Michigan Outtakes and Visiting Cousins

Moments after I sent that last road trip post Mike said, Oh, you didn't want to use any of the pictures I took? This, despite the fact he was sitting right there next to me as I was typing it up.  After seeing his pictures I thought them worthy of a Michigan Outtakes post.

I mentioned how Mike and Jacob were usually miles ahead of everyone else on their little tag-along bike, gleefully ribbing everyone as they sped past. So, while I was trudging along on this (below), they managed to make a few more pit stops along the biking trail:

After the week in NW Michigan with Lisa and fam, we made our way further south along Lake Michigan to Grand Haven to visit Mike's cousin Greg and his family - Stephanie, and twins Grant and Finley (who just turned two). We visited a lighthouse, climbed rocks, rang coast guard bells, played, hiked up and down dunes, and did more beach time/swimming in Lake Michigan. Fun visit with family!

Next generation cousins: Grant, Jacob, Finley, & Owen

 Ringing the Coast Guard bell

Road Trip - NW Michigan

I just realized that my friend Lisa and I met 20 years ago this summer, the beginning of our sophomore year of college. To commemorate the occasion (not really, since it only just dawned on me), we decided to haul our kids up to Michigan for a lake adventure.  Since she lives in Iowa it's not exactly close for either of us but she'd been before and I'd heard great things so away we went. I was particularly excited about this trip because as long as we've been friends it was just the first time our kids have met (hers: Alice 9 and Will 6).

Jacob, Owen and I left on a Friday and made the 12ish hour journey over two days. While I wouldn't say the experience was without its frustrations (lots of waiting til the last minute for potty breaks and then "not wanting to go in the girl's room mom", not agreeing on movies to watch, where are we mom, now where are we, and now?, etc.), we managed and were very excited to see our rented lake house at the end of the drive.

 Our view from the upper deck.

Northwest Michigan was beautiful with lots to do and despite threats of a summer "polar vortex" (really?) we couldn't have asked for better weather. As if on cue, the kids got along great and were ready for adventure. We went cherry picking and (Jacob) played in splash parks with his clothes on and we swam in lake Michigan and climbed sand dunes and ate fondue and a million flavors of taffy and went canoeing on the lake behind the house and rode bikes 8 miles around Mackinac Island and rode a ferry to get there and played on the beaches and drove through cute little towns like Charlevoix and Petoskey (couple more years and maybe I'll be able to actually go IN the cute shops in towns like this...I can dream). When it was time to go there were still things we hadn't crossed off our activities to do list and desserts we hadn't had a chance to make or eat yet. A real shame.

 Jacob literally in the middle of the splash park.

 Cherries!!!

 Owen, very aware of being two feet off the ground.

 Their loot.

How is it possible these young girls have been friends for 20 years?!

 THE rainy day - movies, games, silly faces, ice-cream, and fondue. Done.

While I carried all our beach junk back to the car, Lisa took the kids on a slightly unintentional ten hour (give or take an hour or two) tour up and down some sand dunes and small mountains. I started to get a little worried, but they finally returned looking like they were about to die of heat exhaustion. Nice.    

Mike joined us midweek and his timing couldn't have been better as we were off to Mackinac Island where bikes and walking are the main transport options. A highlight of the whole trip - the weather was amazing, they have every type of bike you could imagine and it's a (relatively) easy 8 mile bike ride around the island with lake views the whole way. Mike, Jacob, Lisa and Will (each using a tagalong bike feature) were usually a couple miles ahead of us while I picked up the rear dragging Owen behind in a trailer. Alice did the whole thing on her own, kindly keeping me and Owen company. 

Multitasking: This is how Lisa read four books on the trip.

  

 Arch Bridge - a little stop along the bike ride and up (and then down) 200 stairs.

 Entertaining themselves on the ferry.

 Finally a lazy day of canoeing and kayaking on "our" lake.

Another fun and memorable Holiday Road...where to next?

This pose NEVER gets old.

Road Trip - Asheville, NC

Holiday Road time! Last week I packed up all my kids, Memaw, Nancy and all her kids into the my spacious, yet mini, van for a road trip down south in Asheville, NC. I LOVE road trips!

Oops, we forgot Owen. Nah, he's just hiding behind Aunt Nancy. Doesn't this look comfy? Just ask Sam or Anderson... And we're off!

Stopped for a quick bite to eat at Foster's Market in Durham (my friend Rae took me here ages ago and I've wanted to go back ever since - sure wish I'd ventured out a little more in college considering it was here all that time [I checked, they opened in 1990] and only 30 minutes away instead of the 4 hours from where I live now.  Ah, wasted youth.)

So we arrived at our little cabin in the woods we rented for a couple nights of our trip. The road to get there might have been considered slightly treacherous for any normal car but not my spaciousyetminivan. We made it. Isn't it cute?

First stop the Blue Ridge Parkway for a little local craft shopping (for Memaw) and a little hiking (for everyone else). Owen made it all the way into the woods, but if not for Sam might not have made it out. Dear Sam, Thank you. Love, Owen.

Then to the NC Arboretum to run around in flower mazes, play tag and just generally get stared at by disapproving Arborists and garden enthusiasts.

 

Next stop Double D's coffee shop, right through those bi-fold doors! What a clever idea.

And of course, you can't make a trip to Asheville without taking a tour of the Biltmore Estate.

 Followed by a delicious dinner at the Tupelo Honey Cafe.

On the way home we stopped in Winston-Salem and ran into (great) Aunt Nancy and Jerry! What are the chances?

And an early birthday celebration for Memaw.

I think Jacob's face accurately represents the feelings one has at the end of a long-planned road trip. We headed back home and will now commit to memory the fun(ny) moments (dance parties in the car, exploring our cabin in the woods for the first time, ice cream every night, touring the "palace" (Biltmore) as Owen liked to call it, everyone we met being so friendly, Cruizer's diner, coffee on the second floor of the double decker bus, the poison ivy hike, driving on the treacherous cabin road through a stream, shrimp and grits twice in one day, lunch in the stables, Owen following our drive on the map "where are we now, Memaw?", etc.) and perhaps discard from memory the moments of anguish (like maybe 75% of our time actually driving in the car - everybody's got their own needs (and "RIGHT NOW!"), anytime my children had to sit at a restaurant, or really just anytime any of the boys had to not move for five seconds, ha!).

What great memories. I do love road trips!