- Hi, and welcome to this edition of "Destination Michigan."

Here's a look at what's coming up.

Spinning since 1929, we're headed to Grand Rapids to flip through vinyl at Michigan's oldest record store.

Then, marvel in the details of the items on display at the Midwest Miniatures Museum in Grand Haven.

From there, what's it like to spend the night in a lighthouse?

We'll find out when Adam shares his experience with us and shows us why these beacons of light still play an important role in our maritime history.

Finally, from Vilah to voila, how a new mom turned forgetting into a one-of-a-kind business that will charm you off your feet.

(upbeat music) Hi, and welcome back into "Destination Michigan."

While most of the world is moving at 21st-century speed, one small storefront in Grand Rapids is slowing things down to 33 1/3.

Jamie Mankiewicz brings us inside the oldest record shop in Michigan.

Meet Charles Preston Smith, better known as Reverend Charles.

- I can't believe my luck.

- [Stefanie] He's in charge of making sure the tunes keep spinning inside Dodds Record Shop, a Michigan legacy operating since 1929.

I've always loved music.

- I love records, but more the history of it.

The idea that would take me back to childhood of, oh, things were so simple.

You just put on a record and you put the headphones on and you're just in heaven.

- [Stefanie] The man in the red jacket is famously known for making musical memories for many in the West Michigan area over the last 35 years, as the front man for the band, the PotatoeBabies.

- Legend has it, when I was a child, I would roll around in the dirt while my loving mother tended to her garden and she called me her little potato baby.

I made that up, but it sounded great.

And I said that for years.

- [Stefanie] One Halloween, after running out of candy, he and a friend started passing out more of a trick than a treat: potatoes with plastic king cake dolls stuck inside.

- And one kid reached into the bag angry, looked back at his parents on the sidewalk and yelled, "They don't even have candy here.

He gave me some kind of potato baby."

And me and my buddy looked at each other.

Well, that's fantastic.

That's got to be the name of the band, the PotatoeBabies.

- [Stefanie] Then one year, he decided he wanted to play live on Record Store Day.

- So I went up the road to the old man that had been sitting downtown Grand Rapids for 65 years, Mr.

Dodds, and said, "Yeah, I set up a band on your sidewalk.

Could I plug this extension cord in?"

He's like, "I don't care."

So I plugged in the extension cord.

We had music play on the sidewalk.

Turns out you need a permit.

Police came.

And well, I did it again the next year.

And again, he said, "What's all the commotion?"

I said, "It's Record Store Day."

And he looked at me and said, "It's been Record Store Day here every day for the last 65 years."

I was like, "Oh, that is the coolest thing.

Okay."

Next year, we're climbing up on his roof.

When that was done, the family called me and said, "Are you the young man that keeps climbing up on my dad's roof?

He's getting old.

You should buy the store."

- [Stefanie] What started as Cole's Records in 1929 morphed into a Dodds family musical mission in several different West Michigan locations until 2012, when Reverend Charles took over, moving to where it is today on the west side of Grand Rapids.

- Well, holy smokes.

You know, we're measuring and we're tagging, measuring, tagging in those boxes over there in this with CDs, cassettes and vinyl.

About 100,000 pieces.

Where we're standing now, this has morphed probably two times, maybe three times in the last 10 years where I'll bring stuff in, stuff will go out, stuff will sell.

Someone will sell me a collection.

Someone would donate.

I will accept anything because there'll be that one gem that you don't know is in that pile of 200 records that you can tell nobody's going to want any of this.

And then there's this one that is like my childhood.

Even if it won't play, we're hanging that on the wall or the ceiling.

- [Stefanie] Dodds Record Shop, which is only open on Saturdays, has tacked on a new title to its original name, Reverend Charles' Museum of Music and Memorabilia.

From floor to ceiling and nearly every extra space of the walls, you'll find things you didn't even know you were looking for.

- The awesomeness of the physical media.

And I try to portray the story behind it all.

So I would say 9 out of 10 items in my store are something that I would either have a memory of or a story or have heard something about.

I want to share with them the importance of the history of it all.

It is funny to see somebody for the first time not be able to pick a track and realize that I have to sit the needle down and pick it up and just drop it and let it bounce a couple of times.

Well, what is that?

Well, you kind of landed on track three.

You know, let's move it a little more careful next time.

- [Stefanie] While it may not be a carefully curated music library in a traditional sense, there is a method to this madness.

- I think people are realizing with this resurgence of records that they're not necessarily going to be like click, click online that you can do.

But you have to take the time to dig, and from the beginning, because I was both a little bit lazy and I couldn't wrap my head around A to Z.

- [Stefanie] The Record Store Day tradition continues.

