The Trip Home (from Michigan)

We staying in a motel 1/2 way between the beach and the airport (about 10 min to either) the night before we were to fly home to Colorado. You can see the photos from our evening beach excursion in the previous post. Since we had an 8 AM flight and a rental car to return, we didn’t want to have a big drive to worry about before 7 AM in order to return the car and check our one suitcase -we always fly out carry-on only with United and bring a duffel bag to pack dirty laundry in, giving us room in at least one of the small roller bags to pack souvenir bottles of wine and other food products we like to purchase while traveling (preserved cherries and maple syrup this time).

Anyway, we packed the night before, leaving out a change of clothes and tooth brushes, and swim suits to dry. The morning was a breeze since we’d pre-packed and had some pastries from a bakery in Traverse City stashed in our carryon bags. We returned the car, checked our suitcase and sleepily waited to board the plane (note: at this point I had an awful head cold and was snuggled into my sweatshirt and cuddling a box of kleenex).

We boarded our tiny plane, had to gate check our roller bags because they would never have fit in the overhead bins of the tiny plane, and took off on-time.

I really wanted a ginger ale and was waiting for drink service (about 20-30 min after we took off) and watching the landscape below.  My ears were KILLING me. I kept rubbing the little flappy part over the ear opening, trying to get my ears to pop. The pilot made an announcement that we were about to fly over Milwaukee. About 2 minutes later he made an announcement that because they were unable to stabilize the air pressure inside the cabin, we were unable to assent above 17,000 feet and didn’t have enough fuel to make it to Denver at that altitude. Therefor we would be making an emergency landing in Chicago and would touchdown in about 30 minutes. Doh!

We landed in Chicago, went to the service desk and were issued tickets for a 3:30 PM flight to Denver. It was about 9:45 AM at that point. We also each received a $10 meal voucher.

After plunking down to pirate some wifi from the airport hotel, we each emailed our bosses to let them know that we were stuck in travel purgatory and wouldn’t be in until tomorrow.

Then we sat around debating what to do with our time in Chicago. We figured we’d head to the Art Institute and go see American Gothic, but I got us off a stop too early on the El and we ended up right on the Chicago River. Then I thought: a river cruise! So I dashed into a nearby fancy hotel and asked the concierge if she could book us 2 tickets on the Architecture River Cruise! No dice, it was high tourist season and they’d been booked for weeks. Oops. Then I was informed that tickets to the Art Institute were $18 each. Also a no-go for us.

Dejected, we walked aimlessly along the Magnificent Mile until we saw as sign for Beard Papa’s, a French chain that serves various styles of cream puffs and gourmet coffee drinks. Aah, the perfect birthday indulgence (yes, this all happened on my 29th birthday).

Yes, we had cream puffs the size of cheese burgers for lunch, and sweet cream tea. DELICIOUS!

We wandered the mall a bit before retreating back to the airport so that we could have a proper lunch of quick gourmet Mexican at Rick Bayless‘s Tortas Frontera in the airport and spend our vouchers before our flight. YUM! We split a Roasted Garlic and Mushrooms Torta (sandwich) and a Tres Quesos Mollete and each got our own agua fresca (fresh squeezed juice). DELICIOUS!

My birthday may not have been as boring as I’d planed (fly home, eat lunch, go to work), but it was WAY TASTIER!

In the end, we got on the plane to Denver, flew home, got our checked bag, waited just 10 minutes for the bus to Boulder, got home and did laundry and ate something un-memorable for dinner. Again, not what we’d planned, but still a great day!

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Michigan Vacation Recap

Other than issues with United/Continental, this vacation was pretty awesome. The sucky things were all airplane and head cold related (and I’m absolutely convinced that I caught this head cold from the germ-bag seated behind me on our first outgoing flight).

We had a 10:30 AM flight to ORD that had the wrong gate info on the board and we had to RUN like crazy people through the terminal to board our flight on time (we got there about 2 minutes before our seating group boarded, hooray for being in sardine class?). Then we had a layover in Chicago that couldn’t decide which gate it was leaving from before we even had a plane (gate changed three times and in the end left from it’s original gate assignment about 2 hours late). Oh well. We weren’t in a rush. I did realize, while we were on the ground in Chicago, that I had neglected to pack a camera. No fancy camera, no point and shoot, nothing more than the camera on my phone which takes OK photos but nothing worth sharing. Oops.

Once we arrived in Traverse City I reveled at how nice/big/shiny the new airport is! Wow, what an upgrade from the Detroit-style dumpy airport I’d been through at least 20 times as a teenager (to/from camp and two years of boarding school with a sprinkling on auditions in there too).

We rented a tiny car but were upgraded to a Nissan Sentra (I don’t want one, the seat isn’t comfortable for my short-y self and the breaks were jumpy). We watched the sun set as we drove to Interlochen (using our new GPS!) and met up with Andrea’s mom and sister at the Maddy Cabin. That cabin is BEAUTIFUL! Dinner was a perch sammich and key lime pie at The Hofbrau and then to bed. Day one was a FULL day.

view from the deck of the Maddy Cabin

Thursday and Friday we spent the day on campus seeing shows and visiting all the new buildings that have cropped up in the last 11 years. The only ones in the pipeline when I was there were the Writing House and a new visual arts buildings, they were tossing around the idea of a new library too. Now there are a whole bunch of new buildings and some of the old ones have been updated (the Shed is no longer crappy and the Phoenix got A/C and a total makeover!). After two days of stalking, we finally caught up with Mr. Holland who invited us to the string faculty potluck on Friday night at his new house. It was really great to catch up with him, Joan, and my class piano teacher/Venture Troop leader Dr. Coonrod.

