The next stop on my road trip was Bend, Oregon. I drove from Portland on Tuesday. Dawn had told me that Angeline’s Bakery in Sisters, which is right outside of Bend, has amazing bagels. I stopped there on my way in and had an egg sandwich, which was delicious. When I got to Bend, I stopped at the last Blockbuster in existence. When I walked in there was actually a customer asking for a movie, so the store isn’t just for show. Then I went to Pilot Butte, an extinct volcanic cinder cone, like Mt Tabor in Portland. It has a 360° view of the city and the Cascade Mountain Range. After that, I met my friend Mike (also from Runkeeper) and his girlfriend, Mari, for lunch. It was a quick lunch, but it was great to see Mike in person after 6 years and meet Mari.
Since I only had one full day in Bend and I’m going to Crater Lake National Park tomorrow, I decided to make my Bend day a rest day. So this morning after breakfast, I browsed through a few boutiques and a bookstore and I walked by Mirror Pond in Drake Park while sipping my chai. Then I went back to my Airbnb and spent the afternoon reading and going through my finances. You might be thinking that going through finances doesn’t sound very restful, but I actually love doing it, so it was restful for me.
And that’s it for my quick trip to Bend. Next stop, Crater Lake.
This post is going to be really short because I was in Coeur d’Alene for less than 24 hours, but it felt wrong to include this in the last post since I was in a different state.
Steph’s grandfather built a cabin on Coeur d’Alene Lake in Idaho many years ago. Her family still owns it and shares it and I got to enjoy it for a few hours. Before we went to the lake, Steph told me that Kendall Jenner has a grandma-chic house there. If like me, you have no clue what grandma-chic means, you can look at the pictures in this article that Architectural Digest wrote about the house. We joked about grandma-chic multiple times after that.
The lake is beautiful. Katie and I jumped in it that evening. It was freezing, so we were only in the lake for a few seconds at a time. We ended up jumping in 4 times. The cycle was: mentally prepare, get in the lake using the ladder on the dock, rush out of the water after a few seconds, wrap yourself in a towel, repeat. The longest I lasted in the lake was 20 seconds. Once we were done cold-plunging, we changed into dry clothes, had dinner with the rest of the family, and played games before bed.
After breakfast the next morning, we played more games. One of the games was a drawing challenge where we would pick 3 random marker colors and draw a scene that Katie came up with. One of the scenes was a living room and I chose to draw it in the grandma-chic style. After the games, I packed my car and drove to Portland, OR.
I would love to go back to Spokane and Coeur d’Alene. I really liked the size of Spokane, the lack of traffic, the fact that it’s surrounded by state parks, and the weather is actually pretty good most of the year. If Steph hasn’t found a nanny for the new school year, I might go back and help for a bit depending on what my job situation is at that point.
On Tuesday, I left Mt Rainier and Stewart’s remains and drove to Spokane, Washington. A few days earlier, I had found out that my great grandmother grew up in Tenino, WA and used to get her Christmas trees from Mt Rainier. I decided to take a short detour on my way to Spokane to check out Tenino.
Tenino is tiny. Google says it has a population of 2,025. It has a main street and a park and the rest is residential. I wanted to buy a souvenir there, but it’s so tiny that they don’t have any. It was still nice to see where my great grandmother grew up.
In Spokane, I stayed with my friend Stephanie, her husband, Daniel, and her kids, Katie and Ethan. Steph is another Runkeeper alum. I was joking about living with Alicia in Squamish and being her nanny, but there’s a real job opportunity for me in Spokane. Steph’s live-in nanny is leaving soon and she’ll need to find a new one. She kept trying to convince me that winters in Spokane are mild so that I’d stay as her nanny. It’s actually a pretty good deal since I’d also get free housing. I don’t want to live that far from family, but I did really like Spokane, so who knows.
I arrived at Steph’s house in the evening and immediately got in her car to head to trivia at a brewery with some of her friends. I’m terrible at trivia and didn’t know almost any of the answers, but I was able to contribute with the name of a Jonas Brothers song. My high school obsession came in handy. We ended up tying for 4th place.
