This summer (2009) we took a two week family trip from North Carolina up to Minnesota and Michigan, and then we of course traveled back home. This was our big vacation of the year -- and our last big family trip before our oldest daughter headed off to college for the first time -- so we made the most of it.

When we take long car trips, we love stopping and seeing things along the way. It's a nice break from driving, but more important, it is educational for both kids and adults.

Our travel itinerary took us from North Carolina up through West Virginia, where we stopped to see the Exhibition Coal Mine in Beckley. We had a great time taking the coal train ride into the side of the mountain and hearing a real miner tell us about his experiences. (He was a miner, not a minor.) From there, we drove on up to a campground just south of Cincinnati, where we camped at the end of our first day.

On the second day, we drove on up to Chicago where we visited my wife's grandmother and some of her relatives for a day. On the way to Chicago, we stopped at Conner Prairie, just north of Indianapolis.  It is an old time farming community with a lot of history.  We stopped there last year too. 

The third day, we drove through Chicago (big mistake) on our way to La Crescent, Minnesota, to visit my parents and grandmother.

I love La Crescent, nestled in the bluffs along the Mississippi River, just across the river from La Crosse, Wisconsin. That's apple country. The weather was absolutely gorgeous; nice and cool at night, sunny and warm (but not hot) during the day. My parents live way up on a hill on the edge of town, and we saw a lot of fun wildlife. One bird we saw in Minnesota that I've never seen in North Carolina is the Indigo Bunting. There ought to be a bird related baseball joke (about bunting) in there somewhere. I guess that might involve a fowl ball, haha. That part of the country also has black squirrels, something we don't have down here.

After a few days in La Crescent, we drove up to Duluth and Lake Superior to have a nice picnic lunch visit with my wife's brother and his wife, and then we drove on up to Ely, Minnesota, where we stayed in a cabin for two nights and did a lot of fishing in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area (see my hub article). I absolutely love the Boundary Waters. That's God's country.

It's also mosquito country ... well, Minnesota and Michigan have a fierce competition for title of Worst Mosquitoes, and I'd call it a tie this year.

After our stay in the Boundary Waters (two nights just isn't long enough!), we drove through the upper peninsula of Michigan, camping one night in Munising, and we drove on down to Grand Junction, Michigan, where my wife's family has had a cottage on Lake Osterhaut since the 1940's.

Along the way, we stopped and dipped our feet in Lake Huron, just so that we could say we did.

We spent four days at the cottage and then drove back to Chicago, where we spent another night visiting family, sharing stories with lots of laughter.

The next day, we started our journey home, driving from Chicago down to Fair Oaks Dairy in Indiana. If you ever get a chance to see that place, it's well worth it. The organization involved in milking 27,000 head of cattle is pretty phenomenal. I was impressed. There is a lot of fun stuff for kids to do there, and we even were able to see the birth of a calf.

We decided to stay in a motel in Jellico, Tennessee, on the way home so that we would be able to get a fresh, early start the following morning.

It was a wonderful trip with time together, laughter, rest and relaxation, and a lot of food!

We all loved stopping and seeing things along the way. Most places are well prepared for kids, with activities of all kinds.

It's amazing to me that my kids have had this opportunity to know two of their great grandmothers so well.

My grandmother is 100 years old, and we visited her nursing home in La Crescent. The staff there is wonderful, and they let my kids put on a piano recital for the residents in the nursing home. All five kids played pieces, and the elderly folks there truly enjoyed it.

I loved seeing Grandma again!

We also had a great time in Chicago visiting my wife's grandmother. She's a delightful person with a warm heart, an endearing smile, and such a happy disposition. We always love visiting her.

Though we saw and did many things on our trip, the best part was spending time together as a family.  In our hurried society, it seems like we tend to rush everywhere.  Each of my kids is a unique individual, and I love the one on one time I get with each of them when we go on a long trip like this.

We'll do it again next summer!