Day 3.23: Chesterton, IN to Kent, OH

We got up and tried to work out in the hotel fitness center, but the machines were mostly broken, which was regrettable. We did spend some time swimming laps in the pool, then had breakfast and got ready for the day. We knew that Tropical Smoothie Café, the chain we had discovered in Arkansas back in February and then visited again in Michigan, was offering a free Sunshine Smoothie to anyone wearing flip-flops on National Flip Flop Day, which happened to be this very day. We were fortunate to be able to locate a store outside Youngstown, Ohio.

Our drive technically only took us from Indiana to Ohio, but when we got off to stop at a rest area at one point we past a sing thanking us for visiting Michigan, which we obviously did only very briefly. We had to wait a while for the smoothies because it was crowded, but they were pretty good and it was nice to have something to break up the drive. We made it to Kent without hitting any traffic and headed to the supermarket, where we found the largest watermelon we’d ever seen for only $5! We arrived at Aaron and Liz’s three weeks after we had last been there with not too much time to spare before dinner. Aaron made a delicious tagine (some of which Abe took home the next day), and we met an eclectic crowd of guests for the Shabbat dinner he had organized. We experienced lots of musical moments during the brief Shabbat service and dinner, and we played Jewish geography with Aaron’s rabbi friend and future rabbi friend.

We also met a visiting student from Alaska who was preparing to go hunt a wolf. We didn’t realize how late it was by the time everyone left. It was after 2am, and Liz insisted that she’d be up in the morning to go with us to the farmer’s market before we left. Because we wanted to get on the road early in the morning, we went right to bed.

Approximate number of miles covered: 338

Day 3.22: Chicago, IL to Chesterton, IN

We woke up in the morning and spent a short time socializing with Ezra before packing up and heading back to the garage to get our car. We hit some traffic leaving Chicago, but before we knew it, we were in Indiana.

It took us a little over an hour to make it to the Best Western Indian Oak in Chesterton, Indiana. It was raining, which we thought would sour our plans to explore the newest national park, Indiana Dunes, but the day ended up going quite well. The hotel let us check in before 11am, which was amazing, so we were able to relax a bit. It was a nice hotel, though for some reason there was no elevator, so we carried our many belongings up the stairs to the second floor. We drove a few minutes to the North Side Diner, where we had an amazing brunch. At this old-fashioned establishment, Abe got a banana milkshake, and we ordered two different types of potatoes (hashbrowns and tater tots) to go with our meals, French toast and a veggie omelet. Arielle’s meal also came with a biscuit. Everything was delicious. It’s nice to find places like this in the middle of the country!

Next, we drove to the national park, though we got lost on the way and ended up in the state park of the same name, which has an entrance fee not covered by the annual national parks pass. We were able to figure out where we were and made it to the national park, where we had been told to drive along one particular street that was right on the water. We passed a number of insanely huge lakefront houses, and found it to be really windy and chilly outside but still quite beautiful. We got out of the car once or twice before driving to another part of the park, where we were able to see the skyline of Chicago in the far distance. We made a couple wrong turns on the way, but eventually found it. It seemed like a bad idea to walk down the boardwalk since it was very wet.

We went food shopping and to CVS on our way back to the hotel, and bought some Indiana muffins for our next hosts. We drove across the street to Craft House, a restaurant that had told us on the phone that what they called the “Incredible Burger” was indeed the Impossible Burger that Arielle loves so much. It turned out that it wasn’t the case (likely the Beyond), but it was still good. Abe got salmon, which was very tasty, and while we were waiting for the food to be made, we walked back to the hotel to get Arielle’s water bottle and get some more steps in. Once the food was ready, we drove to that same spot where we had earlier been able to see the Chicago skyline, and ate our dinner overlooking the incredible sunset. The boardwalk was dry enough for us to walk it now, but we had to be careful not to be splashed every once in a while. We stuck around for a while and enjoyed the sunset fully before driving back to our hotel and heading to bed.

Approximate number of miles covered: 58

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