Luckily for us, there was a national park nearby that we hadn't yet visited: Indiana Dunes National Park. We decided to break our vacation into two parts. The first half would be in Ohio with the family, and the second part would be in Indiana at the national park. The good part about his vacation is its relative closeness. Recently, we have been going to northern Minnesota or western South Dakota-all multi-day drives from our house. These two locations were a mere 9 hour drive from the house.
Our first destination was a small house in White's Landing, Ohio. It was about 20 minutes away from Harvest Baptist Temple, and about 30 minutes away from our other vacation destination: Cedar Point. Did I forget to mention Cedar Point? Well Julia sure didn't, it was her dream for many years. I have somehow managed to raise four kids that hate rollercoasters, and one that thinks there is nothing better in the entire world. This year was the first year that Julia was tall enough to go on any ride. Since we were in the area and Julia was dying to go, we decided that this would be something just for her. We would go to the ultimate rollercoaster destination in the United States.
We left for our vacation on Friday (July 10th), it was an uneventful drive -- Nashville was surprisingly peaceful for 8:30am on a work day. There was construction in Louisville, but we were planning to take the detour around the city anyway. We stopped at a Buc-ee's where we had to pick up some beef jerky. Wendy's was the necessary, but underwhelming dinner. I seem to remember Stacy and Rebekah thinking that the salads there were great, but not this time.We arrived at the house well before bed time, so we took a long, sunset stroll around the neighborhood, taking us past the waterfront.
On Saturday, we met with Nana, Papa, Beth, & Nathan at Panera Bread for lunch. It was the first that we had seen Beth & Nathan since Thanksgiving. It was good to see them before having to get ready for the wedding. At the wedding, we got to see most of the family for the first time in quite a while. Some of the relatives had never met Julia and Joanna. Stacy flew up to Ohio a couple of years ago for Grandpa Stinson's 85th birthday, but the rest of us hadn't been in many years. We originally sat near the back, but eventually I decided that we were close enough family to sit near the front. The Pastor gave a short sermon, then Papa officiated the ceremony. Afterwards, we went back to the house to grab the present that we had forgotten. We waited a little longer than we should have and ended up arriving at the reception a little late. Fortunately/Unfortunately a bridge was out on the way there, making a nice excuse for our laziness.We were at a table by ourselves, but several people came up to talk to us.
As the reception was wrapping up, we watched Luke and Talia drive away in Uncle Rich's swanky Corvette. Then everybody helped clean up and the five of us crashed at Uncle Rich & Aunt Jan's house. It was the first time we (Stacy excepted) got to see their beautiful, new house. Most houses in that area have large basements. It probably doubles the size of the house. We hung out there for a little while and then it was back to the house.
Most of the family left on Sunday, so we were the only visitors on Sunday. Stacy had a hard time breathing in the auditorium. She spent most of the time in the lobby, resulting in very few people meeting her. During the evening service I sat next to Elisabeth, and a lady behind us confused Elisabeth for my wife. Poor Elisabeth, this vacation she has been confused for a 15 year old and a 30 year old. In the afternoon, we went to back to Uncle Rich & Aunt Jan's. We got to catch up with them which was very pleasant. Now that the wedding was over, they were able to relax for the first time in several weeks.
After the evening service, we said goodbye to everyone. Sadly, no one was able to join us at Cedar Point.
No comments:
Post a Comment