On Wednesday, I spent the morning between Steph’s beautiful patio and figuring out car stuff. In case you’ve forgotten, the fender liner over one of my tires fell off on my drive to Yellowstone. I had ordered the replacement part and sent it to Steph’s house, but it didn’t come with the clips I needed to attach it to the car. They didn’t have the clips at an auto parts store nearby, so I ordered them on Amazon. The clips didn’t arrive until my last day in Spokane, so I haven’t been able to attach the new part yet.
In the afternoon, Steph, Katie, Ethan, and I went downtown to the Riverfront Park. I was impressed by the lack of traffic in Spokane at peak rush hour times. At the park, Steph asked us if we wanted to feed the goat. None of us knew what goat she was talking about, but we all wanted to feed it. She made the kids eat some snacks. I thought it was so that they wouldn’t get hangry, but then I realized that they were necessary for the goat feeding because it was a garbage goat. There’s a button that you press for the suction to start and then you literally feed the goat your trash and it suctions it up into the trash can. It was pretty fun.
After feeding the goat, we went to the carousel. This carousel has a twist that makes it a little more fun. There’s a metal bar that extends towards the carousel and it has small rings at the end. If you’re tall enough to reach the rings, you can grab one and toss it at the garbage goat on the other side of the carousel. Katie isn’t tall enough to reach the rings yet, so I sat behind her and passed her the rings I got. I also got some for myself, but they never made it into the goat’s bucket. It’s a lot harder than it looks to toss a ring into a bucket while you’re on a moving carousel. After the carousel, the kids got ice cream and played at the park. Then we went to Steph’s church group and I got to meet more of her friends.
On Thursday, I woke up mentally and physically exhausted. I didn’t even have the energy to read or watch a show. When that happens, I know it’s really bad. So after breakfast, I took a 2 hour nap and then I had enough energy to watch a show. When Steph was done with work, we did an easy hike in Riverside State Park. I was glad that I didn’t do much earlier in the day because I had enough energy to be able to enjoy the hike and feel good after it.
After the hike, we went to dinner. Steph mentioned a place that has great burgers and then mentioned sushi as an option. I couldn’t decide between them since I really like both burgers and sushi, so we decided to get both because we’re adults and can do whatever we want. Steph only ordered an appetizer at the burger place, but I ordered the burger and ate only half of it and saved the rest for lunch the next day. Then we went to get sushi. At that point, it was starting to storm. There was lighting and the wind was starting to pick up. The sushi place was close to the Spokane Falls so we looked at those on our way there. Then we sat on the patio of the restaurant so we could enjoy the storm.
A few minutes later, the wind really picked up and it was blowing the rain towards us, so we went inside. It was good that we did because a few minutes later, the wind was so strong that it blew tables, chairs, and plant pots over. The sushi was great, but getting back to the car was not. The storm had mostly passed over us by the time we left, but it was still raining and we had parked about a 3 minute walk away, so we had to run to the car to avoid getting soaked. Steph trains for marathons, but I hadn’t run in years. Between running and the cooler air making it harder to breathe, I felt like I was dying. Fine, I’m exaggerating a bit, but it was very hard and I didn’t like it. I had to catch my breath for a few minutes once we got to the car.
On Friday, I walked a small part of the Centennial Trail, a 40 mile path that goes through Spokane and all the way to Idaho. In the evening, we drove to Steph’s family’s cabin in Coeur d’Alene, ID where I spent one night before continuing on to my next destination.
I decided that I can’t live with Alicia and be her nanny because getting a Canadian PR would be a headache and I’d be miserable in the winters. But I did have a really great time in Squamish and will be back to visit. I stayed with Alicia, her husband, Julien, and her kids, Luc and Sierra. I worked with Alicia at Runkeeper, but had never met her in person. I had heard so much about Julien, Luc, and Sierra, and even seen Luc pop up in the background during meetings sometimes. It was nice to meet them all.
On Wednesday, my first full day in Squamish, Alicia and I went for a bike ride tour of Squamish in the morning. I hadn’t ridden a bike in years, but I rode her e-bike, so my legs survived. It took a while to get used to the e-bike. When I first tried to get on, I accidentally activated the throttle, which is on the handlebars, and I couldn’t figure out why the bike kept moving as I was trying to get into the seat. Once I got used to the bike and the throttle, I loved it. I mostly pedaled, but towards the end I just used the throttle since it was really fun. On Wednesday afternoon, Alicia and I took to the kids to Alice Lake. The kids played at the park and I walked around the lake.
On Thursday morning, Alicia went for a run and I went to the Sea to Sky Gondola. The view from the top was amazing. There are hikes that start at the top of the gondola. My plan was to hike the Al’s Habrich trail. When I got to the trailhead, there was a sign that mentioned that the trail was in the backcountry and that there could be bears and cougars. I had already faced my fear of bears, so I didn’t mind those, but the cougars freaked me out a little. Especially because last year, one of Alicia’s friends encountered an aggressive cougar on a different trail in the area. I knew that it was unlikely that I’d run into a cougar and I had my bear spray, so I started the hike.
30 minutes in, I got more freaked out because I still hadn’t seen or heard anyone else on the trail and I didn’t like the idea of being alone in the woods with the cougars. I realized that I wasn’t enjoying the hike and because of that, continuing to walk uphill when my legs were sore might not be worth it. I decided to go a little farther because it seemed like there would be a good view soon. I got to some rock slab and there was somewhat of a view, though a lot of it was covered by trees. I turned around and started walking back down, only to realize that I wasn’t on the trail anymore. That freaked me out even more, even though I found the trail a minute later. At that point, I saw other people coming up the trail, which made me feel a little better.
At one point in the trail, you have to cross a shallow creek. There are rocks you can walk on to cross without getting wet. After the creek, there was a short and steep dirt section. There was a way around that was less steep, but I didn’t see it. The steep section wasn’t a problem going up, but coming down, I slipped and fell. Luckily, it was only a few feet, so I was fine, but that was the last straw for my nervous system. A few months ago, when I was in peak burnout, dropping a pen could make me cry because of how dysregulated my nervous system was. My brain knew that I was fine, but my body felt like it was in mortal danger after dropping a pen for some reason. Something similar happened at that point on the trail. I knew I was fine and that I’d be back at the trailhead soon, but my body felt like it was in mortal danger. It had been a while since I felt that way, but it took cougars, being alone on a trail, getting lost, and falling for my body to enter that state, so I would say it’s a win.
Once I was back at the gondola, I sat at the top, looking out at the view for a few minutes until my body no longer felt like it was in danger. Then, I hiked the Panorama trail so I could end the day with a win. It is a shorter and very popular trail. That hike was fun. It was easy, but there were roots and rocks you had to climb over at times, so it made the trail slightly more adventurous. And the views were spectacular. Once I was back at Alicia’s place, I had a relaxing rest of my day and I ended it in the hot tub with Alicia, once the kids were in bed.
On Friday, it was Alicia’s birthday! She hiked up the gondola mountain twice because that kind of thing makes her happy. I opted to rest that day so I wouldn’t be too tired for my next stop at Mt Rainier National Park. I booked places to stay for the last few stops of my road trip, read a book, and played with Sierra. In the evening, we drove to Whistler to have a pizza dinner and met Ashley, who was the designer on our team at Runkeeper. I had never met Ashley in person either. Now I’ve met most of the people who were on my team in person.
On Saturday morning, Alicia and I did a hike before my drive to Mt Rainier. The original plan was to hike up Chief, but I decided to leave that for next time. Chief has 1,700 ft of elevation gain in 2.4 mi. While I think I’m capable of doing it, I didn’t think I would enjoy it. I’ll train for it and do it next time I visit. Instead, we did the Murrin Park Loop. It was a little over a mile long, but had some slightly technical parts where you have to scramble over rocks, so it was fun. The views from the top were beautiful! It was low effort, high reward.
