I love when an opportunity to take a road trip comes up, I jump on the like chocolate cake! Nathaniel needed some part for our 57' Buick. Instead of waiting and hoping the part comes in the mail we decided to drive the 4 hours to Grand Rapids Michigan to pick it up ourselves. We packed the kids and we were off. My blissful thoughts of listening to music, singing crazy songs to the kids, basically having fun on our trip; went right out the window when Avery (the spirited one) decided, about 15 minuets in, that he did not want to be in the car. I tried everything to make him happy, coloring books, books, his huge dog, ignoring him, blanky, food, drink, music, no music. Nothing worked and we heard whining and crying for almost 4 hours!! It was probably thoughts of 4 more hours of crying that did us in, but we decided to just stay the night in Grand Rapids. I called my trusty hotels.com and the nice lady helped me find Quality Inn Terrance Club, a good cheap ass hotel. For $65 not including tax we got; two beds in a huge room, a swimming pool, free wifi, nicely decorated building (well in the early 90's anyway) and free continental hot/cold breakfast. I didn't really eat anything at breakfast, but the boys did, and its the thought that counts. If something was a sweet deal, it is this place!
You would never know that Grand Rapids is a vegan friendly place. (I am obsessed with yelp.com, just so you know) While in town I whipped out my trusty yelp app and found tons of vegan lovin' places! Surprised? I know me too!
We went to Brick Road Pizza, Jonny B'z: Dogs & More, Rowseter New American Coffee, JP's coffee, and a super tiny but awesome health food store. I found this amazing Lavender Blueberry Perserve and Super Cookies at the store. Everything was fantastic, and the people were friendly as shit! I think they need to teach the folks west of the lake how to act!
The best part of the trip was our stop at the beach. You would not think the beach would be the best of anything in December in the Midwest, but it was.....trust me.We parked and ran to the water all bundled up. Ellis got to throw a rock in the water and I got to take a picture. It was exciting to run out there in the frigid weather on a beautiful beach. I laughed almost the whole time. I wish I found this place sooner, I would definitely have gone here many times in the summer. It much nicer and prettier than the Chicago side of the lake.
Time slowed during our over night trip.
We had fun, and forgot about the troubles our life has hit us with.
We needed this trip more than we thought.
It's wonderful what one night can do.
Pictures to come....my internet connection sucks right now!!!
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