This week back in August started off with an eight hour journey from Atlanta to Cincinnati in the tight backseat of my dad's Dodge Ram pickup truck. My sweet puppy, Bella, who is not much of a puppy anymore, but I still pretend like she is, was excited to be on the road and couldn't begin to hide her excitement in the car by seat changing from the front to back the entire eight hour road trip to Grandma's and Grandpa's! Note my excitement over that...
When we arrived to Cincinnati, cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents were all there welcoming us back to Ohio. It was fun getting to talk to all of the family again, seeing as we only get to see them once a year, or if it's a really good year maybe twice!
Before our family reunion, my parents and my aunt and uncle decided to make a rest stop in Ludington, Michigan which is a beautiful city to stay in up north. It was family friendly and Lake Michigan is right there with a beach and good, good food all around. The town is super cute with pretty shops and gift stores all around. It was hard to imagine the town packed in with snow and ice everywhere.
We all got an ice cream when we got to the beach and then ascended on our walk to the pier. It was about a half mile walk down a concrete walk way where everyone was fishing and families were gathering to take pictures. And it was totally wheelchair accessible, which is always what we look for since my dad had his leg amputated and was impacted. We got down to the little lighthouse and it was so extremely cute!
Then after our afternoon on the beach, my aunt, uncle and I walked around the town some more and discovered such neat things we don't see everyday down south. For example, the super cool ferry people ride through Lake Michigan from Ludington, Michigan to Manitowoc, Wisconsin. I, personally, have never seen such a neat ship up close like that besides the cruise we went on when I was a teeny tot. We saw the anchor dropped as they pulled into port and cars being driven off the ship once the boat was docked. And for the cars being driven on, they even had a bomb dog sniffing the vehicles. I do believe the ferry was the SS Badger, but I could be wrong.
After our neat expedition that day, we spent the night and then went to Eight Point Lake in Michigan for our family reunion on my dad's side. It was lovely! I had seen family I never even knew I had and of course the ones I see all the time, but can never get enough of. I was even coerced by my lovely family members to go paddle boarding for the first time with all my clothes on. Well, lets just say I tried going back to shore and ended up in the water haha. My beautiful cousin Isabella even got me on the home made zip line which made me nervous considering my appeal to outdoor tasks has decreased tremendously since I was a kid. BUT I didn't break my neck...or the chord...so everything was fun! (PS look at my wet hair and different dry clothes)
When our family reunion was over for the night, we went back to the Soaring Eagle Resort, which is the nicest Indian Reservation hotel and casino with awesome customer service, and went to the slots! My first legal gambling trip (with my parents): check! Bella, our service dog and my sweet little puppy, was so tired from the day that she even took a nap in the chaos of the casino. The next morning we said bye to mom. (She didn't want to be with us on our 12 hour drive home.)
After our family reunion, Reed, my dad, and I were driving to his old home up in Farmington, Michigan when we were listening to a cover by the extremely talented Madilyn Bailey and that cover song so happened to be Miley Cyrus' hit "Wrecking Ball." My dad knew right away that it was a Miley Cyrus song which was pretty out of character for him considering his bluesy and rock 'n roll music genre he prefers. He then proceeded to tell me that if Miley Cyrus was his own daughter that he would tape a one hundred dollar bill to her forehead and send her out of the house with a good luck pat on the back. Ahh, welcome to my conversations with my father.
We then stayed with my dad's good friend from college and they got to reminisce over the good 'ole days. After our evening and night with his family we got back on the road to discover the monsoons that destroyed I-75. My dad and I kept thinking we were in an apocalyptic state like in our favorite show The Walking Dead. Finding our way through the sketchy parts of Detroit was fun...to say the least.
And then the drive home... My dad drove through the rest of Michigan once we found our way back on the highway, then I drove the remainder of the way back to Atlanta. It was definitely a task I had to prepare for. There was lots of Mocha Frapps involved from the convenient stores right off the highway and a ton of jamming alone to Ed Sheeran and Jesse McCartney with annoyed looks from my dad about the latter.
At the end of the day when we arrived home, I got to sleep in my bed and then I woke to a new day where I had to pack for school. Lives are busy when you're starting new things and traveling, but they're two of my favorite things and doing them with people I love makes it all the better.
Emma xoxo