I just returned from a short journey which included a stop in Duluth, two nights in Marquette, two nights at my moms in Minnesota, then back home. In a total of six days. In the past 3 weeks, I have spent roughly 70 hours driving. That does not include driving around at the destinations. It’s been fun, but also a very strong test of my patience to travel.

The kids and I left home at about 7am last Tuesday, arrived in Duluth, Minnesota in the evening and checked in to the Holiday Inn. That ten hour drive went great! We had to stop at Target for last minute things for a couple of the kids going to camp who decided to conveniently forget socks, swimwear, and some basic clothing essentials. I did indeed check their bags before we left and asked multiple times whether they had everything, but somehow they managed to make it disappear out of their bags. Also, I needed a coffee to end that stretch of the trip. And some drinks and snacks for our little party at the Holiday Inn.

I somehow always luck out with getting the very top floor at hotels. Me plus six kids and everyone’s stuff for one night, to the fourth floor. Then we found some pizza to order (it took nearly 2 hours to arrive and when I finally decided to call the pizza place and check on it, I poked my head out the door and saw the pizza guy walking down the hall). By the time we finished eating, it was 9:15 and the kids wanted to go swimming! Haha, swimming. So, we went swimming.

By midnight, I had all the kids sleeping. Now that was a win.

I got up at 7, packed all our stuff up, woke the kids up, paraded them down to the car, and googled a coffee shop that wasn’t Starbucks. I love coffee shops local to an area, and found a place named after Duluth, can’t remember exactly what it is. But after following my directions, arrived and it was downtown parking and there was nowhere to park. Trying to find downtown parking really is not up my ally, so I ended up at a Caribou drive thru the next town over in Wisconsin.

Then it was off to Michigan!

After dropping half the kids off at camp, my oldest and two youngest and I went to check in at the Days Inn in Marquette. Once again, upper level. After hauling all the luggage up and refreshing after the drive, we went to Big Boy restaurant for dinner, requested by Zoey. I honestly don’t recommend that restaurant, but it’s easy with kids and they literally just like to go to see the Big Boy statue.

We had ice cream both nights at the Jilbert Dairy ice cream shop in Marquette. They’ve got pretty good ice cream, plus a giant cow statue in a cute courtyard to enjoy your ice cream in.

After ice cream on our first evening, we went to McCarty’s cove for sunset. My absolute favorite beach! I’d gotten Zoey and Freya shovels to dig with on the beach and they had fun running around trying to hit eachother with them and throw sand on the other. No digging happened.

The next day was spent walking the historic downtown district where I got coffee and a glazed croissant from 231 West Patisserie (heavenly) and stopped in a yarn store and got a couple gorgeous skeins of colorfully speckled Swedish wool. Then we walked down to the inlet to see the sailboats and walk the pier. It was a stunningly beautiful day, 73 and sunny. The girls did manage to complain about it being too hot and boring.

The afternoon was spent playing on the playground at the hotel, highly requested. I had originally thought of maybe going to check out Pictured Rocks and some waterfalls again like we did last year, but really, the playground at the hotel sounded more enticing to me as well. And you wouldn’t believe how happy everyone was. Kenz was perfectly content to just sit in the hotel room (teens) and the girls were thrilled to have a tiny playground to themselves! I just sipped my iced coffee, enjoying the sunshine.

We picked up dinner at Rice Paddy to eat at the hotel, then went for ice cream. Come sunset, we met up with my bestie at McCartys Cove again on a different beach. And that was my highlight of the trip! When we had left there, my oldest commented that she’s never seen me act the way I do when I am with her. Who I am when I can let go of life and just be. It’s really an amazing feeling.

The next morning, I packed up, cleaned up, loaded the car, and we headed out! I stopped at Biggby for coffee and breakfast and then it was off to get the kids! They had the best time at camp, which made me so happy, and they talked about it the whole way home! Their camp director happened to be one of my fellow neighbor kids growing up (like he was literally a kid, years younger than me) which is hilarious.

So like I said, trip was overall decent and I love that I was able to have my kids make it to youth camp for the third year in a row! Now my oldest goes next week, same place, so back to Minnesota it will be. At least I don’t have to go all the way to Michigan again. 🙂