The list nobody Instagrams. Where to grocery-shop on a Saturday afternoon. Which gas station's open at 11. Where the pharmacy is at six on a Sunday. The closest urgent care if the kid hits the dock the wrong way.
We list the boring stuff so the vacation works.
The full-service grocery for the entire lake — a butcher counter, one of Leelanau County's larger wine selections, Detroit-style pizza made to order, and enough beer and liquor on the shelves that it covers the closest thing Glen Arbor has to a package store. ATM, ice, firewood, and propane refills round it out. Open later than anywhere else in town on a Friday or Saturday night.
Munson Healthcare's primary care practice in Empire, covering Empire, Glen Arbor, Honor, Leland, and Maple City — the address to know for anything that isn't an emergency during a lake week. Weekday hours only, 8 to 5, with lab services next door at the Empire Community Health Center. For anything after hours, the drive to Traverse City is the real answer.
The region's major hospital and its only Level II trauma center — about 30 minutes from Glen Arbor via M-72 and M-22, closer to 40 from the far side of the lake. The emergency room runs 24 hours, every day. Save the address before a trip rather than typing it in mid-emergency; cell coverage thins out in stretches of the drive between Empire and Traverse City.