U.P. vacation #2

I said good-bye to Meredith this morning as she is completed her elective rotation and is on her way back to UofI. I made my first trip to Trader Joe in AA with her yesterday (as she had several 'orders' from Chambana to fill), and I must say just how amazed I was with the quality and price of the products; a place I defiantly will be frequenting since I do live there and all, which I had to remind myself several times during the shopping trip. We also seem to have found campus-bar-row and split a $5 pitcher of Miller Light after our roof top happy hour with $2.95 glasses of wine, cheese, and tapenade downtown.

Now after finishing the laundry, a few loose ends with grant stuff and grocery shopping, I am ready and just under 12 hours away from vacation #2 to the upper peninsula (UP) of Michigan to our family cabin about 30 minutes outside of Manistique, MI on Thunder Lake. I stopped to the library again and this time stocked up on a few books for my time in the cabin and will have plenty of driving time to finish my fourth and final book-on-CD. I have groceries and supplies for a rump roast complete with carrots and potatoes, chicken noodle soup, and yes some Hamburger Helper which I needed to finally make. I'll have to stop to IGA in town, about 30 minutes from the cabin, to pick up some milk, lunch meat, and fruit.

View Cabin in a larger map

I made a stop over to Aunt Linda's this evening to get directions, keys, pepper spray for the wild animals, and a bike rack for my car. It was quite an amusing time her trying to remember the name of the roads and the exact directions as to her it is just second nature. I did plug the address in to the GPS and it came out with directions, so I think we will be all set. I have several maps and directions to Picture Rock National Forest and Marquette, which are the two travel destinations on my trip.

There is also a paddle boat on the lack and several hiking/biking trails around Thunder Lake I plan to explore. I have lots of reading and writing that I want to accomplish. My cell phone connection will be spotty at best and Internet will probably only be available in Marquette. I will blog as I go and then post when I return, so look for the weeks adventures the 1st week of August.

I was told that my family is just in utter amusement that I am going to cabin by myself for a whole week, I think they even were taking bets of a family baby shower last weekend for how long I'll last up there - I'll let you know in about a week (or sooner if they are correct).