Badger State

Our regular summer Let's Go Visit the Grandparents trip generally involves transport between Milwaukee and Flint, usually passing through Chicago in some form.  Relative to the amount of ground we have to cover to get there from California, it seems like it shouldn't be that big of a deal, but in practice it's a bit of a pain, since there's a rather large lake preventing us from making a straight line between the two.  Not to mention the number of daily flights in and out of Flint are a bit of a limiting factor.  For the past 6 years, I've been trying to crack the code to find least painful yet most economical way to make it work, involving various combinations of rental car driving and puddle jumping flights.

This year, instead of making Lake Michigan our nemesis, we made it our friend.

We picked up a car at Bishop airport, and drove with Gangi to St. Joseph, where we visited Great Grandma Barb, stayed in a big hotel by the beach, and went to play in a Great Lake.

The swimsuits were held hostage inside our bags, waiting for check-in at the hotel, so we told the kids, "You can only go wading."

So that went well.

It's been a long time since I visited Michigan's west coast, and it was so nice, I spent most of the afternoon wondering why I hadn't made the effort to get there before now.  And it split the drive into 2 more digestible segments.  So maybe this is the code-cracker?

Once we got to Brookfield, we spent time playing baseball, and bike riding.

Another favorite thing is harvesting raspberries with Grambo - 

while Mommy and Daddy do things like drive to Milwaukee and take a brewery tour.

Of course, no visit to Brookfield is complete without hitting Wirth Aquatic Park, especially since it's only 5 minutes from the house.  I was a little worried Brennan might have aged out of it, but turns out we* all still think it's a lot of fun.  

* "We" meaning, me and the kids.  Everyone else thinks it's a hot and boring pain the neck.

Of course, it's nice to just spend some time relaxing, like enjoying popsicles on the patio with Grandpa Üwe, 

sweet-talking Grambo into making a big pancake breakfast,

or reading stories in bed with Whitey the Snow Leopard.

We had a lovely time in Wisconsin, and the kids are already discussing their plans for next summer. (Play time with Cousin Seth, a return to Toys R Us, and Sky Zone trampoline park figure prominently.)