June 22 Adventure: Auburn Hills, MI

Now that we had a car in Grand Rapids, we were determined not to be stuck in the apartment a weekend longer! So Saturday morning, we drove about 2 hours northwest to Auburn Hills, a small suburb of Detroit to visit Jake, a former high school classmate of Rachelle’s.  Jake is a senior ME student at Louisiana Tech and is interning at Chrysler’s headquarters along with 400! other interns.  We were so excited to be surrounded by people our own age and sharing in a similar experience we were having.  We spent the day with Jake and about 12 other Chrysler interns at Lake St. Claire, which had a very nice public beach and surrounding amenities.  Later that night Jake had a small get together at his apartment, and we all became fast friends. 

Only picture of the weekend:Well off, young professionals
.....eating breakfast out of plastic cups.

Sunday we took our time leaving, went to the pool, and brainstormed what we could do to get a large group of interns together the next time Rachelle and I visited (although there are 400 interns, they don’t all hang out in the same place at the same time).  After some brainstorming and swapping stories about what kind of shenanigans we’ve gotten into, attempting to pass the time back at school, we decided on a picture scavenger hunt!  We’d create a Facebook event, invite all the Chrysler interns and Michigan Eaton interns, regroup in 2 weeks, and send the teams out into the surrounding area to find and take pictures of certain events (i.e. shaking hands with a bearded man, playing duck duck goose in a parking lot, eating with a random family, pumping someone’s gas, etc.).  With the plan set into motion, we made our way back home and got ready for the work week ahead.

June 15 Adventure: New Orleans, LA

Bourbon St. from our balcony

So as y’all know, my room mate Rachelle is from right outside New Orleans so the weekend after Jordan and mom were in town, we flew down to NOLA to spend the weekend on Bourbon St. and pick up her new car.  Getting to Louisiana was an adventure in and of itself.  We started our journey right after work, flew through security (even with Grand Rapids’ one metal detector….ya, it’s not a very “happening” airport..) and of course ran into a small delay due to “maintenance issues”. Apparently the bathroom lock wasn’t working properly…does anyone even use those things on a tiny, 2 row airplane?? Anyways, we got to our connecting flight in Dallas and it almost hurt to be SO CLOSE to home!! We did have a fun Dallas native flight attendant we loaded us up with fast facts on the DFW airport. For instance…

• DFW covers more than 30 sq. miles, it has its own zip code
• DFW has 3 radio towers
• Every major city in the United States can be accessed in 4 hours or less
• DFW has 7 runways, all of which have 10 ft of concrete underneath them
• There was a concrete shortage in the country during the time of DFW’s construction!

But that’s more or less where the fun ended and the head ache set in.  After 2 gate changes and several updates on the status of the “maintenance issue repair” our plane was dubbed inoperable and we were delayed indefinitely.  I kind of got comfortable on a mat and figured spending the night in the airport wouldn’t be so bad if it meant I could go to sleep that instant (I had been up since 6 am Eastern time, and it was now approximately midnight Eastern time).  

 Finally we were notified that we would be able to fly out that night and a plane was on its way! Our very disgruntled group boarded the plane then was told that we now had to wait for the co-pilot to retrieve the updated ticker information because it was now technically Saturday.  We had to have been waiting in the plane, at the gate for almost 45 minutes and around 1 am Central time (now this is 2 am Eastern time) we were on our way to Louisiana.  The instant we got to New Orleans, Rachelle’s parents swept us away to a local diner for Café Ole and beignets, of course!  The place was covered in a soft layer of powdered sugar and soon enough, so was I.  My head finally hit the pillow around 5 am EST…yes, I was up for nearly 24 hours!

