Weekend Road Trip: To Mackinac Island

If you live in Michigan and you've never been to Mackinac Island, your Michigander/Michiganian/Michigunner card may get revoked.

So to ensure that didn't happen, we took the kids to the Island.  We'd last been there with Murph many many moons ago, prior to les enfants.

We met the ferry at Mackinaw City for the ride to Mackinac Island.  Note both Mackinaw and Mackinac are pronounced the same - Mack-i-naw.  One's got the English spelling for the word, one has the French.

The weather however was fog, Low IFR with a cloud base of 100 feet.  Just as well we didn't fly there.  I could have take pictures on the ferry but the visibility was almost 0/0 On the ferry.  For example you could not see the Mackinac bridge to the Upper Peninsula from the ferry and you normally can see it.

We arrived at the Island and started looking around.

The fog would stay and we'd get more and more rain throughout our day on the island but we were going to make the best of it.

 The first thing one does on Mackinac is search for its #1 export product - Fudge!

We went to Murdick's fudge shop.  Yes, you can order some of these delectables online if you can't make it to Mackinac yourself.

We got to see fudge being made on marble slabs, being poured out and then being turned into tasty bars of tastiness.

 We got some chocolate cherry and chocolate sea-salted caramel fudge, which was awesome.  Just don't try to eat an entire piece in one sitting.  Nothing good will happen.

We then wandered around the charming downtown area.

The place was still hopping, even with the constant drizzle.

We wandered around and then headed to the fort.

A Nice Weekend Road Trip

We left Friday to travel northward.  The kids had never been to Michigan's north so we were looking to remedy that.

So up north we went.

The clouds were low and foreboding as we did so, and rain soon showed up.

First we stopped briefly in Pinconning for provisions.

The Cheesehouse Cheese Shop.

As the suggestive name suggests most suggestively, it has cheese.

Lots of cheese. And meat sticks, and candy of all sorts, and local wines and other provisions.Well stocked up, including with some really tasty venison meat sticks, we continued north.

Next we passed through Indian River.

 The highlight of the travel through there was the 32-foot-long Steel Sturgeon.  

Then on to Cross Village and the Tunnel of Trees.

The Tunnel of Trees were considered a bit of a disappointment by the kids.  Rather jaded and cynical they are.  To be fair I can't blame them too much as there really wasn't much to it - a fair amount of trees over a road but not super-thick so not really tunnel-ish.  In short, not worth the diversion. At least not during this time of year.    

Cross Village was rather pleasant though, with some very nice people and shops and the kids got to spend some time with a artist's springer spaniel who truly enjoyed the kids' attention.

We stopped in Cross Village for lunch at Legs Inn and the meal was fantastic.   They're famous for their Polish food and the fame is well-warranted.  We had the Polish Lunch and it was awesome.  On order was more than enough for two people.  The Polish desserts were also great, and great friendly service too.  Highly recommend it if you're in the area.

We then made it up to where we were staying in Harbor Springs, and tucked in for the night.

Road Trip Week: Arrival In Washington DC

After Johns Hopkins, we headed towards Washington DC.

Leah was staying with a friend for the week in DC while we looked at Campuses with the elder child.  So we got an AirBNB in their Tenlytown neighborhood which was very nice.  It is a very SWPL place, Whole Foods in walking distance, along with a smoothie place, and a great Mediterranean quick service restaurant.

In DC, they have masks on everywhere even outside with the only exception being for vigorous physical exercise under their mayor's edict  - which is why quite a few people were out jogging or walking their dogs, everyone else had masks on.

They've got quite a bit of Stockholm Syndrome going on in Tenlytown:

Lots of these signs festooned the neighborhood.  

They were joined with the "Please Don't Break Our Windows" a/k/a BLM signs, and various other forms of virtue signalling.  

Very tolerant stuff indeed, but as told to me by a friend that lives there  in the neighborhood, the tolerance only goes so far - don't have any Republican bumper stickers in sight on your car as the oh-so-caring progressives in the neighborhood will key it. 