Something has become a community celebration in the form of a small but mighty and memorable parade on Bridge Street.

- So music is a celebration and how you celebrate it is important and it can be a million different ways how you celebrate music.

It could be privately and you don't ever even go out into a store.

You can just stay home and do it.

You could just come just for the celebration and not buy a record.

You want to be around it, around the people.

It all is just a spectacle.

- Thanks, Jamie.

Now, for anyone who thinks that vinyl is just a phase, record sales grew nearly 10% in 2025, reaching $1 million in sales for the first time this century.

And one more thing, Reverend Charles is actually an ordained minister and he's performed more than 100 weddings, including several at Dodds.

All right.

Well, now a visit to the Midwest Miniatures Museum means more than just seeing tiny, tiny objects.

You'll experience exquisite attention to detail and you might even inspire your imagination.

Chris Ogozaly takes us to Grand Haven.

- When people come into this space, they are surprised by two things, the beauty of the home.

I mean, they have a hint of it from the outside.

Especially for people who love older homes, they get very excited about it.

And then for people who came into the museum with no expectations, when they see the miniatures, they're just blown away.

We have people who were maybe dragged in by other family members and immediately they get sucked into it.

I think they're just surprised by the level of detail and the fact that somebody could make that by hand.

- [Chris] At the Midwest Miniatures Museum, you'll find a mix of captivating art and an incredible attention to detail.

- I like to think of miniatures as telling a story.

Especially we have these room boxes and each one tells a particular story.

And the better the artist, the better the story.

And you kind of get sucked in.

And I think that's part of why people become miniaturists and why people are intrigued by miniatures.

- [Chris] Miniatures can be a catalyst for creative thinking and boundless imagination.

- You can see your own fantasy played out in miniature.

And you can picture yourself swinging on a swing or sitting on that bench.

Or your kite just got stuck in a tree.

I mean, you can place yourself into the story and I think that's what's fun.

Some people will look just at the pieces themselves and some people will see more of the greater story played out.

- [Chris] Dr.

Chris Green, the museum's executive director, sees guests drawn to miniatures for many reasons.

- Oftentimes, there are places that are created in miniature and so people are connected to these places in various ways.

They either are interested in a sense of nostalgia of something that they grew up with.

Sometimes that's folks that are creating dollhouses that are based off the dollhouses that they felt like they grew up with.

Literally in the case behind me, we have kind of a downtown Midwest USA piece by Albert Hammer that wasn't actually specifically any place, but it was generally a place that he remembered growing up in in the Midwest.

So people are oftentimes connected to these places and then their ability to create them in miniature, have them in front of them and have that new perspective on that place is a really unique, interesting connection.

And it's a very human connection.

- [Chris] As your eyes explore and your mind imagines, the impressive details of each creation become more evident.

- There's a piece behind you that is done in a walnut and there's a whole home that's done in the walnut.

There's a lot of little detail that you can see in that piece and around that piece that's in 1:144 scale.

So it is tiny, tiny, tiny scale.

And all of the pieces in that case are tiny, tiny, tiny scale.

So looking at the really exquisite detail of what people do, over my left shoulder, there's a toy shop that there's a Z-scale train in the toy shop.

So the toy shop itself is built in 1:12 scale.

We call that inch scale.

So an inch to a foot.

And then there's a Z-scale train that is 1:220 scale, the smallest, to my knowledge, train scale that's used.

So there's a tiny train scale and a larger scale kind of toy shop piece that I think is really fun.

- [Chris] It is exceptionally easy to immerse yourself in imagination and wonder at the Midwest Miniatures Museum.

- Every time it's like, "Oh, it'd be so much fun to live here."

And that's to me a very rewarding thing to hear because we're telling the story right.

And people are recognizing that there is something more than just the miniature itself.

It's the greater story.

- The best way to visit with the exhibits here is to slow down and to really just look.

And we find that there are a lot of guests that immediately do that and can find themselves spending a half an hour on one piece without moving on to the next one, just because once you start looking, it's hard to stop looking at all of the very exquisite detail in a lot of these pieces.

What fine miniatures actually are is people that are doing everything in the same detail that it would be in normal full scale at the small scale.

So when these pieces are really well done, all of that detail is there, whether you're talking about an architectural piece that has the kinds of features that this historic home has, the beautiful detailing and features.

You should be able to find those in the architectural pieces that we have here.

Or if we're talking about the way the furniture is built.

Folks in West Michigan have an appreciation for good, well-built furniture.

The really well-done furniture that's here, we have it in our French gallery upstairs.

We have some pieces that are over in our silver cases as well that are really exquisitely done.

The closer you look, the more you see.

