Great Lakes Grooving

[CrispyA]

It's 21 days until we set off on our trip to Chicago and the Great Lakes, so it really is about time I started a Pre-Trip report!

Meet the Cast

This is the four of us in Acadia National Park in Maine on our East Coast Trip last year.

Hannah: finder of lost paths, fabulous photo poser, knower of facts and discoverer of cool places to eat

Elizabeth: chief planner and organiser, shortest person in the family, regularly makes accidental eye contact with a chatty stranger and gets stuck talking for far too long about crustaceans, or boxing, or directions to somewhere we have no intention of going

Paul: lover of transport systems and outdoors activities, enjoys craft beer, hiking and guitars, chief planner of outdoor activities

Evan: comedian, carnivore, bargain shopper, chief player of golf and other sports. Unable to smile in photos - apparently.

We weren't going back to the USA this year but then we changed our minds, especially as Paul has an uncle in Chicago and really wanted to visit. To be honest, while Chicago sounds like a great city, this was never a part of the USA that was high on my list of places to visit, so I took some persuading. However, now that it is all researched and planned, I'm super excited about it!

Our flights were a complete bargain after a bit of late night browsing of Google Flights. I was fully expecting them to be cancelled not long after booking but no, so we have flights to the USA in July for £340 each. Can't argue with that!

We fly from Manchester to Atlanta and then on to Chicago Midway where we will pick up the car. We will then drive to Geneva which is about 40 minutes away and have 3 nights with family. Activities will include visiting downtown Chicago, playing golf and lots of eating and drinking and general catching up.

Then we head out to Wisconsin on the West side of Lake Michigan. We will have 2 nights in Door County on the lakeshore before heading up to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan State - the UP.

This is one part we are really excited about. The UP is pretty remote with lots of wilderness and outdoorsy stuff, right on Lake Superior. We have 3 different AirBnB cabins and are spending a few nights in each, working our way across the UP to the Canadian border. We are there for 7 nights altogether and are planning lots of hiking, with a boat trip on Lake Superior.

After that, we head into Michigan, catching a boat across to Mackinac Island for the night, where there are no cars allowed but you can hire bikes, or horse drawn carriages. There is a very fancy hotel, the Gand Hotel, but at £1500 a night, we ain't staying there!

We then catch the ferry back to the mainland, pick up the car and head to Sleeping Bear Dunes on the East of Lake Michigan for some beach time. We have 2 nights there and 2 nights further down the shore at Muskegon.

After that, we go back to Chicago for another 3 nights with family before flying back to the UK.

Accommodation is all booked and plans are in place. Once exams are out of the way, we can all get to the final planning and before long, we'll be on our way!