We had talked about it for a while, going on a NY trip. It would be fun to celebrate the New Year’s somewhere other than Chicago. Of course, my wife and I have celebrated December 31st in Los Angeles, when we lived out there. Other than that though… maybe Vegas? Can’t recall 100%, but I don’t think so. So yeah, let’s go on a trip and celebrate the entry into 2023 somewhere other than in front of the TV watching Janet Davies and Mark Giangreco in the Chicago show.
It would NOT be New York. I wouldn’t necessarily say that is on my bucket list, to see the ball drop in Times Square. It does look cool, but I’m not dying to do it. No, this New Year’s trip would actually start on Black Friday. I had received an email from a place we had previously been. Our first trip to Traverse City, MI, was back in 2019. We had such a good time, that we vowed to return, and did earlier this year. It was a different trip, since this year we went during Spring Break, but it was still a nice getaway. How about we go up there during the winter season again? We had been wanting to take a long weekend trip ever since the end of summer; this could be it. It was a great deal, so… we booked it. We made a reservation through the 1st; we would be hitting the road on December 29th.
It’s not exactly a short trip; approximately 5 hours from Chicago to Traverse City. For the first trip more than 3 years ago, it took longer than that. It had started snowing like a bear on our trip up; one lane from the highway was completely covered with snow, as the plows couldn’t keep up. There were some pickup trucks blasting down that line, but everybody else was limited to using the one lane for a good chunk of mileage. We made it safely, and all that snow… lead to a great time on the hills, tubing. My son also took snowboard lessons back then; we were looking forward to enjoying another winter wonderland. With all the snow and cold temperatures from before Christmas, we should have been set. But a few days of warmer temperatures, with more to come leading up to the New Year’s, how would it work out?
We got up there after 5pm; we had tubing reservations at 7. As we pulled up into the parking lot of Mt. Holiday, a few minutes from the hotel, it was pretty empty. We found out that the slopes were NOT open for skiing and snowboarding, but… tubing was still a go… whew!!! It wasn’t cold and snowing like our first visit to the slopes, but it was still a blast. Thankfully we went that first night, because we heard them cancelling the rest of the reservations from the weekend due to those warmer temps. At least we kicked off our trip the right way; we went out to dinner to cap off the first day of our trip.
Yeah, this should be fun. What this trip didn’t include was me bringing a laptop to write my daily blog. No, I would take a brief vacation from that, but… we’ve been here before. A little catch up doesn’t scare me. Let’s continue.
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