot of people, just have to work them in with other visitors in between. (we can run our heats with just those of us in the group, but we have to share track time is all). Average time for a run is 15-20 minutes. 6 laps I think it is, but they may be very accommodating. I can put something in concrete (a racing schedule) with them if TC is chosen for Fest.. They also have many other activities that we can do while waiting to run a kart, etc. More people that go, the more we can save.

Edit: That price is 5.20 per person per run! But it gets cheaper if we have more people.

[DTMAce]

I like it. Would be good for us from Ontario. I know its only acouple hours from sault ste marie and like 3 hrs from Detroit. I know I would try and go. PR even St. Ignace and we could go to Mackinac island for a day or something. Just a thought.

Well you can go to Mackinac Island from either Mackinac City or St.Ignace, the difference is, you have to cross the Mackinac Bridge to get to St. Ignace first and that costs around 3.50 a car right now. Ferry rides to the island there are around 20 a round trip per person. Plus the ferry to the island is roughly an hour - hour 1/2 from TC.

Nice idea though. Lots of other places to visit within a reasonable driving distance too. Plenty to do right in TC too though! lol

[3X00-Modified]

Maybe those complaining about heat and or natural scenery should look into MI... Upper Michigan and the UP offer some fantastic scenery; something most people that don't live in MI know little about.

Bfest where there are hills and trees and possibly below 95* during the picnic... Your crazy!

[heavywoody]

I try to live up to that statement...

I'd love a NE proposal... hint hint

[DTMAce]

Just an update. Got the pricing (group rate) for family suite rooms at the hotel I have been working with. Normally 279 a night. Our price is 129. Occupancy is 4 per room, additional is 25 per person per night. Plus taxes, etc. I have requested 30 rooms at the moment. There are MANY bonuses to staying here (some are an additional 10 bucks), but not bad. I dare not say much more though. I only have 30 days from today at this price to get rooms blocked as they stated there are other groups wanting rooms that weekend.. Bit of a problem, but I might be able to get someone to work with me on this. I also have a few leads on a couple of other places, but this is the place to be staying at. Price may be a bit higher than some would like, but no higher than Indy was this year. Those of us grouping together on a room would also save as I have done in the past. I have been told there is plenty of parking areas, I will do a personal scouting of the place myself if we go forward with this location. Finding a hotel in TC is really not going to be a problem. Just looking for a place that we can have a lot of fun even at the hotel is what I'm after.

[3X00-Modified]

HA... Maybe I'll have Amy throw her NE proposal up for the nationals, but I think that has about as much chance as a west coast one... Everyone did say Niagara was about as east as it will ever get.

[DTMAce]

Wanted to clarify a point that was made by Jon earlier to me in PM. With regards to the hotel options, I do have more than one choice that I can go with that will do fine for us. But the one listed has a few perks to make it really worthwhile, even if a bit high. I still need to clarify a few things with them, working on that this week, the biggest concern brought to me is our parking lot habits. LOL

Anyways, if that particular hotel option is not in our best interest, the choices should only get cheaper per night. Just thought I would mention this, if that will help some of you gauge your interest. As I have nothing in stone with anyone yet (till approval happens) I can still flex and change things quite easily. I do promise to stick by the proposal and do what I can to make it easy for the committee (staff) to make it a very enjoyable event.

Regardless what place we all vote to go to, I hope that we all have a great Bfest 2012 and make the most of it!

[woody90gtz]

Sounds pretty good so far.

[13's or bust]

im in for traverse city..

[Kyle Anderson]

Thank you for putting this together Chris!

I'm from Manistee, which is about an hour south. I'll be living fairly close up til Bfest and will help in any way I can.

There are many hotels along the beach, so the usual parking lot shenanigans could be moved to the shore. Traverse City is a very popular tourist destination in the summer, and the city will be busy. This is a smaller city than previous years, and it will be more relaxed than previous fests. You can expect mid-70's to 80 in late June, and a steady lake breeze is normal.

The Leelanau peninsula is an amazing drive, and Sleeping Bear Dunes lakeshore was just ranked the number one scenic destination in the country! Climb the dunes and get a spectacular view of Lake Michigan. There are endless great driving roads, including M22, which winds through the Leelanau Peninsula and along Lake Michigan. The area has several vineyards, if wine tasting is something that interests you. Grand Traverse area has many paved trails, and there are several places that you can rent bikes from. Of course, you can also relax on the miles of sand beach. This is the destination if you want something to do outside!

Leelanau State Park is a possibility for a great picnic/show area.

If you're looking for night life, there are many bars, breweries, and a couple clubs. Traverse City native Michael Moore has restored the beautiful downtown State Theatre, which now shows several different movies every day.

If you have kids, the Great Wolf Lodge indoor water park will be sure to excite.

Northern Michigan Dragway is where I raced for a few years. An 1/8th mile track is a ton of fun. It's fast-paced, and driver skill is important. You can run continuous laps and get in an easy 20-30 runs... definitely get your money's worth (usually $5-10). The track owner, Sharon Ledford, has welcomed groups in the past. I came across a Grand Prix meet was held a few years ago, and they were given their own class and time to run.