How I Spent My Family Vacation

Once again, The Husband wins the prize. If "Trip Planning" were an Olympic sport (and seriously, if motorboating used to be in the Olympics, I feel quite positive that coming up with a family vacation that pleases most of the family most of the time should be on that list as well), he would win the gold medal.

And since he does this every year, he's pretty much the Michael Phelps of The Lonely Planet.

Let's watch the highlight reel from this year's performance, shall we?

The Family PM headed northeast this year - to an area called the Upper Peninsula. It involves Wisconsin and Michigan. And Lake Superior and Lake Michigan. Kind of in that order.

(I have to say that the downside of the ol' GPS is that you never get the same sense of where you've been as you do with an atlas. Plus, ours is an unnecessarily vague one. Her favourite instruction is "follow the road." Um, thanks. Will do.)

The first weekend was spent in a little resort town. Know what's more awesome than owning a cabin? Having a friend who owns a cabin and lets you stay there! It was fabulous.

While there, we took a boat tour of the Apostle Islands. (Wisconsin somewhere. I'm pretty sure. You'll have to look it up.) It was too rough to kayak, but we still got close-ups of the caves.

It was a seven-hour tour, so we definitely needed some time to stretch our legs on one of the islands.

I'm kind of getting the appeal of The Cabin. I used to not understand it - why have two houses when I can barely keep up with one? But when one of the houses is a short nature trail away from Lake Superior, I could maybe see myself being willing to do a bit of extra cleaning.

Plus who needs to do any cooking in that kitchen when you've got restaurants nearby that serve huge plates of nachos and overlook the marina?

Having explored cabin country, we hopped back into our trusty covered wagon. Here she is in the early days of the trip - still kinda shiny. (The Husband whimpered every time he heard someone open a chip bag in the back and his shoulders slumped a little more each day when he looked at the mess in the back.)

Ah, the family road trip. Such a time of togetherness. Of playing games. Of fighting over who has more space. Of being forced to listen to the #1 Hits station yet again (guess who knows all the words to Call Me Maybe? Oh yeah...this girl).

Plus the annoyance luxury of being forced to getting to pull over every half hour because someone has to pee stop and smell the roses anytime the fancy takes you.

Or, in our case, finding a hidden waterfall.

And putting our own stamp on it.

Our next stop was Pictured Rocks. (Michigan-ish?) I think it was still Lake Superior. Although you wouldn't know it - that's some pretty blue water.... Looks more like the Caribbean yes? Except replace pine trees with palm trees, I guess.

Blue water, a beautiful beach...everyone had a great time.

Including one chillaxing Mama who did this for two hours.

After the beach day, it was hiking day! We dragged those kids on a 10 mile hike and they did AMAZING! I was honestly shocked. We fueled them up with frequent granola bar and applesauce breaks, but otherwise they just kept trekking for almost six hours.

This might have been my favourite day, actually. Walking around the lakeshore, chatting with my kids, and enjoying the scenery.

And snuggling.

And what's this? More Mama chillaxing. (That's right. Bringing the Can Con. CBC Represent.)

Mosquito Beach. Inappropriately named, since we got zero bites. (Okay by me.) Instead, just rocks and sand and waves.

A happy hike family:

Probably because of this (The Husband totally pegs it):

From the wilderness to civilization...ish. Our next adventure required a ferry ride. A fast and apparently very fun one.

We spent a couple of days on Mackinac Island. (Do not be fooled by the "ac" at the end. It is pronounced "Mackinaw." Apparently it is French. We can't come up with one another word that works that way. Oh well.)

No cars allowed on MackinacAW Island. Just horse taxis.

And bikes!

(You just know I was singing "Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer true..." on this one!)

And chillaxing. Just takin' a bike break.

Best thing about traveling with older kids? You don't actually have to be with them 100% of the time. Weary of a day of biking and touring and desperate for the hotel room TV (we got begged several times over the course of the trip to renew our cable subscription), the kids were deliriously happy when we picked up take-out pizza for them and plopped them in front of SpongeBob with a phone to receive texts about putting on pajamas while we popped down the street for a Grown Up Date.

Complete with crazy drinks with pickles in them.

(This picture is slightly out of focus. Someone has had too many pickles, methinks.)

There's an old fort on the island to visit, and the kids were absolutely taken by a game called Graces involving sticks and hoops and tossing them back and forth. The Boy cares not that it is an 18th century game for girls so they can play without becoming unladylike.

Looks ladylike to me:

After the island came Sleeping Bear Dunes. Apparently this is the most beautiful place in America per Good Morning America. Not sure about that, but it was definitely a looooooong climb to the top. (The kids are in green and red. I'm the girl slogging in the black at the bottom.)

A lovebird picture. (Heh heh, The Husband forgot his shaver on the trip, so I got the unexpected treat of beard season in the summer. Rowr!)

What's this - more beach? Bigger waves? Bring it on, they say!

While Mama...you know.... (I don't do water.)

I do do cherry pie. And cherry iced tea. And playing games with cherries.

Our last night was preceded by a ferry ride across Lake Michigan. It looks like it will be fun:

However, a 1:00 AM docking after four hours of 15 foot swells and constant rocking (and a mama who forgot Gravol) looked more like this:

Fortunately for you all, I do NOT have a picture of the hotel bathroom two minutes after someone (who shall remain nameless to protect the innocent but who very happily returned for seconds at the all-you-can-eat buffet we hit prior to the ferry ride) said, "oh...I don't feel so good...."

(Guess who drew the short straw? Hint:  I can tell you with good authority that Bill the night cleaning man at the Holiday Inn Express in Manitowac is very helpful at procuring paper towels at 2:00 AM.)

But explosions of other sorts aside, the trip was definitely an explosion of fun. We loved each other up good and didn't even hate each other when we got back. We were happy to explore Wisconsin and Michigan and beaches and fudge shops and forts...and even happier to get home.

So to the top of the podium with you, The Husband! Once again, you earned it, Mr. Phelps!