Our trip with Lucy went better that we could have demanded. Could Lucy’s recent “erratic behavior”:/news/2007/the-bizarro-lucy/ simply been due to a case of _wanderlust?_ She certainly proved to be a champion traveler.
Last Saturday, Jon and I woke at 4:30 am, quickly dressed then gently picked up our slumbering, pajama-clad daughter and placed her in our pre-loaded rental car. Since it was fully two hours before her typical wake-up time, we hoped she might fall back (or even stay) asleep. But who wants to go to sleep at the start of a big adventure? Not Lucy! She was content to gaze out the window of the dawn’s passing scenes of Chicago for an hour. Lucy napped for only about 30 minutes of our 10.5 hour drive up to the Upper Peninsula, and was remarkably content with a steady diet of toys, Cheerios, silly songs, and a nice long stop at the McDonald’s PlayLand in Cadillac, Michigan.
Once we arrived at “Cedar Campus”:http://www.intervarsity.org/cedar/, Lucy made a thorough crawling inspection of Northcote Deck cabin, her new home (while we frantically searched for outlet-plug covers). Our exhausted daughter went to sleep that first night without even a single peep (something unheard of back in Chicago) and continued that trend the whole week! We think that the abundance of new surroundings, northwoods air, and activity really agreed with her.
p{color:gray}. Photo: Lucy briefly paused her tearing around in the water just long enough for this snap.
We had lots of lovely family adventures during the week. We took a couple of hikes in the woods. Lucy fell asleep right in the backpack carrier at the end of one particularly long one (who knew she could do that?). Lucy experienced her first taste of beach life, complete with crawling in the shallows of Lake Huron, gulping some water (oops), and chomping down on some sand — all the more special with our friend “Kelly”:http://flickr.com/photos/weavingmajor/, a frequent BNN commenter, and some of her brood to share it with. Meals around family-style tables were great fun for Lucy, who enjoyed laughing along with grown-up jokes and enticing distinguished “university professors”:http://2007.facultyconference.org/ to play peek-a-boo with her. She made lots of friends, you can bet.
On our drive home, Lucy decided mix things up a bit just to keep us guessing, indulging in a marathon two-hour nap, lulled into slumber by the hypnotic sounds of “_Eragon_”:http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1400090687/octothorppres-20 in audio-book form. Visiting our friends Nicole (another frequent BNN commenter), James, Benjamin, and Ella was a little oasis in our day. Lucy cackled with glee as she practiced climbing up their thickly carpeted “staircase”:/news/2007/stairmaster/ — you can’t get that at a McDonald’s PlayLand (or in our one-story bungalow)!
Once we got into downtown Chicago, Lucy gazed up at the passing skyscrapers with delight. We Boyds love to visit the country, but city kids are glad to come home again, too.
So glad your trip went well. =)
How jealous am I that you were able to hang out with N. H. and family! I miss you all!
Madelyn would have loved to play in the water with you! We have a pool in the back yard and she can’t go past without a splash and then she bends over and takes a big drink. ick.
I am glad the drive went so well, don’t they amaze you!
Kids and water! Gotta love summer. Mo is in the dog’s wading pool non-stop! Lucy looks so cute in her little bikini. Glad she enjoyed herself.