On the Road Again

On the Road Again

On the Road Again...

And we’re off! Day 1 of 146… They days leading up to leaving were pretty chaotic so I don’t think either of us had a moment to let the excitement settle over us until we got in the car. We started off pretty uneventful – driving about 5 hours to middle of nowhere Kentucky where we caught up with Andy and Amanda at the luxurious La Quinta hotel! The next day we tackled the rest of the drive up to Michigan. The entire trip was done on one road, I-75, for a grand total of zero turns until Amanda’s parent’s home near Detroit. Amanda and Andy took us out to a couple bars nearby for a relaxing day of beers and snacks. In the evening we got to meet Amanda’s family and also the neighbors (and our doppelgangers) Pat and Barb. We all went out to eat and then to a local brewery* We tried a serious supply of so many beers at Kuhnhenn brewery and then went home to sleep. Andy and Rob however decided to play a rousing game of floor hockey/mini sticks in the basement which resulted in 4 seriously skinned knees. Adult problems…

The next day the 4 of us drove up to Traverse City, MI for some WINE TASTING!! We spent one day just walking around the city and eating lunch at a local burger joint, trying literally every cherry flavored item that the Cherry Republic would allow us to eat. It was like a cherry version of Bubba from Forest Gump… Cherry salsa, cherry butter, cherry bbq sauce, cherry trail mix, dried cherries, cherry smoked sausage… you get the point. We ended the evening with a sunset walk on Sleeping Bear Dunes on Lake Michigan. A giant sand dune with many false peaks before reaching the beach made for a very unique hike, and also allowed the boys to hide around bluffs and jump out and scare the girls multiple times. The sunset actually turned out to be a dud, but the approaching storm presented an awesome light(ning) show for us. We just had to calculate how long we could stay before the rain came. The walk back was pretty brutal (says Athena) but we were able to make it back in one piece. Especially fun was the sprint down the final steep sandy dune to the parking lot- running even faster than your normal top speed because of the slope, just trying to keep in enough control to not roll the whole way down!

Day 2 in Traverse City was for wine. We got on our bus and immediately realized that we would be the most fun group on the tour. Not that we were that out of control, but the rest of the group seemed drier than a vintage merlot, HA! We were going to visit 6 wineries. Andy and Amanda tried to warn us that the teeny little sips that we get add up quick. Rob and I brushed it off until about winery #4…It hit me (at least) like a brick wall – I was toasted. Thankfully we took all our pictures at winery #2 and #3 so there is no photo evidence J As the day went on – the girls ate some food and sobered up whereas the boys decided to try and catch up but instead greatly surpassed us by dinner time. I think I’ll leave the details out here to save the boys from embarrassment 😉

We spent our next evening in Saginaw with Andy’s family, got to see plenty of embarrassing little boy shots posted around the house and had an excellent hangover meal of homemade BBQ Ribs and Mac n Cheese, it was wonderous! We went and visited the Dow Gardens just before the rain hit which were very pretty…played some games and hit the hay early. In the morning we headed back to Detroit – walked around town for a few hours to see the sites and that pretty much sums up our time in Michigan! It may not sound like much on paper, but seeing our friends hometowns, meeting their families and just having 5 days of packed fun was so great! We had an amazing time filled with great Michigan scenery and so many laughs – we can’t wait to go back with them again one day.

 

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