There, just east of Traverse City, on the twin Lake Michigan bays of Grand Traverse and Little Traverse, lie the quaint resort towns of Petoskey, Boyne, Charlevoix and Harbor Springs.

Believe it or not, this is wine country, home to the Grand Traverse Vineyards.

And it is fruit country--an Eden of tart berries and sweet cherries.

This is where Ernest Hemingway spent his summers as a boy, and where many of his stories were conceived.

And this is where some of the nation's best music students and the world's greatest musicians gather each year at the National Music Camp at Interlochen--people like Isaac Stern and Yo Yo Ma and Wynton Marsalis.

In the summer, millionaires come here to stay at their summer homes, sail their yachts around Lake Michigan, and play golf at the Grand Traverse Resort, with an award-winning course designed by Jack Nicklaus.

And in the winter, throngs of Midwesterners come here to enjoy Michigan's best kept secret--downhill skiing.

At Boyne Mountain, or Nubs Nob or one of several other spots, beginners and experts alike ski on impressive trails that range in difficulty from the ridiculously easy to--for this uncoordinated reporter--the truly frightening.

Sure, the slopes are shorter than their counterparts out West, but the lift lines are shorter as well.

And at Boyne, for example, you can take a break from your skiing for a cozy fireside lunch in the lodge or a leisurely dip in the outdoor hot tub before returning to the slopes for a full afternoon, or even night, of skiing. (The slopes are often illuminated until well into the evening).

Sure, Michigan skiing lacks the enormous mountains and awesome scenery of the West.

But the Great Lakes State makes up for that with breathtaking beauty of another type--like iced-over lakes that dot the landscape and snow-covered forests that make you feel like you're skiing all alone through the wilderness, even when your only a few steps from civilization.

And so, as New Englanders visit the mountains of Vermont and New Hampshire this winter, and as millions of other Americans make the cross-country journey to the big-name slopes of the West, most Michiganders will be content just to stay right at home.

We like our friendly, small-town skiing. We like our own pristine white slopes.

And we know that the television commercials are right.

There's a lot to say YES to in Michigan.