We love a road trip, we have come to realize. Our second road trip of the year took us to see brothers and friends, and children and grandchildren. And a niece. You could say we packed it in.
It started with a stopover in Fairport. Over tea, we caught up with David and Paula, recounting the Poconos that they missed (sad face emoji here), health concerns, and gardening (their yard looks fantastic.) We went into East Rochester for a wonderful dinner. Over breakfast the next day, David filled us in on a commendable project he's been helping guide, senior housing with dozens of new units.
From there, we crossed through Canada to reconnoiter with Andrew and Lur in Midland, Michigan. My goal of getting a Tim Horton's double-double added 45 minutes or more to our trip, due to Canadian love for red lights. And the coffee wasn't even as good as I remember. Anyway, back to Midland, a town Lur had suggested as a midway point, which makes sense due to its name. We found our air b&b with some difficulty as it was in the middle of NOWHERE! But it was great. Turns out that Lur chose the town, not because of its catchy name, but because of the Dow Gardens there, which were really spectacular and worth the visit. Equally worthwhile was the cute town center, where we had lunch at Café Zinc, an uninformed choice that turned out to be excellent.
We headed east while Andrew and Lur turned west, since we wanted to spend a little time on Lake Huron, though the beach we found was technically on Saginaw Bay. We found a diner for lunch, and I mention that since I ordered a milkshake that came in one of those old-fashioned metal containers. Yum. Still dreaming of it.
And then up to Traverse City, on Lake Michigan, where a Peace Corps friend has a house. I had kind of heard of Traverse City before, but really only because he bought a house there. But, I should have heard of it. Cherry capital of the United States, with wineries (not vineyards there), a national park (Sleeping Bear Dunes), and shops and shops. So many shops that were not franchises, except for Orvis, which gives you a sense of the prosperity in that area. They even turned an old insane asylum (that's what it was called) into an indoor mall. We went hiking and Mary got to swim in Lake Michigan. I have to mention Cherry Republic, a store there that sells everything cherry, and has buckets of free samples. Someone spent a little too much time in front of the chocolate covered cherry bows.
Along the way, we decided to extend our trip by returning via Washington to catch up with Joe and family, and Margaret and family. We made it to Pittsburgh as a layover, where we discovered that this is a sports crazy town, fanatic over their home teams. When we left the hotel early the next morning, we discovered it was not quite early enough, as we were at the end of a long line of tailgaters who had arrived the night before for what we assumed was a college football game.
In Washington, we got our grandparent "fix," watching boys race around Sherman circle on bikes and scooter, and Luisa trying to avoid getting run over. I have to share John's question at supper that night, "What was the best thing that happened today?" Hard to choose.
The next day, I headed out, but Mary stayed on another night. My adventure took me to the sporting capital of the U.S., New York, where I had to avoid Giants football traffic and the US Open tennis final to get to Citifield to see a baseball game with Peter and Johanna, who wisely took public transport to get to Queens. It would have only been better if the Mets had beaten the Reds (but I wasn't complaining.)
Mary stayed on in DC and joined the crew for services the next day at our old church in Bethesda. It was hard to get the youngsters interested, but it sounds like the kind of church service I would have really liked at their age. They arrived as the congregation was singing the ending recessional, as they had changed the timing of the services for church picnic. So everyone went out and stayed for two hours, for food and bouncy house and playground. Later that day, Margaret came over to Joe's, as Andrew and Simon had headed up to his parents' house for the day.
A week has passed, and we have caught our breath, but only momentarily. We squeezed this road trip in before we head over to Portugal and Europe for three weeks.
One thing that the road trip made me remember is how big and diverse our own country is, how much each state has to offer that we've never heard of. But, we also know that the best road trips are the ones that take us through your home towns!
Love from up here.
