Going up to country, don't you want to go?

Yesterday we returned from our family vacation to the Upper Penninsula of Michigan. We stayed in a friend's cabin in Hulbert which is centrally located within an hour of all the places we visited. The U.P. is uncrowded. Aside from a little road construction we never waited in line for anything. Of course, we had to drive 20 miles to buy a gallon of milk, but it's a fair trade. I also missed having instant access to information that comes from the internet. I was able to get my fix by using the mobile internet on my cell phone to check sports scores. I could get a cell signal from the porch of the cabin.

The highlight of the trip was Tahquamenon Falls State Park. We planned to hike 4 miles from the lower falls to the upper falls and back again. About an hour into the walk, the kids started to grumble. The trail was crossed with exposed roots and difficult to navigate. We stopped at this spot for lunch and ended up playing in the water for almost 2 hours. The kids swam in their underwear like hillbillies. Sometimes the best plan is no plan at all. We had so much fun with that, we came back a couple days later and rented a boat to row out to the island and spent some time playing in the waterfalls out there.

Another highlight was Oswald's Bear Ranch. They have close to 30 bears of all sizes roaming around in fenced in habitats. I don't know what a happy bear looks like, but they seemed more content than some of the bears I have seen in zoos. They bear they used to have in the zoo here in Traverse City always looked like he was contemplating suicide.

We also visited a wildlife refuge, shipwreck museum and stopped at every spot that looked interesting. Annie used some pretty shady toilets, her potty training is almost complete. Both kids did just fine not watching TV all week. They got a little bored on long car rides but overall had a good time. Tomorrow I will return to the rat race 2 laps down.