A Big Cousin Hug

DAY 34

Today we visited Judilynn, Jim, and Matthew, our cousins in Appleton, Wisconsin. I'd say it was one of the best parts of the trip for all of us. Judilynn is my mom's cousin and Aunt Judy and Uncle Dave's daughter which makes us all cousins. Try to imagine a 18 hour big,warm hug, and if you can do this, then you know what it'd feel like to stay at Judilynn's place. The food, the beds, the flowers, the smiles, the TLC, it was all perfect. When we arrived, we were welcomed with open arms and you could immediately tell that we were at the right place. 

Even though I have only met my cousins a few times and it was years ago, their kindness made me feel as though I'd known them for years. Judilynn immediately started a much needed load of laundry for us and then we got to the important stuff - eating and connecting.First, we had chips and homemade guacamole. Then we sat down at this beautifully decorated table with lots of shells and candles for dinner. There was pasta salad, pulled pork, caprese salad, rolls and crab cakes. This was a welcome change from Hot Pockets. We dined as we shared about our trip and families, chatted about politics, and got to see pictures of more family.

After dinner, we chatted some more and played Perudo. We would have probably stayed up all night if my mom hadn't said that it was time to go to bed. So we crawled into the most comfortable beds ever and dropped off to sleep. I have been feeling kind of sick, so Judilynn and Matthew gave me lots of sympathy and cough drops.  

In the morning, we had yummy eggs, cinnamon rolls, bacon, blueberries and strawberries. We needed to hit the road again, but I didn't want to leave. Our original departure time was supposed to be 9am, but we stayed until after 11am. After lots of hugs, waving, and honking (per Trino tradition), we left Appleton, WI and headed towards Sault St. Marie, Ontario for the night.

Along the way, we stopped to swim in Lake Michigan. Then we checked out Kitch-iti-kipa (Mirror from Heaven), the largest natural spring in the state. The water was so clear that you could see 45 ft to the bottom as if there wasn't any water. There were huge brown trout swimming around and the springs on the bottom looked like underwater volcanoes. It was pretty cool.

Next, we swam in Lake Huron, near the Macinac Bridge (our 3rd great lake to swim in). We didn't arrive in Sault St Marie until around 9:30pm. We stayed in a historic hotel (it was really cheap), but it smelled like smoke, there was a band that was playing until 2am, there was a shared bathroom, the beds were super uncomfortable (I slept on the floor they were so bad), but the worst was how hot it was. So we hit the hay and tried to sleep.