Monday, June 27, 2016

Vacation, Day 1 On our Way to Michigan

I was reluctant to go to Michigan.  But after my Uncle and Grandma passed away last year, my Mom wanted to create new happy family memories in Michigan with a trip up to Petoskey like we used to.  I didn't want to go.   Too much sadness.   But she and Lisa talked me into it.  They even made me an offer we couldn't refuse.   You know how it is, visions of the kids all playing together at the beach.  Eric couldn't come with us, he'd already called dibs on his vacation time, and this trip we kind of pulled together last month, which is last minute as far as his job is concerned.   So the Boys and I were going to head north.   By ourselves.
Lisa and my Mom thought we were crazy.  But we've been empowered by doing a road trip to Texas, 3 days to get there, 3 days there, and 3 days home.  Last summer, we knocked out our epic trip to Florida in 2 travel days.  The kids are getting good at traveling, as long as they have screens.  A trip to Michigan is a splash in the pan, only 8ish hours we figured.   We can knock that out! So the weekend before we left, Eric hooked us up with screens in the car; he even trained Christopher how to run the whole apparatus, so we were set.


Off we go, into the Wild Blue Yonder! 


We opted to take 31 North, which goes past Grissom Air Force Base.  Well, it used to be Grissom Air Force Base, now it's like some strange composite of Air Reserve Base with Air Museum.  Whatever, there are planes, out in the middle of nowhere.  So we thought we'd take a look.   

We made it to one plane, and the boys were kind of interested. 


I'm glad they had this plane parked out front, and I hadn't paid to visit the museum, because they only had the attention span of a fire drill, and wanted to get back in the car and get going (aka watch their shows).  OK by me!  


One of the perks of going up 31N was that I got to stop in Elkhart to see some friends!  
Kelly and Amanda are engaged, but I hadn't seen them in 6 years.   It was Time!  We met at a McD's with a playplace so that the kids could play it out.  One of my better ideas, I got to visit with my friends and the kids had a great time playing.  


Boys and their Screens.  
We continued up 131N to Northern Michigan, it was a pretty drive. 


It was 70 when we left Indy, but it had gotten hotter, into the high 80s there, with rain, but we ended up with a great day for traveling, and the temp was 66 when we pulled in, at the height of the afternoon.  Mommy never needed air conditioning.  It was Fabulous! 


View Halloo!   This was from when we pulled in to Petoskey, where we were planning on staying is across the water. It's Little Traverse Bay.  


Our townhouse! Home sweet home!  
Jacob calls it Our 'Cation house, or Vacation house. 


The view from the back patio.  
Nice.  
"Blue sky, smiling at me... nothing but blue skies , do I see"...


Man, it's so tough to be on vacation now that we've arrived.  
They had puzzles.  So that's what we did Monday night, we helped Ma out with her puzzle problems.


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