Nope.
Cause we're not talking lower Michigan. We're talking about the other part of Michigan, the Upper Peninsula, a.k.a. "Canada," which I never really knew about until I met George. This road trip took George 18 hours one-way driving alone, when he was single, in his VW R32 (which means he probably drove a teeney bit above the speed limit the whole way.
Needless to say, we were both a little scared about this trip. But, as you can see from the map above, we planned it out and found some interesting places to stop along the way.
My last day of work was June 30th. George took off that day and slept 6 hours while the girls were at day care. He also did some last minute packing and loaded the car with the bigger items. That evening we ate a quick dinner, bathed the girls and put them in their PJs. Then we strapped them into their carseats and George started to drive. By the time we hit the Beltway it was about 9:00 pm. Jocelyn probably zonked out 30 minutes into the trip. Kayla, on the other hand, didn't want to sleep. I think we popped in a Wonder Pets DVD and let all four episodes play, hoping she'd fall asleep. No luck. I definitely fell asleep in the front seat for a little bit (I was even able to recline a bit in the passenger seat, oh the luxuries of a minivan)! George says Kayla maybe slept a total of 2 hours. She talked and sang to herself, didn't cause a whole lot of trouble -- in the end, George said it was kind of nice because it helped keep him awake during the drive.
At around 1:00 am on Thursday, we crossed over the Pennsylvania/Ohio border and stopped at the scariest rest area I've ever seen. I had the pleasure of changing Jocelyn's diaper at a nook-in-the-wall diaper changing station, and got to sit Kayla on a public toilet. That was the first and last public toilet Kayla sat on during the entire trip -- after that, she always chose to sit on her "pink potty," the travel/portable potty with disposable liner bags that we kept in the minivan so we could pull over at a gas station, let Kayla do her business in the minivan, then toss out the bag and be on our merry way. Funny thing about that rest stop, though -- on the way back, we stopped at the same rest area (on the other side of the highway) and although it was definitely dated and not the nicest rest area, it was not nearly as scary when people were bustling in and out during the day time.
George kept driving. I dozed a little, Kayla talked and sang a little, Jocelyn slept... Occasionally I'd wake up to see how George was doing. He kept saying he was fine. Looking at our GPS, we agreed that he'd have to drive a little slower if we wanted to make it in to Ann Arbor after the restaurants opened.
At about 5:45 am, I realized that George was pulling the van into a random parking lot near a mall and hotel. The girls were both asleep. We quietly woke them up, changed diapers and put them in their play clothes. By 6:10 am we arrived at George's chosen breakfast destination:
Yup, that's Mark's Midtown Coney Island Diner. Back in his younger more carefree days, George and his biker buddies would eat breakfast here after an early morning ride. He got to order his favorite - a chili cheese omelet. You heard me correctly. I had never heard of a chili cheese omelet before George (I need to just abbreviate that "B.G." because there are a lot of things I'd never heard of Before George). I've attempted to re-create the infamous chili cheese omelet, but apparently making an omelet and opening up a can of Hormel chili doesn't do the trick. At Mark's Midtown, I tried a bite or two of the omelet and didn't think it was anything that special. Jocelyn really liked it though and preferred eating that over my blueberry pancakes!
Kayla was in a weird mood (hard to believe, on only 2 hours of sleep) and didn't eat a lot like we thought she would. George and I downed our coffees and multiple refills, then we got back in the car again and drove a few minutes till we got to campus.
Kayla ran as if she were a wild horse finally set free into the big open prairie when she stepped out of the van and saw the miles and miles of sidewalk.
We wandered around the main part of campus, George taking lots of pictures with the new camera.
Kayla ran as if she were a wild horse finally set free into the big open prairie when she stepped out of the van and saw the miles and miles of sidewalk.
Kayla had lots of fun spinning the big cube with George.
Kayla was getting hungry by then so we got [more] coffee and some yummy munchies at Espresso Royale.
We did some shopping and spent way too much buying Michigan gear (George said we had to be prepared for football season). I think we were all pretty loopy at this point due to lack of sleep, so we got back into the car and headed to Ypsilanti... More to come in Part II!
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