We have no stickers on our cars for that reason among others, but our having a Michigan license plate apparently ticked someone off, as our windshield was cheesed during the night.  Yes someone threw a couple pieces of Swiss cheese on the front windshield which was rather disgusting, not to mention a waste of Swiss cheese.  We cleaned that off and then headed out to check on the cherry blossoms.

University Visit: Johns Hopkins

From Philadelphia we headed to Maryland, stopping overnight in Newark, Delaware.

We then drove into Baltimore and headed to Johns Hopkins.

 

Another reach school with both excellent reputation and wonderfully strong science and research programs where even undergrads get to participate in serious research its definitely one of her top reach pics. 

The main camous grounds are absolutely beautiful.

 

 

 

Downside is that it is in Baltimore. 

University (unarmed) Security was everywhere on the main campus.   I mean everywhere and in multiples.  You don't have that level of security unless you need it.  The main campus even so is however very nice and in a reasonably nice area.  Still that's a factor to be considered.

The medical campus however is in a much more sketchy location.

Overall, it is one of her top choices along with U Penn and CM, but they all have a shockingly low acceptance rate so we will see what happens come application time.

University Visits: Swarthmore

Located in the outskirts of Philadelphia, less than 20 minutes from U Penn,  but in many ways a world apart. Swarthmore College offers a very serene and walkable isolated campus with some stately buildings and naturalist landscaping.

 Lots of nice buildings in a quiet wooded environment that is completely apart from the city itself but close enough to go into town.

The historic Sproul observatory built in 1907 and completed in 1913 when it had the largest telescope on the east coast of the US.  It has since been replaced as an observatory at Swarthmore:

Swarthmore is very big on environmental science and the environment in general.  Every class year plants a tree on the campus.  Here's one from the class of 1875, an Elm that is 146 years old and still growing - 

They have some solid science programs, and it offers a small student body and  a very comfortable and walkable campus and it is definitely under consideration.

University Visit: For U, It De Penn

We spent the night in Bradford PA, and then in the morning headed to Philadelphia, the home of The University of Pennsylvania.

Established in 1740, and founded by Benjamin Franklin,  its first President, it has a lot of history to offer.

 It has some very stately architecture.

It also has some iconic sculptural works around the campus.

As important as all of that, it has a highly regarded and rigorous science and biology research department, which is what the kid is looking to study.

Again, every building was shut tighter than a drum, but we got to see the outside of the buildings and quite a few students were around. The bookstore/spirit store was open, so shopping occurred.  

The area around campus is rather nice with a variety of shops and restaurants, many aimed at the hungry college student so dinning occurred as well.

Overall it's definitely one of her top choices to apply and reach towards.

University Visits - Oberlin

Day One We headed out of Michigan and into Ohio.  The roads immediately got better, the drivers worse.

We first stopped at Oberlin College.

Unfortunately with Covid, the buildings were all closed to visitors so it was all an external ride and walk about tour.

Oberlin is in a rather pleasant town.

We also stopped at Gibson's Bakery which is rather famous due to its mistreatment at the hand of Oberlin's administration - as can be seen by viewing the entire story over at Legal Insurrection.

We met one of the Gibson family who was working that day.  Super nice guy. We had a great chat about jiu-jitsu as Abby was wearing her jiu-jitsu sweatshirt and he had been practicing for quite some time and was even involved in the Oberlin Jiu-Jitsu club back when they had one.  

He was not negative about Oberlin College in any way, didn't discuss the dispute, and didn't do anything to dissuade a possible applicant to the college - even with how his family had been badly treated by the college administration.

Oberlin is overall a nice university in a small town setting.

Overall, Oberlin is rather heavily focused on music and the liberal arts, whereas Abby is all about science, so it may not be one of her top picks.  So, on to the next scheduled stop at a University in the next state.

Where We Were This Week

Here's a quick location photo to help you guess:

We were off on a Great American Roadtrip with a purpose:  To checkout potential universities for Abby.  

