Hoosiers

The Dad, The Boy, The Girl, The Tot and I went to visit Super Grandpa (as The Boy calls him) in Indiana this weekend. Super Grandpa is a nearly lifelong (save his Army time and a stint as a United tech at Midway in the 40s) resident of Syracuse, Indiana (winter population: about 3000). He lives on a channel just off Lake Syracuse (and Lake Wawasee), has a wood workshop in his cavernous garage, and likes to fish off his pontoon boat. He has led a very long, very interesting life (so far). So for the 3-day weekend, along with Grandma & Grandpa Naperville, we went to visit him. 

Grandpa Naperville docks a speedboat at Super Grandpa's property, so we spent much of our time going "full-speed ahead" (says The Tot) around Lake Syracuse. We also took out Big Mable and I spent several hours bumping behind the boat in the wake with (alternately) The Boy, The Girl, and The Dad. The weather was great and the water temperature was amazingly warm for Memorial Day weekend. We also got custard and ice cream at Joe's, spent one very long and uncomfortable night with all 5 of us in the hotel room, spent one night with just The Tot with his parents in the hotel room, which was kind of fun, watched The Boy fish with Grandpa Naperville, and took a sunset cruise along Lake Wawasee with Super Grandpa.

Oh, and I almost forgot: The Tot almost drowned himself in the canal on Saturday. Super Grandpa has a large lot with a large back deck, an expanse of green grass, and then a 1' wide concrete retaining wall before the channel. The Tot was drawn to that retaining wall like bees to pollen. Nothing we did or said could deter him from playing on the wall. And then he went in. Fortunately, The Dad was right there when it happened, so he leaped in after him, scraping his knee on the motor of the speedboat in the process. The Tot and The Dad were both dripping wet and screaming, but fortunately, both were fine afterward. The Tot stayed away from the retaining wall after that. The Dad's iPhone was totaled by the dip in the channel, but an iPhone, while expensive, is replaceable. Our youngest son is not.

We woke up this morning to overcast skies and arrived at Super Grandpa's house from the hotel just before it started to pour, so we waited out the worst of the storm before getting on the road. 

Life's a Beach

Thanks to the generosity of my mom's best friend, who loaned us her "cottage" for the length of our stay, our family just returned from a 4-day lake vacation in Michigan. It was heavenly. This cottage is a 3-bedroom house in the woods about 1/2 mile from Weko Beach -- the house is bigger than our Chicago Foursquare and decorated in a unique combination of painted shabby chic-vintage and original 60s and 70s Danish modern, with comfy couches and tons of magazines. No TV, no Internet, no phone. It's perfect. If I could afford a lake cottage, it would look like that. We read books, napped, played in the sand, body surfed (The Boy and The Dad), ate ice cream, grilled out, made s'mores, visited picturesque South Haven, and generally took it easy.

Road Trip!

Earlier in the summer, I took The Boy with me to Seattle. This weekend, it was The Girl's and The Tot's turn for an out-of-town trip. I rented a Toyota Prius (55 mpg, baby!), packed The Girl and The Tot in the car, and headed up to Minneapolis-St. Paul to visit my friend Prema and her family. Prema's daughter and The Girl share a birthday. They haven't seen each other since just before their first birthdays. Although originally from Minneapolis, Prema now lives in Norway; I figure if she can spend 10 hours on a plane with a preschooler to come to the U.S., I can spend 7 hours in a car with a preschooler (and a toddler) to drive up to Minnesota.

I have to say: my kids did really well on the 8-hour trip up and 7-hour return trip, in a strange car, with only each other, some music CDs, small toys, Color Wonder markers, and the scenery ("look! It's a farm!") for entertainment. Both The Girl and The Tot slept on the way up. We stopped just north of Madison at a giant cheese sign to buy cheese curds and eat our picnic lunch. Unfortunately, we crossed the Mississippi River into Twin Cities traffic just at the 5 o'clock-on-a-Friday hour, so the drive into Ramsey was a bit slow. We visited with Prema and her family; The Girl and The Tot enjoyed some serious run-around-and-play time. Then we had dinner and went to bed.

On Saturday, I discovered that I had forgot The Girl's suitcase in our living room in Chicago. Fortunately, we were able to borrow a few things from Prema's daughter, although she is quite a bit smaller than The Girl. We had a lazy day in Ramsey -- playing at the playground, going on a pontoon boat ride down the river, and then splitting up to attend events in the cities. Prema headed in to her old St. Paul neighborhood for a cocktail party, while The Tot, The Girl, and I got hopelessly lost going to visit an online friend in Minneapolis. We did eventually find it, however, and the kids played with our host's kids' toys, and we all enjoyed a yummy dinner of quesadillas and Southwestern pasta salad.

On Sunday, we returned to the playground in the morning and had another lazy morning of playing, then got on the road to home at noon. On the way home, I stopped at IKEA in Schaumburg so we could have dinner and stretch our legs.

Truthfully, I did not see much of Minneapolis or St. Paul while I was there, but I'll leave that visit for another time.