DuoPlay piano of Gershwin/Gershwin Rhapsody in Blue at the Music House Museum

I’d have more pictures for you, but I forgot my camera and didn’t buy a disposable 35mm until we ventured into Traverse City on Saturday to buy goodies for my dad at American Spoon Fruit, wander around downtown, and stock up on provisions for a picnic dinner while waiting for Les Preludes on Sunday night. We also visited the Music House Museum, Grand Traverse Distillery, and Moomers on Saturday too. I was super disappointed that the ONLY flavors I could eat the day at Moomers were the vanilla and vanilla soft serve. I prefer Blue Bunny vanilla from the Melody Freeze over Moomers and Glacier Ice Cream over both of those (though for a dollar/cone you really can’t beat the Melody Freeze).

Grand Traverse Distillery stills

We rushed through the things we wanted to do on Saturday to get to the dance recital on time, but it was relocated from the dance pavilion (lots of seats) to the dace building (not many seats) and we didn’t get to see it. Oh well.

Sunday was stuffed with concerts, including seeing HSCO (now called the Interlochen Philharmonic) conducted by Mr. Holland and included a piece for harp ensemble and string orchestra!

why yes, that is a VERY tall man conducting NINE harps

Mr. Holland and me, backstage at Kresge 8/5/12

Mrs. and Mr. Holland, 8/5/12

After they brought out a podium for the concert master to conduct the Interlochen Theme, we hung out with the Hollands backstage for a bit and offered to help Mr. Holland pack out his studio. He retired in May after teaching 40 years at Interlochen Arts Academy. I’m a little disappointed that I missed both my 10 year reunion (to get married) and the 50th anniversary of IAA/Mr. Holland’s retirement party, but this was what I needed, more personal interaction and less party time.

Les Preludes was preceded by the final movement of Beethoven 9, played by WYSO. It was well done, but I remember playing FULL symphonies as a kid, but maybe they just felt like full symphonies at the time….

Les Preludes 2012

Monday I started to feel a little crummy, but we had to check out the Maddy Cabin and head out by 11 AM. We packed the car up early and packed salads and sandwiches made with all our leftovers. We went to go help Mr. Holland load the van only to discover that he’d used the “Packing Survival Kit” I’d left him to bribe the maintenance guys to do it for him! If you’re wondering what’s in a Packing Survival Kit, it’s 4 Milky Way bars, a box of kleenex, and a box of Tension Tamer tea.

sunset on Green Lake from the Kissing Tree, Interlochen 8/5/12

After packing the car we learned that Mr. Holland had used the candy bars to bribe the maintenance guys
to pack his car for him, we said our goodbyes and hit the road for the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. I was feeling pretty crummy, so we didn’t do the dune climb, but we did take a 2 mile dune hike that met up with the crest of the dune climb. I count it as a minor miracle  that neither of us got poison ivy on that hike. Think Fire Island amounts of poison ivy around, I guess the leaves of three really like sand dunes.

overlooking a shallow lake, it’s only 12′ deep and looks so tropical!

Since I wasn’t feeling well, we did mostly driving activities like visiting the old Life Saving Station and driving the scenic loop. There were a few photo worthy stops along the way and the little driving guide from the ranger station was very helpful. There were also phone numbers to call and listen to a Ranger Talk about some of the points of interest along the loop, but it was windy and hot and we didn’t feel like sitting in the car to listen to them.

dune hike, Sleeping Bear Dunes scenic loop 8/6/12

There were definitely people out there who were ignoring the weather conditions and climbed all the way from the scenic overlook down to Lake Michigan. They are NUTS!

scenic overlook of Lake Michigan with North Manitou in the background

We visited Glen Arbor and got a takeout pizza and some local beers and spent a quiet evening reading on the patio before retiring for the night at Fountain Point. It’s a cute place and the bed was super comfortable. But I wish their website better listed their activities though, we would have gotten there earlier and left more energy for ourselves because I really wanted to try paddle boarding and they rented them out at $25/four hours to guests! Oh well, next time?

Tuesday we slept in and ate a big breakfast of milk tea, cinnamon toast, and cheese slices at Fountain Point before heading out to a cidery, lunch in Suttons Bay, and visiting a few wineries all before heading back to Traverse City. We checked into the Knights Inn (actually quite clean and very quiet with the window closed), and headed to the beach! Finally, we got to wear our swimsuits and spent 2 hours playing in the sand before treated ourselves to a huge dinner and drinks at the Mackinac Brewing Company (after a quick shower and change of clothes, of course!).

playing at the beach on Lake Michigan 8/7/12

Getting home was a whole other adventure, which I’ll write about later since I have no photos to share for it and this post is long enough already.

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I caved and cajoled and am going on a REAL vacation!

Ben and I booked plane tickets and a rental car for a week in NW Lower Michigan! We’ll be gone August 1 through 8 (my birthday)! In my opinion, it’s when Michigan is most beautiful, highs in the low upper 70s, and down to around 55 at night. Maybe Ben will get to see one of those torrential rain storms I remember, but just one because we have a lot of outdoor places I want to visit (and a few indoor).

On the list of places to go:

• Interlochen, where we’ll be staying the first 5 days and seeing lots of concerts
• Traverse City farmers market, for buying ingredients to cook for our host
• Sleeping Bear Dunes and National Lakeshore, DUNE CLIMB!
• Michigan Maritime Museum, with TALL SHIPS!
• Moomers ice cream
• Music House Museum
• Lelanau wine/hard cider/cheese tour
• and a night or 2 in a B&B (with maybe one in a motel by the airport before we fly out early in the AM)

Empire Bluffs Trail view of Sleeping Bear Dunes. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

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