We hit 4 states, toured the grounds of 6 Universities, and visited with Leah's friend in DC and drove around there as well.  Lots of fun was had.

Seaworld

In addition to Universal, we also took the kids to Seaworld.

The day was quite cold with drizzling rain all morning, but it cleared up by early afternoon.

It had only just stopped raining when we saw the Killer Whale Show.

The Orcas could certainly catch air and make a splash.

We also saw the Dolphin show, and again these aquatic creatures showed some aerial acrobatics:

After the shows, we went and fed Dolphins and Stingrays, both by hand, and had a good time.

The dolphins approached to be fed with toothy grins:

And they said thanks for the fish, they actually squeaked and chatted through their blowholes and it was very neat indeed.

Feeding them was very cool, as I've never been that close to a dolphin before. 

They let themselves be patted and they appreciated the fish.

The rays were similarly eager to be fed, and with their mouths on their undersides, you had to place your hand at the bottom of the pool with the piece of fish poking out from your hand. They would come by and suck the fish out of your hand and then swim on, it felt like a vacuum cleaner.

The rays felt like wet mushrooms and were quite placid and relaxed with all the people around.

We saw all the various exhibits and aquatic animals and the kids learned a ton about marine creatures, and the theme park heavily stresses education throughout.

We also did a few rides and the kids loved the Shamu Express Roller Coaster and rode it about 10 times in a row.

Seaworld is a much smaller park than Universal and thanks to the nasty weather, it was easy to get into all the exhibits and rides that we could wish to go on.  The only downside was that the food was decidedly mediocre, especially compared to Universal. 

The kids had a whale of a time at Seaworld and I'd recommend going there if you're vacationing in Orlando.  It's worth it just for the opportunity to hand-feed dolphins, with the rest of the park being a cool bonus.

Back Home Again

After a decent return trip of two days on the road, we're back home.

All is unpacked, all is well, and we had a great if exhausting time taking the kids around Orlando.

More pics and details on the trip to follow.

Yes, We Took The Kids To Universal Studios In Orlando

After driving for two days we made it to Orlando in pretty good time.

We had made it from Michigan and to Chattanooga, TN on the first day.  On the second day we stopped and had lunch  at Keith-A-Que in Ashburn, Georgia - the best BBQ on I-75, period.  Friendly service, good conversation and BBQ to kill for, or at least seriously maim for - truly not to be missed.  They also helpfully pointed out that I should go for the half sweet tea (sweet tea mixed half with unsweetened tea) rather than the full sweet tea - and they were right.

We arrived in Orlando that night and the next day hit Universal Studios theme parks and began having a blast.

Since both kids are Harry Potter fans, they had a great time, and we had to take the Hogwarts Express between the theme parks to make sure they got the experience and got to see both Harry Potter locations.  The level of detail in both Potter worlds was fantastic.  Then there were the rides.

In short, Universal knows how to make some very wicked and realistic motion simulators.

Lots more to follow.  Just finished up another long day at Universal and will have more to blog on later.

A Decent Ride In

Made it from Michigan to Harper's Ferry, West Virginia in just under 8 hours, beating Google Map's estimate for the trip but that's tempered by having two stops for gas and coffee thrown in, and still beating the map's straight-run estimate. Ohio is still a heckuva long state to cross.

No problems on the drive, met up with Murphy's Law and had a good night, with some fun stuff planned for today.

Back Home

Just returned form the wilds of Columbus Ohio, after taking the kids on a two day tour of the COSI - Center of Science and Industry.

The kids had a great time doing lots of hands-on science activities, and the weather there was in the mid-60s and just beautiful and we had a great time.

A more detailed report to follow.

Home Again

Made it home safe and sound in just under 9 hours.

5 States, 520 Miles each way.

Now to unpack and prepare for the rest of the week and a shower to wash off the road.

Blogging of this weekend's events will resume in a bit.

I have arrived......

After 9 hours, I have safely arrived in West Virginia. Let the fun begin.