Sat 26th

Everyone else was returning at least temporarily to Detroit – Gareth, Julie and Jim to catch flights home, Rick and Kris to go back to work at the end of their honeymoon, and the others to fly to Chicago directly. We had one last mass breakfast at Bob Evans before saying our goodbyes.
Mum and Dad, Ed and I were driving to Chicago. I’d intended to take the coast route to Manistee, but the Tom-Tom took us on a more devious and protracted route, so it was lunchtime by the time we got there.

A one street town, we thought it didn’t look very interesting, but found the restaurant we selected had a riverside veranda where, as we ate our fishy lunch, the fishing fleet went by in a flotilla, providing our entertainment.

We went on to Silver Lake Sand Dunes, where our holiday friend Mike had advised us to take a buggy ride. We did, and it was great fun, with more views of lovely, different dunes and an exciting ride. We finally reached our evening’s destination of Holland in time to eat in the lively main street at the Irish pub. A pleasant end to the day. We stayed in the Day’s Inn. Lovely comfy beds – we all slept well.

Sun 27th

We decided to press on directly to Chicago and drove there in one go, travelling through the state of Indiana en route to Illinois, and crossing a time zone and gaining another hour, as we later discovered. Checked in to the Best Western in Grant Park and, being no sign of the rest of the family, we went for a quick bite at a Starbucks then walked through Grant Park to the Art institute.

We were fascinated by the monster insect life we saw in the park, and enjoyed the Art Institute. A bit difficult to navigate, but once we realised it was several inter-connected buildings, we viewed it all, glad to see some unfamiliar works by familiar artists, the Benin artefacts display and particularly liked the American section. We returned on the “El” the elevated railway, and an attendant directed us to where we could buy 5 day tickets, which we did. We then met up with the rest of the family and walked back up Michigan Ave a short way to eat at another Irish pub.