It's not every day you pack up two little boys and drive over 1,600 miles. That's what we did on July 1st, and I can't believe I'm just getting around to it here. We drove for about three days; luckily H-Bomb and Sawed Off are excellent travelers, and I had loaded the van with a few new DVDs: Enchanted, Ratatouille, (which they had seen before but only once or twice), The Aristocats, and 101 Dalmations, (which they hadn't seen before), along with the standards: Finding Nemo and Shrek. They really help the miles go by, and this time the boys even let us take turns so we could listen to NPR, the news or 80's hits!
We left at 4:30AM, and got stuck in some sort of time warp. We left the first town, just an hour away, after breakfast at 7:30AM. Who knows what happened there. We took lots of snacks and a cooler for picnic lunches, and we tried to stop places where the boys could run around. The first night was spent in Nebraska, where we ate a great steak dinner at
Whiskey Creek, then took the boys swimming in the hotel pool. They need to expend some energy after behaving themselves and being strapped in their seats for hours on end. We always look for a hotel with a pool.
We were heading to Michigan for two events: my 20-year high school reunion (please don't do the math), and a surprise 60th birthday party for my mom. As well as lots of swimming and fishing and canoeing and visiting my relatives. Number One and I were looking forward to our Annual Night Out. I wish I were kidding, but we rarely get to do ANYTHING that's just the two of us, so we try to take advantage whenever my parents are available.
I do have to tell you what happened the second day. We were bringing food that I had made ahead of time, for both the reunion and the surprise party, and I had it all frozen and in a cooler with dry ice. I think the cooler wasn't closed all the way and the first batch of dry ice didn't last as long as it should have. Everything was still frozen, but we needed some new dry ice. I had just heard about a new service from Google,
GOOG 411, so I decided to try it out.
Can I just tell you how amazing this service is? You dial a toll-free number, 1-800-GOOG-411, tell Google what city and state you are in, and what you are looking for (grocery store, Walmart, or dry ice) and they give you a list of options, with addresses and phone numbers. They will connect your call for free, and/or text you the information, and/or send you a map to the location!
GOOG 411 ROCKS. They helped us find dry ice in the middle of Nebraska (where they don't sell much dry ice anymore, evidently) and the dry ice didn't cost us a cent! We got between 10 and 20 pounds from a grocery store (which we never would have found on our own), and the girl gave it to us for free. She hauled it out to our van, let us pack the cooler FULL, and said "Have a nice trip!" How awesome is that?
The second night we spent just outside Chicago, in Orland Park. We pushed to get to Chicago, so the pool was closed when we got there. (why do they "close" hotel pools? There's never a lifeguard anyway!) But, I had some top-secret errands to run that morning, so Number One took the boys to the pool while I went to Trader Joe's for a case of wine and then to Costco for paper plates and everything for the surprise party. (yes, I did my research before we left. I knew where every Costco en route was located, and there was just the one Trader Joe's). Both stores in Orland Park were less than 5 miles from the highway, and wouldn't you know there was a hotel with a pool just off the highway at that exact exit. Love it.
We stopped at my parents' neighbor's house to stash all of the surprise party supplies, including paper products and many containers of frozen
Prairie Fire beans and ziploc bags of
Bacon-Wrapped Jalapeños! and arrived at my parents' house in time for dinner. H-Bomb and Sawed Off were so excited to see Grandpa and Grandma!!
We went to the beach the next day. H-Bomb and Sawed Off have never really been to a shallow beach before, so they LOVED it. H-Bomb has been to the ocean in Zihuatanejo, Mexico, Pompano Beach, Florida and Santa Barbara, California, but hasn't been to a beach where he didn't need to wear his life jacket the whole time. We do have our reservoir, but it's basically paved and then drops off, with no real "beach" area. The boys had so much fun playing in the lakes and building sand castles, finding little shells, throwing rocks, etc. It really made me wish there was water around here so they could grow up around lakes and have that experience.
My high school reunion was on Saturday night, and after helping to plan and organize everything, it was just a relief to visit with everyone, drink beer, have a nice potluck dinner and have fun! About half of our graduating class turned up, and it was really great to see everyone.
On Sunday, a bunch of us met at another lake with all our kids for Reunion: Part II, and we were joined by a great guy who had moved away a year or two before graduation, as well as by one of my college roommates and her daughter, who is just a year younger than H-Bomb. My boys enjoyed the lake and the hot dogs and the playground (all of which, except hot dogs of course, are somewhat of a novelty). Anyway, it was just so much fun to catch up and see everyone. I'd say the reunion was a success.
My roommate and her daughter came home with us and stayed the night at my parents'. We stayed up late looking at old pictures ("who is that??" "I can't believe you still have that picture!" "etc.") We all went to the beach the next morning despite the clouds. The kids had a blast, swimming and playing and catching minnows.
My dad secured a little fishing boat for us to use while we were there, and lakefront property from which to launch the boat onto a very nice small fishing lake. Number One and I had actually looked at a house for sale on this lake a couple years ago, so it was great to be able to spend some time on the lake. We took the boys fishing, Number One securing fishing line and hooks to some little sticks and letting the kids throw the baited hooks in the lake. They both ended up with a tangled mess, but they had a great time. Number One went fishing almost every morning, and some evenings accompanied by my dad and occasionally H-Bomb, for whom he bought a little fishing pole. When my brother and his family arrived later in the week, Number One and my brother went out one morning and actually brought some fish home! Unfortunately not enough for all 10 of us to have a meal, so we didn't get to eat any of it.
Incidentally, I was participating in
a blog event for which I had signed up before our trip. I was hoping for some fresh fish to try out this grilling recipe, but instead we ended up having
Grilled Margarita Tilapia (fabulous!)
My dad started off building wooden boats as a hobby (and comes from a long line of carpenters and boat-builders) and now that he's retired from his "real" job, he works in a custom boat shop, rebuilding and restoring old wooden boats. It's pretty cool. We took out my dad's canoes one day.
My dad and Number One took out the gorgeous cedar strip canoe with H-Bomb in the middle.
I took the single-person canoe, with Sawed Off. It is made of Kevlar-reinforced aircraft Dacron, and it is sweet. It is practically see-through, and just beautiful. He made two of these, as well as a wooden kayak for me. When we stopped at the mouth of the river for a snack and a break, Sawed Off decided he wanted to ride with Grandpa and Daddy and H-Bomb, so I had the lovely canoe all to myself. I even rescued a soaked beach towel from the bottom of the river (in perfect condition after washing!) while they all searched in vain for baby turtles.
I would love to have my dad make another cedar strip canoe for me and Number One, but apparently it was a pain in the butt and he refuses.
The usual route is putting the boats in at the beach on one lake, about 5 minutes from my parents' house, canoeing across the lake to the mouth of the river, down the river and then halfway down the next lake to the boat ramp about 5 minutes from my parents' house. It's a great route, takes two or three hours.
H-Bomb really wanted to bring home a baby turtle or two, but we just couldn't find any. As it was, we traveled back with several minnows and a couple frogs in our cooler. One minnow survived, and now resides in our fish tank. We can't wait to see what kind of fish it will turn out to be. Two frogs survived the trip, but didn't last long in the frog/toad tank.
Below is a boat they were working on in the boat shop while we were there.
There were so many things to do! One of the neighbors has a fish pond on his property, within walking distance of my parents, so we took the boys down there and they caught frogs, fed bluegill minnows to the bass, fished and saw Snappy the snapping turtle.
My brother, his wife and our two nephews came to visit (also to help with the surprise party) and my grandma came and stayed the weekend also. All my aunts and uncles came for the party, and several of my mom's friends were my partners in crime to help get everything done. Busy, busy, busy!
I can't think of what else we did. Number One and I had several much-needed "nights out" as we met friends at the local lakeside bar. We had planned on all of us taking a pontoon boat out one day, and grilling hot dogs on an island on yet another lake, but the day was too windy and cloudy for that. Maybe next time!
On the trip home, we left late, after noon I think, so we didn't quite make it to Des Moines, Iowa. We had to keep driving because every hotel we stopped at was full (but they must not believe in "No Vacancy" signs in Iowa...) We did bypass a creepy looking hotel on a hill somewhere, it was very unoccupied and just didn't look...safe. We ended up in another time warp, this time of the motel variety, somewhere in Iowa. It was cheap, no pool, and extremely dated. Let me show you:
The next morning we drove all day to North Platte, Nebraska again, and ate at Whiskey Creek, again. This time we stopped at Buffalo Bill's Trading Post (next door to Whiskey Creek) and let the boys run around before we made them sit nicely in the restaurant for dinner. And then we kept driving because it was still light, and made it to Denver. We swam in the morning after breakfast, then stopped and saw an old friend of mine who hadn't made it back for the reunion, then we drove home.
All in all, we had a great vacation, and we can't wait to go back.
