Vacation, Day 105

We were supposed to be in Chicago right now. Both of us have been looking forward to this for months. Perfectly well formed plans were ready to be executed: Giordano’s pizza, cheesecake factory, Jamba Juice, Michigan Ave, and a concert from possibly Jesse’s favorite musical artist. And then a volcano erupted in Iceland, a huge could of ashy volcanic debris filled the Northern hemisphere of the planet earth, and possibly Jesse’s favorite musical artist was stranded in Britain having to cancel the US tour.

After battling the initial shock and depression caused by the volcanic eruption in our plans we realized we needed to figure out what we were going to do with our two day vacation. Chicago was pretty much out. It’s a long drive and without a specific purpose (shopping does not cut it anymore) it’s not wise to go all that way just for pizza and cheesecake.

We decided upon a little road trip to Michigan City with various stops along the way to and fro. I felt somewhat heavy laden about the entire situation because I knew that a lot of purchasing and craving would be involved in these new plans. I was afraid that our vacation would be about buying. The facts that we’ve little extra money to spend and that I want to enjoy life without needing to spend money were haunting me the night before our little road trip.

Michigan City turned out well. We enjoyed ourselves and purchased very little. Our next big plan involved a burger place owning a very distinct billboard that we’ve seen hundreds of times as we’ve driven to Chicago. Redamacks with their black and white sketch of a boy’s head biting into a giant hamburger has called out to Jesse for years to “come and dine at our establishment. “ So we went. The burgers were great, big, and greasy. The adventure was priceless, looking for and driving to a place we’ve wondered about for so long, passing shop after shop after intriguing eclectic shop.

After our big fat greasy burgers we planned to drive about an hour to an ice cream shop that someone recommended. We saw another billboard that has called to us for years and we decided to detour from our ice cream escapade in order to visit The Chocolate Garden. It was exciting pulling off the highway to find yet another little curiosity. We drove past more neat looking places that if one had the time and money enough to truly enjoy one could spend days just stopping at and perusing. We passed them all in hopes of finding The Chocolate Garden. We were in a very rural area with apple trees all around us. The trees haven’t any leaves yet but most of them were covered in pink and white blossoms. We saw the sign and pulled up to a little green and white countryside home in the middle of a pink apple blossom field. The surroundings were worth the trip. Everything was so picturesque, almost fairy tale. We purchased 4 large delicious chocolaty truffles and resumed our trip to the ice cream shop.

Sherman’s Dairy bar was AMAZING. There were flavors galore. The one scoop of chocolaty chocolate madness whatever the crazy chocolate concoction we ordered was, was gargantuan. We both had brown lips and chocolate ice cream all over our faces. After our ice cream we drove to Saugatuck to climb mount baldy’s 500 or so stairs. Then we walked along the pathway on the dune. After we got home (and did our workout) we decided to walk to the most famous pizza place in Michigan (which happens to be just a few blocks from our house). Of course they don’t take credit cards so we had to walk many MANY blocks from our house to the downtown ATM, then back to the pizza place, and then we got to eat the most famous pizza in Michigan. All in all we probably spent less than half of what it would have cost to go to Chicago. We enjoyed visiting a bunch of different little businesses and we had a really great day together. It wasn’t about having. It wasn’t about buying. The entire day ended up being about experiencing and about enjoying each other. It was great!