After the hike, I drove to Mt Rainier National Park. Being in the mountains made me consider moving to the Pacific Northwest. I stopped in Bellingham, WA for lunch, since Alicia said it was a nice city. I could definitely see myself living there in the summers, but I wouldn’t survive the gray winters. I hadn’t seriously considered moving there, but if I had, the gas prices would have dissuaded me. I knew gas was more expensive on the west coast, but I was still scandalized when I saw it was $6.19/gallon.
I woke up on Thursday morning to beautiful mountain views. I planned to see Lake Louise and had booked the Banff Gondola for that day, but I wasn’t feeling great. I was exhausted. So after breakfast, I took a nap and felt better after that. I took a bus to Lake Louise, since parking there is limited and expensive, and I walked along the shore. The lake is mostly frozen, but it’s still beautiful.
After my walk, I took the bus back to downtown Banff. I had a few hours before my gondola reservation in the evening, so I walked around the town and to Bow Falls. The waterfall was very underwhelming, given all the amazing waterfalls I’ve seen on this trip, but the walk was still nice.
In the evening, I took a bus to the gondola. By that point, I was regretting reserving the gondola that late (7:30 pm) because I was still exhausted. The views from the top were worth it, though.
On Friday morning, I took a boat ride on Lake Minnewanka. The views were great and learning the history of the lake was very interesting. My plan was to hike around the lake after that, but I was exhausted, all my muscles were sore, and I had blisters on multiple toes.
As you may have noticed, exhaustion is going to come up often in this post. This exhaustion made me very happy. As some of you know, I haven’t been able to exercise for about 2 years. If I did anything more than walk, I would be extremely fatigued for a few weeks. This was partly because I had an Epstein-Barr Virus reactivation and I assume my burnout contributed to it as well. The exhaustion I feel now is completely different than the fatigue I used to feel. This is an exhaustion that will go away if I rest for a day or two, an exhaustion I can push through if necessary, an exhaustion that means that I’m getting stronger. It’s an exhaustion that feels really good and that I’ve missed feeling.
Even though I was happy to be exhausted, I recognized it as my body telling me that driving 1,700 miles and visiting 4 national parks in 10 days requires some resting in between. I think that’s fair, so instead of hiking, I drove part of the Icefields Parkway, which connects Banff and Jasper National Park. I didn’t make it all the way to Jasper because that would have taken too long, but the views made me really thankful that I chose to skip the hike. Though I did end up doing two short hikes to get to Mistaya Canyon and Peyto Lake from the parkway.
To get to Peyto Lake, I had to walk 0.8 mi uphill on snow that had compacted and become slippery from so many people walking on it. I had hiking boots, microspikes for my boots, and trekking poles in my car, but for some reason, I decided to hike up in my sneakers. In my defense, I didn’t know how slippery it would be until I was in the middle of it, but I definitely regretted not bringing all my gear on the hike, especially on the way back down.
On Saturday, I drove to Calgary to have brunch with my friend Karan, who I worked with at Runkeeper, and his wife, Simar. They invited me to their house to eat Indian food, since they are both from India. The drive to Calgary was a little scary because it was snowing and the highway was slippery in places, but I made it safely there. Karan and Simar fed me 3 Indian snacks: veggie pakora, paneer pakora, and gol gappe. The pakoras are made by coating veggies or paneer cheese in batter and deep frying them. The gol gappe, also known as water balls, is a shell that you hollow out to fill with different fillings and flavored waters. And then for lunch, Simar made quesadillas and pav bhaji, a veggie curry served with bread rolls. They had barfi, a chickpea flour sweet, for dessert. Everything was delicious!
After lunch, they showed me around Calgary. We walked around a few parks, lakes, and rivers. When they found out I was on my own in Banff, they invited me to spend the night at their place. In the morning, we had breakfast, which included delicious chai, and then I headed back to Banff. I love chai and Karan shared the recipe with me, so now I can make it the right way. I had never met Karan in person, though I always enjoyed our one on ones while we were at Runkeeper. Meeting both him and Simar in person was wonderful! They are the nicest people and the best hosts.
