Friday is when it felt like the vacation really began for me. CJ was feeling better and Isabella was happier so I could relax a bit.

CJ drove the first leg…

…so I could chill and watch the scenery go by.

One of the interesting things we saw was a truck hauling a windmill arm used in one of the various windmill farms that dot I-80. I tried to get a cool shot of it from various angles. Not sure I succeeded but it was still quite impressive to drive by!

We covered a lot of miles on Friday, driving from Iowa City, IA to Manistee, MI in about 10 hours. We stopped at various places along the way, mostly gas stations and the like. I had plotted out a list of cool and unusual tourist attractions but none of them came at a convenient time to stop. We either got near them when Isabella was sleeping or after having just made a stop, so we really didn’t venture in to too many exciting places. That was ok. Isabella was entertained by the DVDs we brought, her colors, some sing along songs and various other things.

We started her out facing rear, as she has been since she was born. The new guidelines say to keep them that way until they’re 2 years old so we hesitated to turn her just for this trip. But by lunchtime we were ready for anything to make it more enjoyable for her and we switched it around. She loved it!

Here she’s taking a power nap. I love how she has one oobie balance on the harness, helping to hold her head up. That’s “Bullnozer” the Bulldozer in her lap. She was the one who came up with that name too!

After stopping for dinner we changed her into PJs so that she would be ready to sleep around bedtime. She was too stimulated for that so it was Elmo’s World to the rescue!

For some reason she thought she had to hold the case up in the air. When that arm got tired, she switched to the other one.

Silly girl.

One bonus to doing so much driving was CJ and I letting go and enjoying each other again. With the hustle and bustle of “real life” – work, Isabella, volleyball and other activities, Samson – we had stopped appreciating each other. I didn’t laugh as much to his jokes. He wasn’t as enamored with some of my cute tricks. But once we got in the car and got away from Omaha and our normal life, a lot of that melted away. I laughed more on this trip than I have in a long time. I forgot just how funny my hubbie is!

We got in to Manistee around 9:30 and I had to make an emergency drug store run. See, I had gotten my hair chopped Wednesday night and bought some new product to try. I mistakenly packed only the new stuff and not my old stuff as a back up. Well the new stuff wasn’t working well on its own and I desperately needed some mousse. We were lucky enough to find one place still open. Phew! Crisis averted.

After unloading the car (which is no small job when it’s filled to the brim) we all pretty much crashed in bed. It was a long day but a fun one. Now it was time to rest up so we could really enjoy our family time on Saturday!

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