 Saturday morning we started off the day slow and grabbed a “snow ball”, aka snow cone with finely ground ice, on our way into New Orleans.  The city itself was interesting, pretty rough but you could tell it knew how to have a good time.  We arrived at the Marriot on Canal Street where we would spend that night, and it really did look, as a man in the airport described it, “Las Vegas, condensed, and shook around in a trash can” but I of course mean that in the most admiral way possible.  After we dropped off our stuff in Erin’s (Rachelle’s friend, the 21^st birthday girl, the other reason for our trip down here) hotel room, we started wandering down Bourbon St. to find another friend’s balcony that served as home base for the night. 

inaugural snow ball. ironically, I didn't have one in my hand yet...

Bourbon St. was packed with bars, dancing, dancing ladies (if you know what I mean), live music, hole in the wall eateries, souvenir shops, beads beads beads, art, promoters! What an interesting, over stimulating place.  I had the pleasure of meeting the birthday girl and a random smattering of her friends and family members that night.  We danced and ate and heckled passersby and threw out beads and blew out birthday candles and danced some more. It was such a good time, and I cannot wait to visit again! 

I'm READY!!!

"Sorority squats" and the always flattering "Duck lips"

Sunday morning we laid low and celebrated father’s day with her family and a wonderful home cooked meal.  Monday morning we hit the road and started our drive back to Michigan, it was long and tough at some points, but seven states and 17 hours later, we were home sweet home. We spent our second vacation day Tuesday relaxing and recouping in preparation for the short, and exponentially less thrilling, work week.

June 3 Adventure: Glen Arbor

Mom and Jordan’s visit to Grand Rapids began with a normal work week for us and an abundance of small day trips for them to nearby beaches and parks.  One afternoon Jordan got his adrenaline fix as they rented dune buggies and mom helped us by scoping out the small lake front towns so we could begin making a “To Visit” list once Rachelle got her car up here.  

Friday night s'mores

Weekend get away

Finally it was Friday and right after work, we escaped to Glen Arbor, 3 hours north and right on Glen Lake/Lake Michigan.  We got to stay in a small lake front bungalow, complete with a small private beach and paddle boats! We relaxed with smores and a small fire the first evening and got to sleep in Saturday then role out of bed right onto a lounge chair by the water.  The water was absolutely amazing! (Cold) but crystal clear and the most brilliant shade of blue! In fact, my dad mistook our photos for a tropical ocean front.  

BIG smile, mom

Out on Glen Lake

I'll give her an A in effort, but she's not getting a bid any time soon

Saturday afternoon we explored the nearby Sleeping Bear dunes and National Park.  First we got a work out by running…then crawling up the side of a dune; we reached a beautiful look out near the top and was able to see the Glen Lakes (Little and Big). After we caught our breath we SPRINTED down and to the car, needless to say sand was EVERYWHERE that day.  

Next we enjoyed a self-guided driving tour through the National Park and took in some amazing views of the dunes from various look out points.  My favorite spot by far was the Lake Michigan lookout stop.  My Eaton assignment manager had told us about this spot and warned us not to “get overwhelmed by the beauty and run all the way down the dune to the lake, you will not get back up”.  Sure enough, the park had posted a warning sign about climbing down the side of this particular dune and that if helicopter rescue was necessary, you would be charged.  Never the less, people were trotting down quicker than it took to READ the warning.  We overheard a sweaty little man saying he had just climbed back up and had taken almost 2 hours to do so!!   

"RESCUE FEES WILL BE CHARGED"

From where we were standing we could not even see the bottom of the dune so we ventured over to the lookout deck and the view was breathtaking! Lake Michigan looked like an ocean and down below the brave (foolish?) souls along the beach looked like ants!! The wind was unforgiving which made the trees and plant life up there so much more amazing.  According to the park pamphlet there was once a forest up there but centuries of erosion and wind had whittled it down to a few batches of trees hanging on for dear life.

Ant people making their way down to the lake shore

 Later that evening we enjoyed dinner in town and of course, more smores.  Monday morning came too quickly, but Jordan and mom were able to fit in a short trip to my office before they left for Chicago.  My assignment manager, Mike, took them on a short tour throughout our small plant and then they set out on their journey back home.  It was nice to have a piece of Texas in for the week and I cannot wait to be reunited with the rest of the family August 11!!