When we drive, we know that whatever the mapping services say our drive time will be--we add two hours. This additional time could include food stops, restroom breaks, gas refills, or traffic/construction delays. Also, Buck's back hurts a lot and sitting for that long is no bueno for him physically. And so . . . we set out at about 9 a.m. and didn't arrive at our destination until 7 p.m. (including time change). This was our "eight hour by the map" drive, whoa baby!
Our initial destination was kindly provided by our cousins, who toured us around Oklahoma City when we visited them a couple of years ago. They mentioned their summer home near Lake Michigan and invited us to enjoy it should we ever find ourselves in the area. It turned out to be the perfect stopping point for our family. I can't tell you how nice it was to have a house to spread out in! To be able to run to the store and get groceries and make our own meals . . . to have enough towels for showers . . . enough seats for reading books . . . a stock of board games and room to lay on the floor and play. I could go on and on!
Because of our late arrival time, we decided to visit a pizza place recommended by our hosts (who weren't actually there to host us just yet :) Yes, we were hungry, but this food was delicious! They even had a gluten free crust option for me, which was pretty exciting I must say.
Back at the house the kids discovered exciting "new" things like a Rolodex and a rotary-dial phone! We also enjoyed all of the ASL books and décor, since we've been learning this beautiful language ourselves. But mostly, we enjoyed being able to drop into beds--and enough for everyone, so no one was on the floor :)
The next morning we made breakfast, and then drove down to the lake to look at the water. I imagine because most of the summer residents and visitors have not yet arrived, the beach had not yet been cleaned for the season. There was a surprising amount of debris and even trash, which likely floated over from Chicago on the other side of the lake. That morning, the wind was incredibly strong and the waves on the surface of the water surprisingly large! We could see how entire docks (which were also broken across the beach) could be swept from their holdings onto the water to be deposited on the land once more. There were times when we had to shout, standing next to each other to be heard over the wind! But for the almost ocean-like feeling of the watery expanse . . . it was all an adventure we were happy to share! We even found a sweet little message written in rocks in the sand.
Once we finished showering and repacking the van, we set off for the remaining few hours of drive time to our hotel. Our room was giganti-normous (missing the wall that normally separates the sleeping area from the television area. We could have run laps through the open space!) After settling in, we dropped in to see my brother and sister-in-law and my sweetie nephew (who wasn't so sure about Uncle Buck at first, but warmed up later when he discovered beards are fun to play with :)
Mom, dad, and the boys checked in (and fixed some room conundrums), while the rest of decided on a place to have dinner. We selected a local establishment, then en route switched to a deli, then switched to a burger place from the parking lot of the deli. Despite the loud location, we were able to catch up and see baby M experience guacamole for the first time. He wasn't so sure about it, but after the super-baby-pucker face, I could usually encourage a smile of "well, maybe, Auntie J" out of him. Let's just go with the numbers here . . . the more recruits to the guacamole side of things, the more likely this deliciousness will be included at family functions in the years to come! (We were later informed that the avocado experience may have also led to an airplane-ride home diaper-changing experience that neither my brother nor his wife will forget for a long time :)
After our burger meal (gluten free bun, woohoo!), Buck, the kids, and I headed to my aunt's house to pick up some entry passes for a high school lacrosse game, coached by my uncle and his son. We were super surprised to not only see my aunt, but her daughter's twins (first time we've met), my other aunt from California, her daughter and her daughter . . . I should include some names here, this is getting confusing! Aunt Ellen, her daughter Stacy, and her daughter Amelia were all waiting at the house; and Stacy's cousin Jimmy came to pick Stacy up for a class-reunion type function in town that night. Amelia was helping Aunt Jan and Aunt Ellen keep an eye on the twins . . . family and hugs everywhere!
When we arrived at the lacrosse game to see Uncle Jim and Josh, we discovered they'd stopped taking money for tickets and we were all allowed in for free, passes or no. We also discovered it was senior night, so with all of those festivities taking place at the beginning of the game we really hadn't missed much of the action, despite our late arrival.
It didn't take long to spot my cutie cousin Lauren in the stands with her five-year-old, oldest son. We caught up while she tried to fill us in some on the sport we were watching for the first time. Both our boys were really interested, and went down to the stand next to the gate running alongside the field. Buck liked the physical contact of lacrosse, along with the strategy--like a crazy mix of soccer, football, and hockey.
Zip-tied to the stands in front of us were three-foot by two-foot banners featuring the faces and jersey numbers of the graduating class. As the night cooled and became darker, a couple of ladies came out with scissors to begin the daunting task of removing those twenty-some posters. Seeing them struggle with scissors, a man gifted them his tiny pocket knife. Buck sat cringing as one of the ladies attempted to chip away at the zip-tie with the little knife. "She's going to cut herself!" he saw; and sure enough, in plunged the little blade.
Buck had a much sturdier knife on him and systematically cut every zip-tie on the bleacher side allllll the way down the row. It wrecked his knife, but saved the lady's other fingers. I had a Band-Aid in my purse, so at least we got her bleeding stopped.
As a thank you, the ladies cut a bouquet of giant balloons and gave them to Graysen to take home. Those balloons filled our van to the brim with floating orbs!
On the way back to the hotel, we stopped at Target to buy Buck a beard/neck trimmer, so he'd be all ready for the memorial mass the next day, and then we relaxed in our room after our long, but good, day.
No comments:
Post a Comment