road trippin part 4: lansing, mi to minneapolis, mn

Lansing, the last stay of our trip.

We left off on Day 6. We had gotten up and ran around Mackinac, enjoyed some lunch, and then ferried back to our car. It was a fairly quick drive down to Lansing from St. Ignace. The sun came out and we got to enjoy the sights of the great lakes as we drove over the Mackinac bridge and I got a little sentimental we got nearer and nearer to Hillsdale and the towns I visited when I was in Michigan for college. A quick 3 hours later and we were pulling into my friend, and sorority sister, Ashley's house as another sister pulled up right behind.

Unfortunately I did not take a single picture my first night in Lansing, so I did not capture at all getting together with one of my friends for dinner. But we had lots of fun, after catching up at Ashley's, going out for pizza and drinks at a nearby Italian restaurant, and then returning to the house to continue reminiscing and play a few rounds of Trump. Euchre was quite popular at Hillsdale, and apparently in Michigan as a whole, so my friends caught on quite quick to Trump (a game we could play with 5 people).

Day 7 we got up not so bright and early and set out to enjoy rural Michigan with Ashley. Our first stop was a farm to pick strawberries. We were there for the last few days of strawberry picking, before it was blueberry season, so the good berries were hidden in the leaves, but all to soon we had more than enough strawberries to make dessert later that night.

Thus we decided to head a little farther down the road to an orchard that just so happened to have free wine tastings as well as a free "children's" play area.

After a few hours worth of entertainment- tasting 6 house wines and ciders each (and deciding on a bottle or two to bring home), jumping on the blob, strolling through the orchard, sampling free fudge, losing and finding my ID... we headed back to town to enjoy a grilled dinner, strawberry smoothies, and our friends' company for the evening.

Day 7, the last full day of our trip, started off with a quick run around the neighborhood while everyone else slept in. Lazy bums.

Once I got back, and everyone was up and showered, we headed to a quirky breakfast joint called Golden Harvest. We waited about 15 minutes out in the pleasantly-warm Michigan sunshine before being seated in the cozy restaurant (for those Minnesotans reading- it was a titch bigger than the Colossal in Minneapolis, but filled with way more personality).

I had the hardest time deciding what to order. We had to send the waitress away multiple times while I reread over the menu. I ended up going with the "Cereal Killer San'wich"- two slices of Captain Crunch French Toast stuffed with smoked ham, a fried egg, and American cheese. It was delicious and if I ever get a chance to go back I will have a hard time deciding between that sandwich or the plain Captain Crunch French Toast.

Ready to take full advantage of the weather again, and to lounge off our food comas, we headed to the beach. Unfortunately dogs were only allowed on the west side of the park, so we could not do our lounging at the beach proper, but still got to soak up some sun while reading magazines and chit-chatting, we just had to do it on the opposite side of the lake. Once our food was properly digested we mobilized for a quick game or two of pepper before heading off to our last official Michigan activity.

My friend had a package of tickets for the local minor league team, the Lansing Lugnuts, and since David and I rarely get to sit and enjoy a baseball game, we were excited to head downtown and catch the game. We couldn't cheer the team on on an empty stomach, obviously, and since tailgating is not big for the Lugnuts, we stopped at a brewery downtown for a quick bite to eat and a flight of local beers.

The Lugnuts lost pretty miserably, but I think it was safe to say a fun time was had by all. I even got a Lemon Chill for dessert (that's clearly all it takes to make me happy at a sporting event)!

Unfortunately now the clock was starting to tick- we had to be at work (the Kenny Chesney concert), in Minneapolis, the next day at 3:00pm, and we were going to need at least a brief nap between the drive and work if we wanted to be functioning at the concert. Once we got the car all loaded up we discovered we had just a bit more time to enjoy before our planned "midnight" departure, and I will take any excuse to play cards with people who really know how to play cards, so we sat and played a game of Euchre, followed by a few instructional hands of 500 until the clock struck (well more like til everyone got tired). We ended leaving at 11:30pm as we had a long drive, and they both had work in the morning (they being Ashley and her boyfriend).

Ten and a half hours, two large sodas, at least 5 tolls and two large construction areas later and we pulled into our driveway and went immediately to bed. This was officially trip number two that had to be cut short for vending purposes (the first being our honeymoon). But it was totally worth driving through the night and functioning on 4 hours of sleep to be able to have traveled through Wisconsin, the UP, and Mackinac to see a few college friends and be able to return home and go work for 5 hours and make enough to pay for the trip. I guess it was a win win.

We are already planning our next trip around Superior/ to Michigan. We are thinking a little Apostle Islands to Copper Harbor/ the Procupine Mountains to Munising to Traverse City to Chicago to Door County- what, too many stops? But of course there are lots of other places on our list we haven't made it to once, so we'll see what the next few summers bring!