Leave the lounge chairs at home and reinvent your beach day with three sun-soaked adventures. Survey the city from five stories high, fly across the water on wind power, master the waves from the deck of a massive ship. Whatever your pleasure, we guarantee you'll never look at Grand Traverse Bay the same way again.

A good way to start? Spend a wild weekend on the water with Broneah Kiteboarding's "Northern Exposure" kiteboarding camp. Brothers and co-owners Matt and Keegan Myers keep class sizes to a minimum, no more than six students per weekend - allowing for one-on-one training time. Kiteboarding is a fast-growing sport, popular in places like Hawaii and Western Europe; it involves a rider strapping his or her feet to a board and holding onto a bar connected to a large kite. By maneuvering the bar, the rider is dragged across the water on the board and can lift into the air to pull stunts - a seasoned kiter can jump as high as 30 feet in the air. Not sure if you're cut out for kiting? The Myers claim anyone at any age can learn; it's just a matter of determination and a willingness to respect nature's elements. By the end of the weekend you'll walk away with a new hobby, new friends and a deeper appreciation for two of Michigan's best natural resources--wind and water. (231-392-2212)

Looking for even bigger air? Get high with a sky-scraping ride courtesy of Traverse Bay Parasail. For 15 minutes, a very long 15 minutes  that brave souls can dangle from a parasail up to 500 feet in the air. Several hundred feet of line is fed out from a boat, allowing those in the parasail to experience a rare bird's-eye view that stretches from both bays all the way to the city's limits. If the thought of going it alone gives you the willies, consider sharing the experience with a friend for a tandem flight. Holding hands is optional. Reservations are recommended; no penalties if the weather does not cooperate. Expect to spend about a half hour on the total excursion, from dock to water to dock again. (231-929-7272)

Balance out all that airtime by planting your feet on the deck of the Tall Ship Manitou,a sturdy and stately replica of a 19th-century cargo schooner. Call ahead to reserve a two-hour midday, afternoon or evening cruise; prices include boxed meals on some excursions. The midday and afternoon cruises are perfect for families. Kids can look up at the giant billowing sails and pretend to be a pirate cruising the high seas. If your family is strictly a party of two, sign up for the more subdued evening cruise. Stand with your sweetie at the helm and let the breeze tangle your hair, give the crew a hand, or simply lean into the wind and consider the feeling of freedom that comes with cruising open water. (231-941-2000)

Finally, rest those sea legs at Boathouse Restaurant (14039 Peninsula Dr., 231-223-4030 ) for fantastic food and a decidedly delicious view of the bay. Grab a table on the patio out back in the evening and you're guaranteed a sweet sunset over West Bay. Your time on the water might be done for now, but with dishes like fried tempura asparagus and crab-topped whitefish on the menu, you'll be glad you returned to the dry land.

MyNorth.com, the vacation site of the North, is refreshed daily by the staff of Traverse, Northern Michigan’s Magazine. Deborah Wyatt Fellows is editor-in-chief.

Hiking in late afternoon from the Gillette Sand Dune Visitor Center toward Lake Michigan, we quickly emerged from the forest to open dunes. It may have been February, but the winds off the Great Lake had swept the snow off the rolling hills of sand, which, in the low angle of the winter's sun, took on a golden brown hue.

We trudged across the sand and then stopped on the beach, stunned at the sight: Lake Michigan was open water, but the shoreline had been transformed into a thick shelf of ice and frozen formations that on this clear, cold day glittered like a jeweler’s display case of diamonds.

This is the season for ice hikes. For the next four to six weeks adventurous families and others can head to the nearest Great Lake to take in some of nature’s greatest sculpture: shoreline ice.

Call it winter beachcombing. Those long stretches of sandy shores that you love to stroll during the summer are just as interesting in February and March, after the prevailing winds have piled up ice bergs into craggy but impressive shapes and figures.

Arrive on a calm day like ours, and each jagged edge of the ice becomes a prism reflecting the sun into sparkles of light and bands of color. Better yet, try to arrive on a windy day when the surf is rushing toward you. The waves disappear under the icy shelf, and then suddenly erupt through cracks and holes like mid-winter volcanoes.

Any Great Lake shore can provide this spectacle to some degree. The most impressive ice is found in the western Upper Peninsula along Lake Superior in Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park, where the volcanoes are so big, you could climb them.

The most accessible volcanoes — eruptions that can be witnessed without leaving the warmth of your car heater — are found at the northern end of Lake Michigan where US-2 skirts its shorelines just west of St. Ignace.

We ventured to P.J Hoffmaster State Park on the outskirts of Muskegon.

From just outside Gillette’s visiting center we picked up the park’s half-mile Lake Michigan Trail and headed west for the big blue. The trail begins as a massive boardwalk and viewing area that are handicapped accessible, designed to allow everybody to experience the solitude of the sheltered back dune.

From the boardwalk the Lake Michigan Trail continues as an easy-to-follow path, even in the winter, until it breaks out of the hardwoods and pines into the park’s grassy foredunes. In about three steps we went from the sheltered winter forest to a sweeping view of the beach; we headed toward the lake and then gingerly walked onto the frozen shelf and across its ragged surface.

We peered down at its overhanging edge, made smooth by the continuous slaps of the surf, and admired huge icicles pointing toward the open water. For a while, the hope that a volcano will erupt is enough to keep you warm.

Author and world traveler Jim DuFresne resides in Clarkston and is a regular contributor to Michigan Blue.  Michigan Blue magazine, Michigan's Lakestyle magazine, is published bi-monthly by Gemini Publications.