Luke’s Notebook

Our 2009 family trip began on Sunday, October 11.  The entire family, minus Paul and John, hit the road and started driving north around noon.  The destination was a rental house near Iron River, Michigan.  We had about 600 miles to drive in the day.

We took a brief drive through downtown Chicago, which was about the halfway mark.  We stopped by Wrigley Field, which was pretty special!  Along the way, we also stopped at a few lighthouses.  In the early-morning hours of Monday the 12th, we arrived at the house in Michigan.

This was the first time any of us had been to the Upper Peninsula, and it was very interesting!  A very scenic area, and not much in the way of big cities.

I spent many hours at the McDonald’s in Iron River, as we happened to be in the midst of transferring FamTeam to a new server.  The Internet service was extremely sketchy at the house, and McDonald’s was one of the nearest places that had wireless Internet, so it became the go-to spot.  I would have rather have taken care of all of the FamTeam stuff back home, but the timing just worked out to where it had to be taken care of while we were on the road.  Thankfully, the FamTeam switchover went pretty well.  Honestly, I was amazed at how smoothly it all went.  What a relief it was to have all that taken care of!

On one day trip, we drove to the northern shore and spent some time on the beach of Lake Superior in Marquette, Michigan.  We had a gorgeous sunny day, and we had a good time moseying up and down the shore.  We also spent another day visiting a waterfall, and yet another day trip visiting the scenic Porcupine Mountains.

Paul and John rejoined the family early Saturday, October 17th.  They had spent the week back home in order to take care of some work, and they had hit the road at the end of the work day on Friday and drove through the night.  They had actually stopped at Six Flags Chicago for about an hour during their drive up, and were able to ride a few roller coasters before getting back on the road.

October 17 was a very special day, because it ended up being the only day in which the entire family was together, because Mark and I would soon head back home in order to take care of things back home for the second week of the trip.

On that Saturday that John and Paul had arrived, all 16 of us drove northeast to Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore.  We didn’t get to stay there very long, as it was a seven- or eight-hour round trip.  We did, however, get to view a few very pretty lookout points, and John and I had a chance to run down a mile-long trail that led to the beach.  It was a tiring run, as we were hurrying there and back in order to not keep the family waiting too long.  We were out of breath quite a few times during the sprints, it was a worthwhile trip!

Saturday night, Mark and I spent our final hours with the family before driving back home early Sunday morning.

And that’s… where we stop for now. The drive home was quite fun!  That will be covered in Part #2.  For now, though… this concludes Week Number One of the 2009 family trip!