Here we are, sitting pretty in my parents' basement. Boo is doing long division, something of a bane to her "skip the details" soul. I am finishing what I began a couple of weeks ago: moving blog#1.
The following was originally written on August 15th. Published without pictures at the moment because I can't find them.
One week in to our cross country road trip, and we took a break in Iowa to catch our breath, get the laundry done, and visit some with family. I have a hard time believing that we are already and yet only a week out of Grand Rapids. I'm tired, but I think that's because we spent this afternoon out on the water.
When we cross the country (this is the fourth time for Seth and me), we always reserve our campsites ahead of time so we have a schedule. We put in four hours of driving Thursday night, minus losing the cat at Cadillac, to get to St. Ignace, and two hours the next morning to get to Munising. The first leg of our trip took us right along the coast of Lake Michigan, with a couple of views of Lake Superior and Lake Huron going over the Mackinac Bridge. I can now say that the Upper Peninsula of Michigan is as beautiful as I have always heard that it is. Somehow, it wasn't quite what I was expecting, but it was still gorgeous. Flat, green, lots of low lying ground with ponds and streams: I can totally see why Dutch immigrants would settle there. We had nothing but blue skies and breezes while we were in the U.P.
Sometimes the breezes were a little too strong. We didn't get to see the Pictured Rocks because of a small craft advisory. We were disappointed because we couldn't wait for the wind to die down. We had to be on the road again the next day. Still, we managed to have a good time with the time we had. They have some good ice cream in Munising, and wood fired pizza is always a treat.
Then we took off for a long drive: 7 hours (including lunch breaks) to the Wisconsin Dells. And here vacation really began. We had three nights reserved at the Dells (the KOA won't make shorter reservations), and anyone who has been to the Dells lately can tell you that there is no way anyone can take in all that there is to see in two days. Luckily for us, we are not the world's biggest tourists. Annika hates waterslides, crowds, and big risks like rope courses. That shortened the list of activities considerably. We went on a DUKW ride, because you have to do a DUKW ride at the Dells. That's like the original attraction there. Annika and Seth got to see two-headed crocodiles and really big pythons at the reptile gardens. And we did a submarine themed escape room. That, plus hunting all over southcentral Wisconsin for a replacement cookstove, was enough activity for us, though we wouldn't mind coming back and exploring the more natural features of the Dells. That is some seriously gorgeous territory out there.
The only real downside to the Dells was that it rained all three days that we were there. Every evening, around 5 pm, just as we wanted to get the campfire started, it would start to rain. So we ate under the canopy and went to bed early. Not that we minded. Being a tourist is tiring.
After the Dells, we put in another long day of driving, and got Spirit Lake, IA, where Seth's grandpa was waiting for us. Many people don't know that Iowa has its own tiny "great lakes," five conjoined lakes that have some of the clearest water in the country. We took our little inflatable boat out West Okoboji and had a picnic in the middle of the lake. I thought we were going to get doused by some threatening clouds, but they moved southeast. We also went out on a pontoon boat with Seth's uncle and grandfather, and Annika got a chance to drive.
