Ahhh. These hot, sultry late August days are the Dog Days of Summer. Michigan Lake to Lake-member bed and breakfast inns are doing their part to turn up the heat with unbeatable mid-week money-saving offers.
Take 25 percent off a Monday – Thursday stay at Country Hermitage B&B, a 400-acre cherry plantation in Williamsburg, within gazing distance of the East Arm of Grand Traverse Bay and just minutes from downtown Traverse City. Enjoy three outdoor decks, lawn games, a fire pit, a fishpond, WiFi, XM radio and HDTV. Gourmet breakfast is served every morning and baked treats are served every afternoon. The offer is good from now through the end of September.
Sirius: the dog star, is the brightest in the night sky. It's the key to understanding what's meant by "Dog Days of Summer."
On the other side of the state, on private Lake Huron beachfront, Adventure Inn is helping retired teachers celebrate their emancipation from schoolbooks and grading papers. As a thanks for their service, the inn is offering retired K through college-level teachers two nights in one of their two lakefront rooms, with 33 percent off the second night, any Sunday through Thursday until the end of August.
So what are “dog days?” Back in the days of the ancients, the skies were clear of today’s pollution. The Romans identified constellations of stars by their shapes and gave them the names of animals like bears, bulls and dogs.
The brightest of the stars in the “big dog” constellation, Canis Major, is Sirius, which also happens to be the brightest star in the night sky. In fact, it’s so bright, the ancient Romans thought the earth received heat from it. It was considered a second sun.
While you can easily see Sirius in January from the northern latitudes, in late summer, the constellation rises and sets with the sun. The ancients believed the heat of Sirius added to the heat of the sun, creating a stretch of hot and sultry weather.
There you have it: the dog days of summer, named after the dog star Sirius, is as good a reason as any for B&Bs to celebrate with special offerings. Check the “Specials and Packages” page on the Lake to Lake website often for new Dog Days of August and other categories of cost-saving specials.
