What a trip

Ergh......I've always said that travel, even when it's bad is still a learning experience. Some lessons I could really do without.

We planned a trip to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. For those of you who don't know, our state is divided in to two very separate and distinct parts. The lower peninsula (shaped like a mitten) and the upper part. The two halves are connected by one of the largest suspension bridges in the world. I've traveled to the U.P. but not since I was a kid, I was hoping to catch the fall colors as they were changing , get some great photos and relax.

Mr. Larj and I have never taken a "driving" vacation together, this was to be a first. He wasn't really on board with going to the U.P., he'd been there before and wasn't really thrilled about staying in state for a vacation. The first couple of days went pretty well, however on the third day we hit Munising and went on the Pictured Rock boat tour. The complaining started before we even got on the boat. Mr. Larj informed me that he would get sick if it was windy out there because cold wind always gave him earaches. He had on a hat and fleece hoodie that was pulled tight around his head and basically kept himself hunkered down during the entire 3 hour trip. If it's possible to talk yourself in to getting sick....he did it. By the time we hit Hancock the next day he informed me that he was "getting ill". So any sightseeing that I wanted to do was met with eye rolling and mild resistance. We were in a book store for 10 minutes and I heard about it for the next two hours, you'd have thought I gave him a root canal. After we left Hancock we spent the night in Baraga and then headed up to Copper Harbor. We found a place to stay that Mr. Larj declared "smelled musty" and started in on a list of things he was allergic to, mold being at the top of the list. At least we found a decent place to go to dinner at the Harbor Haus restaurant. It's chef owned and the food is really quite good, they also have a decent wine list. We stayed a couple of nights in Copper Harbor, I scoped out some of the galleries and we squeezed in a 3 hour hike on the ridge behind the harbor. After eating breakfast at the Tamrack inn, (best pancakes ever) Mr. Larj informed me that he'd had enough of looking at trees, little nick knack shops and that he was tired of "spending money just doing nothing". So at that point we headed back. I managed to hit one yarn shop very briefly on the way back and that was it, any and all other stops were canceled and he drove the entire way home, straight through. Not only that, we never saw any fall colors because for whatever reason, they're about two weeks behind in turning.

Great...that's all I can say. I am voting for separate vacations next time. I did take some knitting with me, I didn't get to work on as much as I would have liked to but I started and completed a hat. It's Shazza's Muse hat but I modified it to be more of a snood.

The grande finale to my "vacation" is that when we got home....I got sick, really sick. I've spent the last five days either curled up in my recliner or sleeping on the couch. Nyquil has been my best friend. So I burned up two more days of "smart time" being sick. Back to work tomorrow, my guess is that it won't take me long to get the 1000 yard stare back and be right back to my stressed out self.

I leave you with the Upper Tahquamenon Falls....