Friday, August 21, 2009

In the Land of the Golden Dome

Yaay we're here, we made it! After a 6 hour drive we're now staying in South Bend and will be moving Drew back in tomorrow =)

I apologize for my updating fails.. haha - when i get back i will have time!

Friday, August 14, 2009

Bois Blanc (Day 5)

Okay, so these days up on the island are most certainly gonna run together, and I'm sure you guys don't really care when I wake up and all, so from here on out ill do what I can to just include some highlights.

Today was our first real day up here! Brilliant sunny weather, no clouds, about 75 degrees or so? Very pleasant =) woke up hella early though cause I couldn't sleep.. So up at 8 I was. Only my grandpa and my uncle Peter were up so I sat with them, mostly listening to their extremely interesting conversation, slowly sipping on the warm coffee (the first I've had in literally 5 years. And as Chay pointed out to me, I fail at coffee making.. Hahah) people started lumbering into the room around 9.30 and we brought out the bagels and foods.

The View


Drew and I decided to brave the lake (which we had been told was colder than ever this year, which is an ominous sign as it is pretty damn cold all the time) we sorta waded around as our legs got used to the temperature, played some frisbee, stacked some rocks. After a while it really just felt refreshing, and not like ice cubes were nibbling at our legs.. =)

Lunch was the classic ring bologna sandwiches and Jays potato chips : staple foods of the trip for SURE, and absurdly delicious.

Ring Bologna Sandwiches Yum


Om Nom Nom


The rest of the day was spent cleaning, picture taking, and messing around with a new internet connection. A year ago, I was down on the beach with my ipod touch and all of a sudden.. There was wifi. WTH. Turns out that we were picking it up from another, more inhabited island like 2 miles away!!! So this year we have conquered it by setting up an antenna and hooking that antenna into a wireless router for the cabin xD. Not the fastest, most reliable internet in the world (part of the reason these blogs are so late) but internet nonetheless!!

Setting up the Internet - aka the the outside office


Drew Helped


A Licky-Licky!



Flawah =)


Path Down to the Beach


We had our first beachfire tonight too, roaster marshmallows, told stories, played with high power lasers.. You know, the usual stuff hahah! A few meteors from the previous shower last night lingered in the sky, including perhaps the longest one I've witnessed to this day, which lit up the sky for no less than 8 seconds! Completely incredible. I felt so small, so insignificant staring up at that sky.. There were practically more stars than there was black space.. Just breathtaking.

Then back inside to read a bit, and sleep!!

On the Road Again (Day 4)

Okay, so I may or may not kinda fail at updating this regularly.
If you're not to big on the whole reading thing, good news for you, today shall be mostly a picture/small updates post while I try to catch up!

Today was a day of travel! Awoke at the brisk hour of 6:30, packed up the last of our remaining stuff scattered about, said goodbye to my grandparents =( and hopped in the car for the joyful 8 hour drive from Des Plaines, IL, to Cheboygan, MI!

Said Drive

View Larger Map

Now we've done this just about every year of our lives, so we were for sure prepared. Spent the time listening to my stash of podcasts and new music, watching movies on the computer, sleeping that weird, uncomfortable position that puts your arm to sleep while you lean on it hahaha, and staring blankly out the window at the miles and miles of fields, trees, and complete lack of hills all around us. For as long as the drive is, it's a pretty nice one =) Here are some shots from the journey:

HUGE Quary dug in the middle of the flaat flat land in the drive


These signs were literally spaced every few miles or so. I guess fireworks are big here. That face still scares me.


The Road Ahead


Fast forward, and we're in Cheboygan! A smallish, homesy kinda town. The next big leg of our journey was to buy groceries. Not your normal shopping trip mind you, we're going to an island that has no grocery store so we need to take everything we're gonna need, with us. For 10 people. For 2 weeks. Thaaat, is alot of shopping! I shall spare you the details, but it was quite the task.

Next step: the ferry ride over to the island. We always make bets about how long exactly the ride will take (mine was 43 min.. it took 42 gaah!!)

Cheboygan Welcome


The Ferry!


Drawbridge Opening for Us


On the Ride




Once we made it to the island itself, we stopped to have some customary ice cream at Hawks Landing (the general store), then drove over to the west end of the island to the cabin! Some deer welcomed us on the way =)

Deer!








Unpacked toooons and tons of groceries, then finally, after more than 12 hours: We. Were. Here. We all collapsed onto the comfy couches and chairs, smiling.

Tonight was the last big night of the Persied Meteor shower too, and because the sky up here is the clearest I have ever seen anywhere ever, we spent the night staring up into the sky. SO WORTH IT! We saw at least 30 glowing hot meteors shoot across the sky. Couldn't really capture any of them on film though, sadly.

But I did get a shot of the milky way!


