Traveling at night can be difficult. The roads are foreign and hard to see. BUT it is effective for not having to take additional days off of work AND gives you the longest vacation possible.
This year, it turns out, there was a secret ingredient to a joyful road trip with my men.
Books.
Books, I’ve learned, are peace keepers. Our road trip was a silent and smooth sailing until the sun went down and I forgot to pack a book light. Then the inevitable “boys will be boys” happened and wrestling began.
We busted out the IF books of life and started asking questions to our little men and the fighting stopped.
From the book: “If you were granted one wish, what would that wish be?”
Little one said, “I’d wish for my mom to have a thousand wishes because she’s my sweetie”. (Awwww!!!)
Big one said, “Freedom for everyone”.
Husband said, “To have a million dollars a month for life”.
We arrived at the SS Badger ahead of schedule and they graciously let us in. We attempted to sleep in our vehicle but with little excited men, that was impossible. They let us aboard the ship an hour and a half prior to departure, that allowed check-in to the state room and visit the gift shop.
Their gift shop is one of my favorites. I bought my favorite pair of socks a couple years ago and have been looking for a new pair ever since (without luck). This year I found a mermaid bracelet that is perfect AND a bottle coozie that has a bottle opener attached to it. For someone that likes IPAs without twist offs, that is gold.
The staterooms have a twin bed, bathroom and an additional twin bed that pulls down from the wall. My hubs and I partnered with one of our little men and fell asleep.
We arrived in Michigan with the sunrise and headed to my grandparents. My grandparents look MUCH better than they did last year.
After some Tiger baseball, the annual game show watching, slurpee drinking, we went and visited my uncles family. We drank some beers and chitchated.
My grandparent’s aren’t getting any younger and although my grandfather said that he doesn’t mind the energy of my little me, I feel two days is exhausting for me and can’t imagine what its like for them. We like to visit the western coast of Michigan and almost attempted to find this sand dune BUT the rain changed our mind and instead we went straight to a beach by a couple of my favorite lakes.
Lake Michigan was so clear and calm, it’s almost medicinal and magic all wrapped in one little gift. The clouds parted and the sun graced us. We found some interesting driftwood and headed on our way. I had planned on stopping and showing the fam one of my favorite restaurants on Torch Lake, but when we arrived hungry we noticed a sign on the door. Dockside had closed due to the storm for routine maintenance.
I was bummed.
There were some people gearing up to go fishing so I asked them where the next closest place was. They were from Boston and didn’t really know, BUT they had just eaten at a brewery and were very impressed with the food.
Did someone say brewery?! I’m in!
We went to Shorts Brewery and it’s a brewery that teams up with a yoga company and hosts pints and poses. It was kismet. The place was on a wait at 2:30 on a MONDAY. I couldn’t believe it and they didn’t disappoint. We enjoyed some of their brews, purchased a growler and headed to some more beaches.
As the sun melted into the horizon we made it to our hotel. We did a little sightseeing and souvenir shopping then headed to the beach bar for a couple complimentary drinks. The night air was chilly and refreshing but caused us to call it a night much earlier than I anticipated.
We drove the rest of the way home today. Eight hours and I’m pretty exhausted. After we unloaded the truck, threw in some laundry, I finished packing for Tahoe and drove to my besties house for an EARLY AM pickup tomorrow.
As I left my men, tears were shed but only from my eyes. I just have been this far away from them for this long and I missed them before I even left.
Mom guilt is a REAL thing and seems unavoidable.
But, I’m here, going to call it a night and head to bed. Ready for the adventure that starts tomorrow.
Namaste,
Jes xoxo