UP North

OK, we weren't actually on the UP, we were on the tip of the lower peninsula in Northern Michigan, but LP North didn't have quite as good of a ring to it!  

Let's start at the beginning...

A few months ago, my friend Linda invited me to visit her in her lake home in Northern Michigan.  Linda and I have been friends since I was 19, a sophomore at Allegheny College.  She was the head of the German Department and I was a student.  I only took one class with her as my professor, but we became friends almost right away.  I should say, she was a good friend and mentor to me.  I don't think it was really until years later that I would consider the friendship to be equal.  At any rate, she took me under her wing throughout my years at Allegheny and we have kept in touch ever since.   For years, she has been asking us to visit her in Michigan, but the timing was just never very good for us.  Even though we wanted to go, it was a long ride, with small children and I just didn't think it would be the best option for us.  This year, however, the timing seemed right.  Jake was going to the beach with my mom.  Andrew is 4 and much easier to handle now than as a toddler.  So we decided to go for it!

 The night before we were planning to leave, we had a major storm blow through our area and wipe out our power.  After hearing all of the horror stories about people along the East coast who had no power for days, we were worried about all the food in our fridge and freezer.  I was afraid that in the morning we would still be out of power and I didn't want to be calling friends and family at 5 a.m to ask if we could use their freezers until we got home.  So at 930 we started moving all of our food to my mom's house and Greg's brother's house.  Just after we were done, what do you think happened?  Yep, the power came back on.  Ugh.  We didn't unload their refrigerators that night.  We left everything until we got back.  It made for quite a busy morning on our first day home!

We didn't want to drive the entire way to Indian River, MI in one day.  We left relatively early on Sunday morning and drove to Sandusky, OH to stay at the Great Wolf Lodge.  Greg had fished many tournaments in Sandusky and had been eyeing up the lodge as a potential place for us to take the kids for years.  It worked out well, because it was almost exactly half way.  The Great Wolf Lodge was great for Andrew.  He had a blast!  It has an indoor water park, an outside pool, two restaurants and an arcade as well as several activities that they do with the kids daily.  Greg and I were a little less than impressed with some it.  The food left a lot to be desired and the staff were all a bit strange...but then again, maybe you have to be a bit off kilter to work in a place like that!  At any rate, we won't stay there again.  It was really too young for Jake anyway.  But Andrew had a lot of fun and that's what mattered for this trip.  Here are some photos:  

Now that's riding in style - neck pillow, ear phones, and a DVD player with Power Rangers movie.  Who could ask for more?

Looking down on the water park from the lobby.

The bed area for the kiddos was cool.  Andrew thought it was the neatest thing ever. 

He gave it a definite "thumbs-up!"

At dinner, they gave him wolf ears.  One of the things that I thought was really odd was that the mascot at the Great WOLF lodge was a raccoon.  They made tons of references to wolves, but I didn't see a single wolf character there, except the stuffed ones in the gift shop.  Hmm...

Andrew begged and begged for a pack of Swedish fish.  I finally caved in and bought him some, only to have a near heart attack when the cashier told me it would be $7.52 for the container!  Damn!

I was the coolest parent in the arcade with my ears, plastic beaded necklace, bracelet and plastic bull.  (Actually, you would think that this would be an unusual sight, but sadly, it was not.  There were plenty of other parents wearing wolf ears and plastic necklaces!)

Monday morning we got back on the road and headed to Michigan.  What a nicer drive the second day was!  Once we got out of the cities, it was just highway and forest.  Calm and serene.  The calm and serene feeling lasted all week long.  Linda and George's home is on Mullett Lake.  It's a beautiful lake in the middle of several water ways.  We spent most of our time on the water.  They have a fantastic (and fast!) ski boat which kept us more than occupied.  We toured the rivers, explored some amazing sand shoals and swam.  In the evenings, we ate dinner on the deck and talked while Andrew threw rocks into the lake and played in the wooded area behind their house.  Andrew was amazingly well behaved the entire time, which was a real blessing.  I hope that Linda and George had as good of a time hosting us as we did visiting!  

Shortly after we arrived on Monday afternoon, we loaded up the boat, took a quick zip around the lake and swam for a little bit.  What a great way to shake of the road! 

"Come on, Koelle!  Get your butt down here so we can get going!"

The water was simply amazing.  I know I keep using that word, but honestly, I was nothing less than amazed throughout the trip.  The water was so clear and blue-green, if I didn't know better, I would have thought I was in the Caribbean!  The bottom of the lake wasn't slimy and rocky like our lakes, but was rather covered in sand!  It was like visiting an ocean without the salt! 

This is the mouth of the Cheboygan River, which also lead into the Black River, where Linda's sister lives.  It was pretty neat to take the boat across the lake and through the rivers to visit her family!

Some trees popping through the surface of the Black River.  Beautiful, isn't it?

An old restored boat we saw along the Black River.  

Andrew, loving his seat at the front of the boat! 

Now that's some wide open space! 

We took some "science" activities for Andrew.  He had fun showing Linda the baking soda and vinegar experiment, but mostly, he loved throwing rocks into the lake and battling the trees in their back yard!

We saw some gorgeous sunsets from their deck.

This is one of their kitties.  Unfortunately, the cats are not used to little ones and it would be an understatement to say they hated us.  Can't you see the contempt in her face, "What the hell are you doing here?"  

There were also a lot of loons in the area.  

Greg go to do some fishing too, which was the "cake topper" to his vacation.  He didn't catch any fish in this spot, but he did catch several bass at Linda's sister's house on the Black River.  We had them for dinner on our last night there!  Yum! 

Linda and me on the last night, looking happy, but a little beat up from the sun and wind.  My camera ran out of batteries right after this shot, so I don't have the photos of all four of us together.  George is supposed to email them to me and I'll share them soon.

Cutting it a little close on gas on the way home, with an estimated 3 miles before puttering to a dead stop on an empty tank! 

We made it home in one day.  It took almost exactly 12 hours for us, including stops.  Andrew was great in the car.  He didn't complain or have any tantrums at all.  That's a lot for a 4 year old!  Greg and I had more behavior problems than he did!  As soon as we crossed the Pennsylvania boarder, the speed dropped 5 miles an hour and the rain began.  Seriously, rain hit our windshield immediately after the sign, "Welcome to Pennsylvania."  Ugh.  Actually, we need the rain, but it's hard to come home to dreary, cloudy weather after so many beautiful days out on the water.  

We can't wait to get back to Michigan.  Greg already has plans for next year, but in the meantime we will have to get by on some lovely memories.  Thanks, Linda, for hosting.  We had a wonderful time!