And Some Star Trails =)


Then, after an exhausting day, it was not at all hard to go to bed.. tomorrow is another day!

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Get in the Choppah!! (Day 3)

*Sorry kids, picture's aren't uploading for some reason! Will add them as I can though!*

** Update - YAY pictures work!!

Who would have guessed it? Another day of glorious sleeping in! I suppose I have to replenish my sleep banks from being at work every day at 730 sometime eh?

Drew and I spent the day with my grandparents while my parents were out shopping for supplies for the island (stage one of the shopping that is, more on subsequent stages later, i assure you)
We watched TV, shared pictures of what we've been up to back at home, told college stories and just kinda hung out =). Way more fun than it sounds though, believe me! xD

Sometimes, actually every time I go on a trip like this, I wonder what it would be like if we had never moved out to the west coast. I try to imagine what my life would be like, who would I know? Would my personality be crazy different? Who knows.. i have come to find that essentially everything I know would be completely, totally different. My friends, school, life experiences.. Everything! Its a bit unfathomable really.. But I would have been closer to my family - probably would have helped give me a better sense of an extended family and what its history is.. Yet in all honesty, I couldn't imagine my life to have turned out any other way than it has so far.. I wouldn't know what to do with myself, wouldn't know the people that I've grown to care so much about (including you guys =) I think ill stick with the way things turned out haha.

Okaaay, so enough mind wonderings. Continuing the tradition of incredible meals we've had so far on this trip, I was today fattened up by an awesome Italian sandwich from a shop down the street we allllways visit while here - take that Benson. Can anyone say "overeating?" The rest of the afternoon drew and I spent playing computah games. First and foremost, World of Goo. GET IT!! (right here!! http://2dboy.com/games.php ) So so sooo fun!! Maybe I will review more of it in some spare time.. But as of now, do a google search and check it out. Nothing but praise for it =)

Play This!!
http://2dboy.com/games.php

and This.
http://www.thesims3.com/


The second game is a little more mainstream, The Sims 3. Now I had never played this game before so didn't really know what to expect. Basically drew and I didn't make it much father than designing the house. Actually, we didn't make it past that at all. Very fun!! (though much more so with .. Let's just say lots of money at your fingertips =) we ended up with a jet in the front yard, and called it a day.

Ever since my grandpa retired, he's been into building, testing, and flying model airplanes. Obviously as a mechanical engineer, I am completely fascinated by these little crafts and support the hobby fully =) the newest addition to his fleet is a helicopter, so he took it out flying to give us a demo. Soo cool!!

The Lab & "Yellow Barron"


Taking Off!


Airborn


Some Crazy Stunts - Watch Yourself!


A Mechanical Engineer's View


We ordered out for dinner, mmm deeliciousfish!

Played a game of scrabble, (mom and I won :) ate some ice cream, tried to catch the meteor shower (failed.. man Chicago has so much light pollution.., packed up a bit for departure tomorrow, then SLEeep!

Totally Won Scrabble :]

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Blurt! (Day 2)

Quite the chill day.. As you may be able to tell by the fact that I didn't even get up till at least 12:30!.. So I shall keep it short =)

The big event of the day was going to see my auntie Cindy's apartment for the first time. She has down syndrome and has been living with my grandparents since she was a kid, but has just gotten a place of her own, so it's really cool! =) She was so proud while showing us all around, and rightly so - tis a nicer place than we expected. She lives in a community of people, all very nice, not too far from here. Very neat place though =)

Cindy's Place



Soo, once the tour was through, that was basically the day. We took a quick shopping stop at Lands End, then made our way back home and really didn't do too much! Just like vacation should be =)

A while back I bought a timer remote control/intervalometer for my camera online so that I can shoot bulb, long timer, and time lapse shots. I knew it wouldn't arrive at home before we left for vacation, and I wanted to use it on the Island to shoot some star photos, so I had it shipped here. (Also, as I just learned, there is a meteor shower tonight - a perfect time for some practice!) Anyway, that arrived today so I spent the afternoon fiddling with it a bit - should be fun =)

Sprinkler Frozen in Time


More leftovers from last nights awesome dinner, then a board game night. We tried out this new game, Blurt, which is quite like Taboo. A "reader" rolls a die then draws a card and reads the definition on it. The other teams have to try to blurt out the word that goes with the definition as fast as they can. Whoever gets if first can then move however many spaces were rolled on the die. The words were a bit easy, but it was still fun! Then time for some nightly news, some Conan, and sleeps.

Blurt Board

Rock the Night Away (Day 1)

And so begins our vacation!
Awoke around 9ish to a deserted trailer - everyone had already gotten up and headed inside for showers and some food. Groggy, I slipped out of bed.. Er.. Out of the sleeping bag, and squeezed into the camping-sized shower.

