It's been a long, cold winter, but this morning the sun is shining, the air offers a hint of warmth, and all is right with the world.

Traverse City is lovely in the spring. The beaches are emerging from their blanket of snow and ice. The promise of a new summer sparkles on the water of Grand Traverse Bay. We can't wait to pull on our swimsuits and dive into the blue world of Lake Michigan.

Actually, swimming is still a couple of months away, since the temperature of that beautiful water still hovers somewhere this side of freezing but a long way the other side of comfortable. But the promise is palable. And swimming is what Lake Michigan in Traverse City is all about. The water surrounds you here, and it is grand.

The glint of sunshine off the metal roof outside my office window has me thinking of my favorite beaches, and others I would like to explore.

My family's favorite beach is a few miles south of Empire, at the end of Esch Road. It's in the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. When we started going there 15 years ago, we normally saw only a handful of other folks. These days, on summer weekends, the end of the road turns into a linear parking lot. When you walk down to the beach, the people are everywhere. But even on the busiest days, it's still far less crowded than any popular beach in Chicago or New York or Los Angeles. Esch Road is still an awesome place. If you don't enjoy a busy beach, you can walk a couple hundred yards either south or north and find yourself alone on the sand. As is true in most of the world, most people aren't interested in walking very far. If you value privacy or just the feeling of freedom that comes from a bit of space between you and strangers, Esch Road beach is great. But so are many other beaches near Traverse City.

Another beach I love is up near the tip of the Leelanau Peninsula at Peterson Park. The parking area and picnic grounds are perched on a steep bluff maybe a hundred feet (I'm just guessing) above the lake. The views are spectacular across the water to North Manitou Island. A long run of rustic steps take you through thickets down to the beach. Now, most beaches around Traverse City are wall to wall sand. Deep, warm, golden, beautiful sand. But not at Peterson Park. For whatever geologic reason, the beach here is composed almost entirely of stones. They range in size from breakfast cereal bites through fist sized to some larger than a Jetski. Scattered among the variety of stones are a smattering of Petoskey stones, the fossilized remnants of an ancient coral reef. Walking south along the beach one day last summer, my family and I came upon a piece of wreckage in waist deep water, maybe 50 feet from shore. I waded out and upon closer inspection decided it had to be the boiler from an old ship. It hadn't been there the previous year. The icepack must have drawn it up toward the beach the previous winter.

The beach adjacent to downtown Traverse City, Clinch Park beach and West End beach, are a fine place to soak up the sun and swim in Grand Traverse Bay. And they're literally steps from downtown. You can have lunch and buy some trinkets on Front Street, then stroll a block and a half and jump in the water. They're a terrific social beach, and are typically quite busy on sunny days. There are volleyball courts, and usually plenty of boats moored just off the sand. Early in the morning or in the evening, they clear out and become an serene escape from the bustle of downtown.

The village of Elk Rapids, about 20 miles north of Traverse City on the mainland, has a wonderful beach for kids at the end of its main street. A stream just the perfect size for children empties into a part of the bay that is shallow for many yards out.

There are plenty of other beaches surrounding town. They all sound great this fine spring day.