Vacation from Vacation- "The Switzerland of America"

Our 2015 Family Road Trip has come to an end so this will be my last post for this trip. We left Michigan Monday the 28th around 11am and drove until we didn't want to drive anymore :) I guess my next statement will let you know a little of how I feel about the plains because, I don't even remember where we stopped that night. It was somewhere in Iowa or Nebraska? Not sure! The next day we kept driving and we were able to spend a little while in Minden NE at Harold Warp Pioneer Village. I went there as a kid so it was fun to go back after so long. It's so odd that this place is in the middle of Nebraska but they has a lot of really cool items. They have one building that has living room and kitchen displays from each decade all the way back to the 1800's. We had a nice time walking around looking at all the displays. We got back in the van ready to keep a rollin. Thank you Minden, NE for the 10 massive flies that we could not get out of our van!

That night we stayed at a Walmart in Avon, CO. Talk about the nice Walmart ever :) It was so large and they even had grass growing on top of the buildings so they would eventually blend into the scenery. We were only 4hr from Ouray our final spot for this 5 week trip. We were excited to get there so we started driving. Ouray is such a beautiful little town nestled in the mountains. I've gone to Ouray since I was a child and have a lot of really great memories there. Christopher and I even spent our honeymoon there! I think we went there at last 7 times in the first 5 years we were together :) Yeah I think we like it :) It's called the Switzerland of America and what a great name that is. The quaint little town is surrounded by mountains on three sides. There is a hot springs where you sit and look at the mountains and you can even see mountain goats sometimes. It sits at 7,800 feet so the weather is basically perfect all year! I was debating whether or not I should actually put the name of the town or not because we like to think of it as our little secret but we know it's not :)

What a great 3 nights in Ouray! This was the first time we've ever gone there and didn't do all of the normal things we normally do. We just sat and relaxed the whole time :) Mouse's Chocolates and Coffee was a daily stop. We also found the bakery at the top of the hill and got there right in time to buy fresh bread right out of the oven. They let us know they weren't able to cut it because it was still to warm but we figured that was not a bad problem to have :) It was refreshing to be somewhere that's familiar to us and I'm glad we were able to finish our trip there.

We are back to our normal lives now and it's been going well. Solomon has enjoyed his bouncy toy while Christopher and I have enjoyed being able to see all the friends and family we have missed! Thank you for reading and you can enjoy future posts on past places we have already been. It won't be long before we are back on the road but until next time

Fires, Ferries and Horses Oh My

Even though the truck stop in Canada was a nice experience we were ready to be out of Canada. We drove the few hours to Port Huron. After a few more hours of pointless driving, just for funsies, or not, we finally landed at the Fairfield Inn and Suites hotel in Port Huron. This was, by far, the friendliest hotel we've ever stayed in before. Every single staff member we encountered or saw other people encounter  was genuinely kind and seemed to enjoy their job. Needless to say that the Best Western at Niagara Falls received a bad review and the hotel in Port Huron I could not leave a good enough review. Some of the staff even came out to see our new ride! We were able to get all of our work done and enjoy the spacious room along with all the other amenities they offer. 

He said it was therapeutic :) 

The next afternoon we made our way to Otter Lake, MI to spend the long weekend with our really good friends we had not seen for a while. It was the perfect setting to pull our van up beside their house and plug her in for us to sleep in at night! The weather was really great with little to no humidity and the bugs were not bad either. The first day there, us women took Solomon and went to the big big mall for some shopping while the men tended to their 4 kids and the other domestic duties. The next day we all packed up and headed north to their family cabin. It was such a great weekend getaway. The cabin was a great size with lots of bedding everywhere, a great kitchen and 2 bathrooms. This cabin sits on several acres with some fun toys for off roading and a fire pit. Here's a funny story for you... I've heard about this cabin for a while and I was told that they have a fire going the entire time any time they go there. I was told they go out and have fun on their toys and then come back to the fire. For some reason my mind went to them huddling around a burn barrell with their rolled up beanies on and holding their hands over the fire with their fingerless gloves on.... Yes I just described a street in New York City where the homeless might live. I was interested in seeing this fire myself. But upon arrival the kids all got out of the van and, not even, 5 minutes later they had a fire going, in the really nice fire pit outside beside the house! They even had real nice chairs to sit in, no rolled up beanies on, no fingerless gloves in site and no soot on any ones faces! I might of been a little disappointed :)

Saturday the 26th we all went to Mackinac Island. Why it's spelled Mackinac but pronounced Mackinaw makes no sense to me... But no one asked me when they decided to pronounce it for the first time :) It was a nice experience we even did the horse carriage tour around the island. We would recommend it for a quick easy way to see more of the island. It is a small island and there are several ferry options to get you there. Our second ferry ride of this trip! There are no cars allowed on the island except the fire truck and an ambulance so everyone gets around on bicycles and horses. It did make for a smelly destination but a very pretty one that's famous for their fudge. We didn't want to hurt anyones feelings by not tasting their fudge they worked so hard to make, so we forced ourselves to go in a few stores to buy some fudge! Life was rough that day :) The Arch Rock was one of my favorite things about Mackinac Island. The water was a very pretty turquoise color and was so beautiful.