It was still snowing on and off in Banff on Sunday, so I decided to give my body the rest it was craving and not do much once I got back. I did laundry, packed, and went to Mass at the Shrine of Our Lady of the Rockies. The church has windows so you can see all the mountains behind it.
On Monday morning, I left Banff. It was beautiful, but I need to come back in the summer, when all the snow and ice have melted and the lakes are blue. Unfortunately, that also means that there will be crowds, but I can’t have everything.
The last day in Glacier and the first few days in Banff were hard. I had been alone for 10 days. At the beginning, it was nice to have some time to myself. But after a while, I started craving human interaction that goes beyond chit-chatting with strangers. I kept looking forward to seeing Karan and Simar. I’m excited that I get to spend the next few weeks with friends and family. After that, I’ll be alone again for 2 weeks. I’ll need to make new friends in the places I’ll be or make more phone calls.
I was in Milwaukee last weekend for my friend Nicole’s wedding. I met her when I lived in Austin. I drove up on Friday and attended the rehearsal dinner, where I mostly talked to Julieta and Nate. They’re married and used to work with Nicole. I had met them a few other times at events hosted by Nicole. We realized we were staying just 5 minutes from each other, so we ended up carpooling all weekend.
I rented an Airbnb with my friend Tuby, who was supposed to fly in from Austin late on Friday night. However, there were storms in Austin, so they departed late and she got stuck in Atlanta. Luckily, she was able to get on an early morning flight on Saturday and arrived in time for the wedding.
The wedding Mass was in the Basilica of St Josaphat. When we walked in, Tuby said that it looked like they were getting married in Vienna and she was very right. The basilica is beautiful, but they don’t have a heating system so we were all freezing, even though we had our coats on. I kept thinking about how cold Nicole and her bridesmaids had to be since they weren’t wearing coats. After Mass, we had a few hours before the reception, so Tuby and I had lunch with Julieta, Nate, and Sneha, Tuby’s friend who used to live in Austin.
The reception was very different than the reception at Isabella’s wedding last month. Dinner was very good, but when the dancing started, the latinas didn’t know what to do. They had a live band that mostly played slower songs that required partners to dance to. Dylan, who we met at our table, saved the day (or the night) by stepping in to lead a few dances.
On Sunday, after Mass and breakfast, I began my 3 day journey to Yellowstone. First stop, Okoboji, Iowa.
My time in Chicago has finally come to an end. This is the final Chicago blog post. In a few hours, I’m driving to Milwaukee for a wedding. These last 2.5 weeks were full of walks and friends.
Monica and I got into a routine where one of us would remind the other to go for a walk when the weather was nice or when we had been sitting on the couch for too long. Most walks were around Monica’s neighborhood, which has some nice grassy areas with lakes and bridges, but other times we drove to a reservoir or lake and went to a brewery after. I also got to make sourdough again! I revived Monica’s starter, Craig, and made a few loaves and naan bread. I really miss Petunia, my starter, so it’s been nice having fresh sourdough again.
I finally started coding again. I’m currently learning a new programming language, so I’m going through a tutorial. It has been very humbling. I still enjoy coding, but I started feeling anxiety again when I started doing it. It had been 6 months since I last wrote any code and I thought my burnout would be mostly gone by now, but I was wrong. I’m definitely doing a lot better, but I still have some healing time ahead of me. I’m trying not to beat myself up over having to be patient with myself. It’s so easy to think of myself as weak, but I keep reminding myself of everything I’ve put my body through in the last few years and how it took care of me through it all. I realized that part of why my anxiety showed up again is that I was unconsciously giving myself a deadline to finish the tutorial. I didn’t know it, but I was pressuring myself to finish it quickly and get started on the app. Once I told myself that I can go through it as slowly as I want to, it got much better. Now I’m still coding, but I’m doing it in small chunks on days when I have a lot of time.
Two weekends ago, Monica and I went to her brother Tom’s house to help cut down a tree. There was a big tree close to the house and they were worried it would eventually fall on the house. Monica’s parents, two of her brothers, and one brother in law came to help. The men worked on cutting down the tree and the women helped break down the branches so we could add them to the burn pile. There were a few close calls. At one point, us girls were at the kitchen window watching them cut down a branch when we saw it start falling in our direction. We all screamed and ran in different directions to take cover. Luckily, the branch was tied to Tom’s truck and he stepped on the gas immediately to pull the branch in a different direction. Only some of the smaller branches hit the roof, so all was well.
Last week, we had wonderful weather. To celebrate, I took my car to the shop to get the front brakes replaced. Just kidding, that wasn’t my way of celebrating the weather, but I did need new brakes. The rear brakes were replaced in November, so those were fine. I found a shop 5 minutes from Monica’s place that has a van that will take you home and pick you up once your car is done. It was great.
On Thursday, Monica and I actually took advantage of the weather by going to a Cubs game. Then we bought pizza and went to her brother Peter’s place to have dinner with his family. On Friday, I helped my friend Aixa move. She’s a friend who I met in Chicago through Monica and Therese. I’ve been to Chicago enough that now she’s my friend too. Then Aixa, Monica, Therese, and I had dinner together on Saturday. When I first arrived in Chicago, I started saying that we all had to get together and it finally happened on my last weekend here.
I’ve been back at Therese’s place this week. Luci is so close to walking. I keep telling her she needs to walk before I leave, but I don’t think that’s going to happen. This week has been very relaxing. We’ve run errands, watched TV, and made brownies. Therese’s parents and her brother Nicho came over last night for dinner so they could say goodbye to me. As usual, being in Chicago has been wonderful. It feels like home. And no, Monica and Therese, that doesn’t mean I’m moving to Chicago. It’s still waaay too cold here.
Last Wednesday, I flew to Orlando for my friend Isabella’s wedding. The wedding was in Sanford, which is about 30 minutes from Orlando. Isabella is a friend from high school and I was really excited to see a bunch of my Ecuadorian friends there. I also got to meet my friend María José’s (Joti) fiancé, Eduardo. They’ve been dating for a few years and are getting married in July, but I had never met him. I had told her that if I didn’t approve of him, they’d have to cancel the wedding. Luckily, I liked him and the wedding can move forward.
Isabella’s wedding was on Friday. The ceremony was outside. For a while, it looked like it was going to rain. I even felt a couple of drops when we got to the venue, but it held and the weather was beautiful. After a cocktail hour outside, we went inside for a delicious dinner. After dinner and the first dance, the real party started.
Isabella and Chris had a great DJ. 70% of the songs he played were in Spanish and 30% were in English. A lot of songs were throwbacks from when we were in high school, so everyone was on the dance floor dancing and singing the songs at the top of their lungs. It was so fun! I’d go sit for a little bit to rest and then a really good song would come on and one of my friends would pull me back to the dance floor. By the end of the night, we were all exhausted but very happy.
The next day, those of us who were still in town met up at a brewery and then Joti, Eduardo, and I went shopping. I wasn’t planning on buying anything and was just there for moral support, but I ended up with a watch and perfume. I needed both things, so they weren’t impulse buys. We said goodbye that night since Joti and Eduardo had an early flight the next morning and I flew back to Chicago on Sunday afternoon. I’ll be here until May 1st.
After getting back from Michigan, I was in Chicago for a week and a half before flying to Florida for a wedding. In those 10 days, I was busy with all the Holy Week and Easter services and celebrations. Unfortunately, I didn’t take any pictures those days.
On Holy Thursday, we went to Mass at Monica’s priest friend’s parish and then visited the 7 churches with her family. For those of you who haven’t heard of this before, the visit to the 7 churches on Holy Thursday is a Catholic devotion where you visit 7 churches as a way of “keeping watch” with Jesus the night before his crucifixion. It was raining on and off that night, so we had to run between the churches and our car. The younger kids ended up soaked and Monica’s shoes are probably ruined but we had fun. Chicago has so many beautiful churches!