And getting people to slow down and really look deeply and spend time with it is hopefully just a really different and positive experience too in today's world, where it's hard to slow down and to lose yourself in those kinds of exquisite details without being distracted by something.

So that's something that's an experience we really want to have the visitors experience here.

Folks won't be able to find another museum like this in the state.

Really, we consider ourselves the Midwest Miniatures Museum.

So this is really a regional destination to come see.

It's something that we want all folks in Michigan to be able to know is here and to come check it out.

I think it's something that you'll find is interesting no matter what your background is or what your particular interests or passions are.

- That is amazing.

Chris, thank you so much.

Well, traditionally, the Midwest Miniatures Museum keeps a seasonal hour.

So make sure that you plan ahead before you visit this whimsical destination.

Now, they have nicknames like the Castle of the Straits, Big Red, and a personal favorite, Point Betsie.

We're talking about lighthouses, of course, iconic landmarks that have guided generations of sailors across the Great Lakes.

Adam was lucky enough to experience one close up, spending the night in an offshore light station in the St.

Marys River.

Take a look.

- [Adam] 129.

That's the number of lighthouses that dot Michigan shorelines, more than any other state.

And out here in the middle of the St.

Marys River is one lighthouse with a pretty remarkable story.

- Lighthouses were built, of course, to help ships navigate the waterway.

And DeTour Reef Light was in a very strategic historical position at the end of the St.

Marys River, which trafficked from Lake Huron and Lake Superior, going back and forth and then out to other lakes.

This lighthouse helps ships navigate so they can build our country.

- In the case of lighthouses, there's a certain romanticism involved.

The life of the lighthouse keeper and his family.

The solitude of that, I think, is something that has a certain romantic attraction to a lot of people.

- [Adam] Built in 1931, the DeTour Reef Light Station is a unique steel-frame tower rising three stories above the water.

- We are sitting in about 20 feet of water.

on top of a reef, which is a raised area in Lake Huron.

And we are about a mile and a half off the shore of DeTour, as well as about two miles away from Drummond Island, and just a handful of miles from Canada.

- [Adam] The Coast Guard rendered the light station obsolete in 1997.

That could have been the end of its story.

Instead, the DeTour Reef Light Preservation Society was organized.

- The society was formed by a group of residents on Drummond Island, who back in the late 1990s discovered that owing to the lighthouse that many of them could see out of their windows being declared surplus by the U.S.

government, it was going to be demolished.

- January 7, 1998, we had a meeting with a few local people and established our society, the DeTour Reef Light Preservation Society.

And from that point on, we had just wonderful people that came together to try to help us get this organization off the ground with press releases, membership drives, and of course going after funds, especially grants.

- [Adam] Jeri and her team were passionate and persistent as they took on the challenge of saving this piece of Michigan history.

They secured grants, navigated years of paperwork, and worked to gain ownership through the National Historic Lighthouse Preservation Act.

On August 17, 2005, the society received a letter from the Park Service, approving its application for ownership, even applauding their commitment to preserving our nation's maritime heritage.

- What comes up, and see, all of this is new to the state of Michigan.

As far as lighthouse restoration, this is all new to everybody.

The subject of the lighthouse sits on the bottomlands that's owned by the state of Michigan.

So how do you do that?

- More paperwork.

The society's legal team worked for years to negotiate and secure an agreement.

- Finally, everything was put in place, and the government presented us a ceremonial key in Traverse City at the Michigan lighthouse gathering.

- [Adam] The lighthouse was theirs.

Restoration work was complete, and the public was invited inside.

- We started the volunteer keeper program back in the very early days, 2006, only about a year after the restoration was completed.

Because again, one of the mandates of the National Lighthouse Preservation Act was to make the facility available to the public for cultural reasons and for educational reasons.

And people loved it.

We initially opened it up for weekend visits to the light, which moved on to actual weekend overnight stays at the light.

And today, the light is occupied seven days a week from Father's Day weekend to Labor Day weekend every summer.

- As owners of this light, we are very committed to not only preserving the lighthouse as a building, but preserving its history and getting people from around the world to the best offshore lighthouse experience.

- I don't want to call it exactly a bed and breakfast kind of stay because we don't provide the breakfast, but we do provide the beds and hot and cold running water, electricity, lights, you can charge your cell phone.

Aside from that, we provide just total solitude.

It's also a very satisfying feeling of being kind of one with the lake.

- [Adam] I spent sunrise surrounded by water, sipping coffee from a lighthouse mug and simply taking it all in.

What an unforgettable experience.

As I climbed down the stairs and watched my camera gear being lowered behind me, I realized I was leaving with more than just a great story.

