Home Trip Part 2: The Cottages and Leaving

From there, Herr drove thirteen hours to his family’s cottages near Lake Michigan. As a quick side expedition, we stopped by Bond Falls to give our legs a stretch (and get a HUGE ice cream cone).

Upon arriving, we were given the porch room, most aptly named for its former life as a porch. It is screened in on three sides on the second level of the cottage, providing a commanding view of the family cottage area. The lake the cottages reside by was having its annual sailboat race, of which Herr’s family participates. Herr gave me my first sailing experience (my family does power boats). Our time there was much quieter, a welcome relief to everything that had happened so far. Herr took me to see some of his childhood haunts before we took the twelve hour drive back to the airport.

The trip back wasn’t bad (aside from the general nastiness of flying). We arrived sleep deprived after the night drive with the threat of another storm. However, Minnesotans are much hardier than Pennsylvanians (and the storm just missed the area… :P), so the flights were on time. Back in Germany, however, we could not get on a direct train unless we sat around for a few hours. After 48 hours of no sleep, I wasn’t too happy. We ended up taking the great circle route home and crashed for most of the weekend. The dogs were very happy to be home with us, but they weren’t too keen on how much we slept. 😛