Arch Rock

Our time with our friends in Michigan was very well spent and very needed. It's a bummer we can't live closer to each other meaning, it's a bummer they don't live in Utah :) 

Horse Carriage Ride

Our trip is almost over at this point so we will have two more posts, for this trip. One very exciting post on the bland, flat, fly filled plains that we drove through. The final post will be on the last 3 nights in one of our favorite places with some of favorite people. Until next time :)

The Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island

Main street in Mackinac 

Arch at the Cemetery

Arch Rock

When you live in the city your forget dirt roads exist!
This dirt road is in Michigan

First is the worst and second is the best. Right?

Niagara Falls... We meet again. 3 years ago we were in Niagara Falls, NY and the experience was decentish (depends on your definition of decent). We did the Maid of the Mist boat ride packed in there like a can of sardines. It was fun and misty but we left feeling Niagara Falls, NY had gone down hill a good bit. Everyone told us "oh you have to go to the Canada, side that's the nice side". Here we are needing to get from Boston to Michigan and the route would take us straight through Niagara Falls. We thought we'd stay the night in Niagara Falls, ON, drive up and around the Georgian Bay to Sault St Marie, MI before heading south to Otter Lake, MI. We've never spent time in the UP, so we thought we give it a try. You know the UP, the right hand that sits ontop of the left hand when someone from Michigan wants to show you what part of Michigan they're from. Anyway, back to Niagara Falls.

We get to the border at 7pm expecting to follow all the other vehicles through the normal border patrol lines just to see a sign that says All Tour Buses, Trucks and RVs to the left.... What?? That line was twice as long and come to find that's because a tour bus will pull up into one of the two open lanes and all 50 people have to get off and walk inside to go over all the passports. Long boring story short... it took us 2 hours to get through the line and into Niagara Falls, ON.

Niagara Falls (Rainbow Bridge)

We had purchased a Best Western Hotel room from Priceline earlier that day and arrived at the hotel by 9:15pm. We had to get some work done so we needed the wifi as we were not wanting to use data on our phones in Canada. I walk inside and tell the young man my name and he says there's no reservation under that name. So I pull up my email and the guy is writing down some numbers to see if he can find the reservation. Just then a lady walks up and says "you booked on Priceline right" and I said "yes" and she said "oh we went ahead and cancelled your reservation for you". I replied, "huh?" To which she so kindly said "yeah, we went ahead and cancelled your reservation for you because our hotel is not going to honor the price you paid on Priceline." I replied, "huh?" She said, "you can purchase a room from us at $109.00 for tonight but we won't honor the $49.00 you paid online." I didn't have much to say. She was so nice and helpful with cancelling our reservation and throwing us out into the street for the night that I didn't have any responses coming to mind. What do you say to someone being so kind about cancelling your reservation?? I know we can all think of somethings to say! 

Christopher was so mad that we couldn't help but laugh! Christopher is one of those who tries to be really mad but it makes you laugh instead of tremble. There was no way we were going to pay the extra money to stay somewhere that would do that to their quests. They said they've had to do it to quite a few quests the last few weeks. Well, we needed some wifi to see what our options were and how far it was to just get out of Ontario. As we sat there in the parking lot wondering which direction to turn we see the billboard for Denny's restaurant and in big bold letters it says FREE WIFI. Perfect, we'll go get some food and use the wifi. We drive a few blocks away, get inside and can't seem to login into the wifi. I ask the waiter if there is a trick to the wifi and he said "our wifi has not been working on Apple products for some reason the past week." Of course it wasn't! Why would anything in Canada be working out for us! We paid for our meal and decided to leave, drive as far as we could to sleep in a truck stop for the night and get into Michigan the next day. 

We have a few lovely pictures of Niagara Falls that Christopher took from the van window while we waited in line at the border and a picture of the delicious Denny's where we ate. We landed at a truck stop 2 hours away from Port Huron, MI. We scrapped our plans to stay in Canada and travel to the UP just to get out of Dodge :) The truck stop we stayed at was very nice and the cafe we ate breakfast at was also really nice. I guess we ended Canada on a good note. I'll post about Michigan next time.