I was leaving with a newfound appreciation for the people who have worked so hard to preserve this remarkable piece of Michigan history.

- Everybody takes a different thing away from staying at an offshore lighthouse.

But to me, one of the big things would be just to share in the joy that we have found in restoring this place and making it available to everyone.

And knowledge that anything like this is possible when enough people come together with a vision to preserve a bit of our history.

I hope that people come away with that.

- What a cool experience.

While the effort to preserve this piece of Michigan history, it hasn't gone unnoticed.

The society has earned recognition at both the state and national level, including a special honor in 2010 when First Lady Michelle Obama presented the group with a Preserve America Stewards Award.

Well, to wrap things up tonight, you know the baby brain fog that many new moms experience.

It's a thing and it's a thing that many of us could do without.

But for one mom, it turned into a business idea that grew beyond anything that she could have even imagined.

- Ironically, after I had Vilah, I kept forgetting my wet wipes as a new mom.

And I frustratingly said to my husband, "Why aren't these wet wipes just attached to a diaper bag for new moms with like pregnancy brain or whatever to help them not forget it?"

And so what was at first a joke became kind of the seed of an idea for a diaper bag that dispensed wipes.

- [Stefanie] When you're adjusting to life with a newborn, there is a lot to learn and remember.

But for Jackie Garrett, forgetting turned into a life-changing moment for her and many other new moms.

- Then my friends wanted one, their girlfriends wanted one.

And I was like, okay, is this a real thing?

- [Stefanie] When Jackie couldn't remember to pack her wipes, she took matters into her own hands.

Literally at home on her kitchen counter, she got to work creating what would eventually turn into her business Vilah Bloom, named affectionately after her firstborn daughter Vilah.

- In the beginning, it was literally a placemat that I folded into thirds, sewed it, cut a hole at the center, dropped wipes down and off I went.

So that was the very first Vilah Bloom diaper bag that dispensed wipes.

So it was built out of necessity in the very beginning for my own use.

And then we were picked up by Nordstrom, Macy's, buybuy BABY.

We were featured in "Pregnancy & Newborn" magazine, "The Bump."

We had all of these like big reputable companies behind us.

- [Stefanie] But that was just the beginning.

As we all know, life is a series of moments, stages and chapters.

Fast forward to 2018, those same moms who were buying our diaper bags were requesting me to design handbags.

And I was like, "Heck yeah, I'm going to design handbags."

Like I'm in that phase too, you know, and outgrown the diapering days of the bag.

I started designing these handbags.

It was a premium handbag line that I launched and a lot of the moms carrying them were all friends.

And they'd go out to dinner and they would have black or cognac bags.

And they're like, "We can't tell whose are whose.

Can we personalize these somehow?"

And so I started to charm the bags.

- [Stefanie] Jackie's bags, charms and many other designs are on display and available for purchase at her stores.

After spending years working out of her home, she finally opened her first store in Walloon Lake in 2021.

Fast forward to now, she has three storefronts altogether, including in Traverse City and Detroit.

And while it may seem it all came together fast, Jackie stresses that wasn't the case at all.

- You know, you can't compare my year 16 to your year one.

And so that's something that I always try to tell the ladies that I'm speaking to or trying to help start a business.

I'm like, "You've got to just understand that it looks like I did this in three years because that's when the store opened.

But I've been working behind the scenes for years on this."

Jackie now has two daughters and you'll often see them helping out.

In addition to her daughters, she also credits her friends, yep, the same ones who also kept forgetting their wet wipes, for their support along the way.

- I always say, "There's nothing to it but to do it."

And you've got to, if it's something that you really want to do, you're going to find a way.

Use what you have.

Ask friends to help you.

If you're just a one-man show and you've got to get everything done, like find the people who are closest to you because I bet you anything they want to see you succeed as well.

And they're willing to help.

- [Stefanie] The shops have become places where anyone, including groups of friends and family, can gather and just have fun creating something completely unique to their own tastes and styles.

- Really when ladies come in, they can leave all of the jumble outside and come in and relax and almost zen with us.

I always like to call it like a ladies' playground or even a girls' playground because you come in and you kind of forget everything else that's happening outside.

And you just get to be fun and creative.

And really, you don't have to be a creative to enjoy your time in here.

This came out of my brain, right?

Like people walk in and we were just having this conversation yesterday that people walk in and they're like, "I've never seen anything like this."

And you shouldn't see anything like this because, really, it's authentic.

- It really is just a girls' playground in there.

It's so fun.

But that wraps up this edition of "Destination Michigan."

We hope that you learned something new and maybe added some new spots to your next trip around the state.

Thank you so much for watching and we'll see you again soon for another edition of "Destination Michigan."

(upbeat music)