Day 5-8

Leaving Grandma's we had a relatively short 6 hour drive up through Wisconsin into the Upper Peninsula, the closest that the lower 48 gets to interior Alaska. We told the kids to start looking for wildlife; supposedly there were moose and black bears around. We weren't quite sure if there were, but sure enough, one of the kids got lucky right away.

"I saw a whale jump out of the water and splash but it didn't die it swam away forever!"

Who cares if there wasn't any water around. I wish I could live in Molly's world for a while, life would be so much more interesting.

On the drive there, Mom mocks Macy's earlier comment.

"So many amazing things that can be!"

"That doesn't make sense," Macy retorts. "I know sense!"

Gavin must have been listening to us grown-ups a bit more than we thought; as he was trying to buckle in Molly, Thora wouldn't get off the seat belt and he muttered his first audible curse word.

"Dammit, Thora." Mom caught it. Guess it's more of a reminder for us to watch our mouth.

We get to Mom and Pop's northern resort. 3 miles off the main road. It was well over 90 degrees and the mosquitoes and flies were everywhere. Way too far south for me. We stopped down the dirt road to pick some flowers for Grandma and horseflies start dive bombing the car. Luckily, we covered ourselves up in 5 inches of dirt from the road and they lost track of us.

4 days catching up with the family was nice. We hung out at Linden Lake and got a chance to grill out and brave swimming in a lake. Arwen swam au natural, of course, and Macy was a natural swimmer (she went deeper than Dad). Molly got to prove her reading skills in the bathroom.

"I-C-U-P...like the eye can see you going potty!"

We also got a chance to head up to Calumet to check out Alice's Grandpa's childhood home. We looked for Great Aunt Angie's gravesite, too, but couldn't find it in the massive graveyard. (She recently 'passed' after an amazing 100 years!!!)We did find a really nice Co-Op with some amazing health food, which is a bit harder to find in the U.P. than in Brentwood, TN. Of course, it's a bit easier down in the U.P. than the Bush.

We got to sleep in a nice loft area all to ourselves, but we did have to sleep in bunk beds, which was great for the kids and odd for the grown-ups; took me back to the Fort Wilderness/any other church camp days. When it was finally time to say goodbye, Arwen was a pro at waving and shouting to everyone out the window.

Next stop...Ontario, Canada.