Day 3.3: Buffalo Grove, IL to Traverse City, MI

We woke up and chatted with Lisa for a bit before departing to head into Chicago. We met up with Kevin, a high school friend of Abe’s, and his wife Stacey, who we hadn’t seen since their wonderful wedding back in September 2017. Luckily, there was one parking spot left in the lot behind Ann Sather’s, which saved us a lot of time from having to find a metered spot on the crowded Lakeview streets. The place was insanely crowded – and very loud – but we only had to wait about ten minutes before we were seated. The restaurant is known for its giant cinnamon rolls, which are available as a choice for one of the two sides each main dish comes with, and they were incredibly delicious! Abe and Arielle split one side and also got the biscuits and an order of hash browns each, both of which were decent. Abe got the garden omelet with mushrooms instead of peppers (which initially came out with peppers anyway). Arielle got the garden omelet with egg whites, sub mushrooms, well-done onions (that didn’t come out well done) and cheese instead of zucchini, peppers, and carrots, leaving the broccoli, cauliflower, and spinach intact. Kevin got a breakfast wrap and Stacey got a bagel sandwich, and we were all happy with our food.

It was great to catch up with Kevin and Stacey, and we got back on the road to head back east and then north. We hit some traffic getting out of Chicago and crossing back into Indiana.

We next crossed into Michigan, a state we’d both been to but not before by car.

The rest areas along the highway in this state were pretty nice too. As we approached Grand Rapids, we realized that we weren’t too far from the two Gerald Ford presidential libraries but decided that it wasn’t a stop we had time for this time. We did, however, locate a Tropical Smoothie Café, the chain we had discovered in Little Rock back in March, and arrived to each order the Chia Banana Boost. Abe got his with more banana instead of peanut butter or strawberry (which Arielle got), though he was once again initially charged an extra fifty cents for the substitution, something he’ll have to clarify in the future.

We continued along the road to head up to Traverse City, arriving around 8pm right as most of the dinner places we were finding on TripAdvisor were closing. We ended up going to Sparks BBQ, where Abe got a two-meat plate with brisket and pulled chicken and Arielle had the sides: mac and cheese, baked beans, and a salad. We walked out briefly to the water while we were waiting for the food and then got into the car, driving slowly up to where we were staying and stopping frequently so that Arielle could take pictures of the incredible sunset view.

We were greeted by a friendly note for Abe’s cousins Noah and Kit at the cabin owned by Noah’s grandparents, which we had visited for a rehearsal dinner the night before Noah and Kit’s wedding back in 2013. We settled in to the comfortable cabin, watched some TV, and went to bed.

Approximate number of miles covered: 370