Kalamazoo, MI
The original Bell's taproom, opened 1993 beside the brewery Larry Bell started with a 15-gallon soup kettle in 1985; the oldest craft brewery in Michigan and the oldest east of Colorado, and Bell sold the company at the end of 2021. Two Hearted, voted best beer in America four straight years in the homebrewers' Zymurgy survey (2017 to 2020, the poll's final years), is always flowing; Oberon runs in season; and the real draw is the 20-plus taps of Kalamazoo-exclusive beers that exist only in this room, with growlers to go at the General Store next door. Order at the bar, eat in the dog-friendly beer garden, and catch the live music that has ranged from George Clinton to Billy Strings. Closed Mondays; open 11 to 10 midweek, later Friday and Saturday, Sunday to 9. Pair with the Air Zoo for a full Kalamazoo day, and walk the downtown pedestrian mall after.
Home to the Air Zoo — one of America's great aviation museums. Indoor flight simulators, full-motion ride simulators, and a deep collection including a SR-71 Blackbird, an F-117 Nighthawk, multiple WWII warbirds, and the only flying restoration of an SBD Dauntless Helldiver bomber. The "Restoration Hangar" is open to visitors during work — watch volunteers rebuilding aircraft. The museum spans two campuses across town. This is a major destination for any aviation-loving family within flying range.
On the field at KAZO. One of America's great aviation museums — over 100 aircraft including an SR-71B Blackbird trainer (one of only two SR-71s with dual cockpits), an F-117 Nighthawk, a P-40 Warhawk, an SBD Dauntless Helldiver in flying restoration. Multiple full-motion flight simulators and a paratrooper simulator make it especially good for kids. The Restoration Hangar lets visitors watch volunteers actively rebuilding aircraft — including ongoing work on a Curtis JN-4 Jenny. Two campuses connected by shuttle. Aviation pilgrimage destination.
The third-largest Amish settlement in the US. From 1500ft, the landscape transforms into a patchwork of small, immaculately maintained farms with no power lines. Horse-drawn buggies on country roads are visible on clear days. The contrast between Amish farmland and surrounding modern agriculture is striking from above — smaller fields, more diverse crops, and farmsteads clustered closer together. Tuesday and Wednesday are auction days in Shipshewana when the town fills with buggies.
KBIV puts you near Saugatuck, at the mouth of the Kalamazoo River on Lake Michigan's east shore. From the air the signature is the dunes: perched dunes, sand piled on bedrock by 10,000 years of wind off the lake, with Saugatuck Dunes State Park holding 1,120 acres and 2.5 miles of undeveloped shoreline. Mt. Baldhead is the big one, a 282-foot dune over the river channel; a 302-step staircase climbs the back, and the open lake-facing slope is a 30-second slide down loose sand. The Air Force ran a Cold War radar site on the summit; the building's gone but the foundations remain. The town has been an artists' colony since the 1880s, with the Ox-Bow School running since 1910, and it still has a hand-cranked chain ferry, the only one left working in the country.
A jewel of Indiana's state park system on the shore of Lake James. The legendary refrigerated toboggan track — a quarter-mile of banked, twisting ice — runs Thanksgiving through February and is one of the most unique winter attractions in the Midwest. Speeds hit 35-40 mph. The Potawatomi Inn (1927) overlooks the lake — a great fly-in stay. Steuben County's 101 lakes form a glittering blue maze from above; this is some of the best summer flying in Indiana. The park is named after Chief Simon Pokagon, the last hereditary chief of the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi.