Michigan, Ohio, and Illinois. What do they have in common? Corn crops and miles of flat plains.


We set out from Detroit one cloudy day and first stayed in Grand Haven on Lake Michigan. This was my first Lake Michigan experience and boy, it is a monstrous lake. Absolutely amazing. The howling winds whipped up wind swell and the lake's edge looked like a flat day at any Australian beach.
We drove into the North of Michigan to Leeland and the area of the Petosky rock. This area has some beautiful summer "cottages" on the thousands of lakes around the area. I feel Americans use the term cottage very loosely. When I picture a cottage, I think of an old Grandpa in his 5 metre squared farm trying to piece together a couple of veggies for a salad later on. I picture the little Grandma walking with a cup of tea in hand from her small kitchen to her one living room passing the main bedroom on the left. Cottages in northern michigan are NOT like this. They are mansions. Some of them with more than 8 bedrooms and as many bathrooms.



We visited Leeland to witness the marriage of Bess and Marcel Garraud, friends for years from the old Taylors College days in Sydney. After 8 (or more) years of dating, they finally tied the knot in a beautiful location. All the Aussies stayed in the Aussie house and Bess' family and friends stayed in her family's "cottage". The wedding was in a beautiful garden and the reception was in an old barn done up for the occasion. A classic wedding! Highlights of our time in Leeland include the wedding, Glynn rocking out in the stretch hummer, Jen and I SUP'ing from the Aussie house to the nearest point 12kms (8miles) round trip and passing the 45th parallel half way point between the Equator and the North Pole. Seriously, we passed it.


Following an awesome week with Aussies, we took a leisurely drive to the other side of Michigan and onwards to Alpena on Lake Ontario. Steph, Jeremy and co. were awesome and great hosts on the 4th of July weekend.



From there it went south. I mean, we went south all the way through Ohio to Cinncinatiiannttiiianti (Cincinnati for short).


We first lived it up in the burbs for a couple of nights with Brent and Jacki. Coincidentally, we were there when history was being made. Yep, it was the night when television networks aired a 2 hour preview of Lebron James' move to Miami. We got to hang out with them for a few days and they introduced me to Corn Hole. It kinda got addictive! We also got a chance to eat some awesome ribs at Montgomery Inn...Brent they truly were the best.


We then kicked onto downtown Cincinnati where we stayed with Nancy, Jake and their adorable little girl Isla (named after the Aussie actress Isla Fischer). We were greeted with hugs and the warning that we should go out of their building and to the left, not the right. Right i said and we left. Nah, we stayed there for a while and chilled with the three of them for a while, after almost 5 years apart it was like we didn't skip a beat..except now they have a little one! Highlights include our trip to Jungle Jims, the warehouse chock full of international food and drinks, the trip to the park, watching the World Cup Football finals and seeing Isla tuck into a mint oreo cookie. I taught her well. Looking forward to seeing them more often now and super excited for the grand opening of Isla's Cupcakery :)

From there we went to the Windy City and what was the first thing we did when we arrived? Ate deep dish pizza. We had been to Chicago previously in the dead of winter but we loved it in the summer. Awesome! We SUP'd three times and we just had an amazing view of the Chicago skyline. We also had the chance to catch up with Lina and her new little one, Isabella as well as Kathrine who we saw in a great play. It was either the play or the Cubs game but at $40 for limited view seats, there was no choice really even if they were good seat, the play was equally as entertaining.