Favorites for Spring

Chasing cherry blossoms
In spring, Michigan's Old Mission Peninsula is a sight for sore eyes.

Making waves
The ever-expanding indoor water parks in the Wisconsin Dells have so many rides and slides that it's hard to know which one to pick.

Spring bird festivals
After a long winter, birders welcome the return of feathered friends.

Living in a lighthouse
Around the Great Lakes, volunteers keep the light on for tourists.

Bicycling in Minnesota
This state's long, paved trails draw eager riders from around the nation.

Camping without roughing it
Here are 15 state parks close to all the comforts: restaurants, shops, golf courses, even nightlife.

The chocolate cure
When winter drags on, drown your sorrows with sweets.

A roof in the woods
In state and county parks and forests, visitors love their camper cabins.

Spring in Door County

On Wisconsin's Door Peninsula, a vast array of wildflowers rewards those weary of winter.

Goldthread and gaywings. Bogbean and trailing arbutus. In Wisconsin's Door County, it's enough to make a naturalist hyperventilate.

Cherry blossoms and daffodils are the showiest spring flowers on this tourist playground between Lake Michigan and Green Bay. But it's the wildflowers, many of them rare, that provide the most joyous proof that spring has arrived.

On sandy ridges, the first flower spotted often is the once-common trailing arbutus, whose waxy white blossoms emerge in April.

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Wildlife reality show

Web cams open a window into the lives of bald eagles.

In the northeast Iowa town of Decorah, two pairs of nesting bald eagles have become an international phenomenon.

Not only do they have a constant stream of live video, but avid watchers are snatching the best episodes — capturing the many dramas that go on in and around the nest — and posting them on Youtube for everyone to enjoy.

The Raptor Resource Project has dubbed them Nestflix and posts links to the highlights on its Facebook page, along with regular and often entertaining updates and explanations.

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Cheap spring getaways

Here are 20 ways to have a fun weekend getaway that costs $100 or less.

After a long winter, everyone deserves a spring getaway.

On a budget? No problem. Spring is the best time to find deals, and often the weather is stellar.

In Wisconsin's Blue Hills, help out at a nature preserve and stay free. In central Iowa, learn orienteering and archery at a women's skills retreat. In Chicago, have a sleepover in a museum or stay at one of three hostels during Craft Beer Week.

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Waterfalls of the North Shore

As snow melts along Lake Superior, the rivers start to roar.

Up north, all of the snow that brought you great skiing just keeps on giving when spring arrives.

That's when it turns into waterfalls, roaring down river gorges and misting awed onlookers.

One of the easiest places to see lots of big waterfalls is along Minnesota's North Shore, where dozens of rivers roar down into Lake Superior. Where there's water, there's a waterfall.

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Best of spring

When warm weather arrives, it's time to tiptoe through the tulips.

Winter seems interminable, and cabin fever hits hard. When spring finally gets here, the challenge will be to get out there and enjoy it in the short window before summer gets here.

What to do? Go on a spring drive, see fiddlehead ferns unfurl and surround yourself with that delicate shade of chartreuse that seems to tint the air green.

Look for wildflowers, kayak on cattail-lined creeks, stalk morel mushrooms and watch Dutch dancers clogging on the street.

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20 great spring hikes

The scenery along these lovely trails will put a spring in your step.

What's so great about hiking in spring? That's easy — there's so much to see.

Move your feet in any direction and you'll run across wildflowers, waterfalls and, best of all, sweeping views that last only until the trees leaf out.

Head out before summer makes its brash appearance, with walls of greenery and fleets of bugs.

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