On Good Friday, I went to the service with Therese. When I got back in my car after the service, my tire pressure light came on. The tires all looked ok, so I drove back to Monica’s thinking the pressure had changed because of the weather. I was wrong. When I inspected my tires at Monica’s I noticed a huge thing in one of them. I don’t know what it was, but I drove through construction, so that’s probably where it got in my tire. The air wasn’t leaking out of the tire too quickly, so throughout the weekend I filled the tire twice a day so it wouldn’t sit flat.
On Saturday, Monica and I went to an Easter Vigil at 4:30 pm. I had never heard of a Vigil being so early, but at that church they had one in English at 4:30 pm, then one in Polish, and then another one in Spanish. I really liked having it that early because we were able to go out to dinner after Mass and get back home early.
On Sunday, we spent the day at Monica’s parents’ house. 6 of her siblings were there for brunch with 11 nieces/nephews total. Some of her siblings left after brunch to be with in-laws, but the rest of us stayed until after dinner. It was a loud, but fun day. During brunch, Monica’s dad asked me if I had brought earplugs. I told him I also have a large family so I’d be ok without them.
I wore one of Monica’s dresses on Easter. If you know both of us, you probably think that’s impossible since she’s 5’11” and I’m 5’2″. It was a one size fits all dress that she bought on her trip to Houston and we can confirm that it truly is one size fits all. We’ll have to start the sisterhood of the traveling dress or something. I really like it, so I used a reverse image search to find it online and ordered it. Who knows, you might see me wearing it on the blog in the future.
On Monday, I took my car to Discount Tire to get a new tire. Luckily, I was able to put air in it and drive it there. My brother, Ricky, taught me how to put the spare tire on before I started my road trip, but I really didn’t want to have to do that. It’s too much work. Speaking of Ricky, he noticed on the homepage of the blog that I’ve driven 4900+ mi already and he wanted to make sure I mentioned in my next post that I got an oil change. I got one before Michigan, so we’re good. Thanks for looking out for my car, Ricky!
Luckily, when my ex took my car to get new tires last year, he purchased the certificates, which means that my replacement tire was free. I only had to pay for the certificate for the new tire. Had I been the one buying the tires last year, I probably wouldn’t have purchased the certificates, since I had never had to replace a tire before and I don’t usually buy insurance for things like that. He’s never going to see this, but thanks, Brian! Let this be your reminder to buy certificates for your tires. You don’t need them until you need them. And if you get the certificates because of this post and ever do need them, thank Brian.
Last Thursday, I went to Lansing to visit Maria Daniela, her husband, Matt, and her crazy dog, Piper. Piper was a little too excited to see me. She kept jumping on me and had to be restrained. Maria Daniela and Matt’s excitement to see me was at a more appropriate level.
On Friday, I was home with Piper while Maria Daniela and Matt worked. Luckily, Piper was calmer that day and wasn’t jumping on me. In the afternoon, I went for a walk on the River Trail. While I walked, I saw a nice goose couple also taking a walk. When I got back, Piper decided to start jumping on me again, but it was ok since we left to have all-you-can-eat sushi for dinner. After dinner, they took me to Horrocks, a huge market. It’s a grocery store, garden center, beer garden, and bakery, all in one. When it’s not freezing outside, they have live music and food trucks. There’s a separate bar inside the grocery store where you can order a drink to have while you shop. They have an aisle with large containers of olive oil and balsamic vinegar with different flavors that you can sample. It’s definitely an experience. I’d probably be there way too much if I lived in Lansing.
On Saturday, we went to Detroit, since there isn’t much to do in Lansing. We went to Belle Isle, an island park. They have a lot to do there. We went to the conservatory, aquarium, and nature center.
We had a slow morning on Sunday. After I went to Mass, we had brunch. All the brunch spots they had tried weren’t very good, even though they had good reviews. Luckily, the one we went to was good. We had some of the famous MSU Dairy Store ice cream for dessert. MSU is an agricultural school and they have their own cows that they get milk from to make the ice cream in-house. When we got there, I realized that I had already had their ice cream last year, when I was there for Maria Daniela and Matt’s wedding. The ice cream was delicious both times!
That afternoon, I drove back to Chicago. I’ll be here until next Wednesday, when I’m flying to Florida for a wedding.
The Scenic In-Between 