After a quick breakfast we headed off to mass. I don't know what it is, maybe a break in the monotony of home masses all the time, but I always pay more attention when we go to mass here. It's always worth it, very good homily =)

The rest of the day was very chill, just a quick lunch of genuine, grandmother made food before we headed off to my auntie Rene's house for a family gathering =). Met up with my cousin, Chris, and caught up a bit. We (inevitably) ended up moving over to the xbox to jam a bit with rock band. And soon enough, both my parents AND grandparents joined in/took over hahah!! To anyone who hasn't seen their family playing something like this all together, I highly recommend - So funny!!

Driving to auntie Rene's House


Rock Band!!


Drew's Too Cool


And Mom's too Hard Core


But Were All Loving It =)


My grand uncle, who is a priest here in chicagoland, did the honors of saying grace before an outstanding feast of a dinner. After many laughs, embarrassing stories of crazy things my dad did "back when he was a kid,"and waay too much strawberry shortcake, back to the rock band we went!

Then, in true midwesten style, rain started pouring down. The streets turned into floods - you could hardly see 5 feet in front of you. Then, not 20 min later, we were outside taking family pictures in the bright sunshine. Welcome to the Midwest Wroblewskis, hahah.

Family Pic


As always, the visit was too short.. Just as soon as we were all warming up to one another, it was time to go =(

Back at grandma and grandpas house, heads were nodding, so we watched some news caught up on some TV and talkin, got our short internet fixes, then sleep came with ease =)

Sunday, August 9, 2009

Across the Country (Day 0)

August 8th, 2009

Short entry for yesterday perhaps? Well, I am safely here! Success. =)

Flight from Oakland to Midway airport here in Illinois was very nice thanks to the comforts of modern technology (iPod and laptop w/ movies and IT Crowd) though we did have a bit of excitement. Right as the engines were spooling up for us to take off, a lady fainted and fell over into the isle =( So back to the terminal we went to get her checked out, rounds of "is there a doctor on board?! A docotor anywhere?" being called from everywhere. Turns out she was just dehydrated and after a bit of water and some air, she was just fine. Then off we flew! Once the initial excitement of being able to see the whole bay area from above wore off, everyone began to settle down for the 4 hr flight. I brought some earplugs from work and my noise cancelling headphones and spent the beginning of the flight sleeping in blissful quiet =) why have I never thought of this before?! Everyone knows how great airplane food is these days, so we brought a 5 dollah foot long *jingle plays in head... yes subway is sponsoring me.. =P* each to enjoy on the flight =) Let me Tell you, the glares we got from the people munching on peanuts.. yikes.

The rest of the flight seemed to just fly by *buh duh chshh* and before I knew it, we were walking off the plane straight into the hot wall of humidity that is "midwesten air" about 8ish central time.

Landing In Chicago
From For Blogger


Our own personal welcome
From For Blogger



From there, grabbing the baggage was a breeze, and we picked up our rental car, played some luggage tetris to get all of drews huge bags packed away, and headed off to my grandparents house! Took about.. Eh.. 45 min?

Said Luggage
From For Blogger


As always, walking into my grandparents house was a mixture of old memories, absolutely delicious smells, and warm hugs.. I will never get tired of this place =). We all piled on the *sink into and never get back up* comfy couch and munched on some late night snacks while we caught up and shared our travel stories. I can never believe it is a year between our visits..

So for those of you who don't already know, my grandparents have always loved camping. They have a trailer out back (one of those huge RVs) so we basically have our own apartment in which to stay whenever we visit. When the talking was done and heads began nodding off, we braved the 90 degree humid air (at 12 at night!) to make it to the trailer and get some rest after a busy travel day =)

More stuffs to come, there's no wifi here sadly, so I shall update when I can =)

Hope all your summers are going well!

Saturday, August 8, 2009

Itinerary..?

Alrighty everyone, here's the deal. The Wroblewski house will be vacated sometime around 10:30 tomorrow as we depart for the airport. Then we sit tight for a 1,858 mile, 3 hour 25 min flight (thank you Wolfram Alpha) over to O'Hare International Airport in Chicago (one of my favorite aiprorts ever).

Fully loaded iPod Touch, check, camera bag with batteries and cleaner, check, packed clothes... .somewhat check.. (to be sorted out in the morn.)
Once we land, we'll be heading to my grandparent's house in Des Plaines, IL, then Bois Blanc Island, MI, then South Bend, IN! I hope to fill you in on the travels =)

Grandparent's House, Des Plaines - Aug 8th - Aug 12th

View Larger Map

Our Cabin, Bois Blanc Island - Aug 12th - Aug 20th

View Larger Map

Drew's Dorm, South Bend - Aug 12th - Aug 23rd

View Larger Map
Arrive back hooome! ..and go to work.. =(

Friday, August 7, 2009

Well hello =)


Okay.. so when I acutally leave, this is where things will be said. It's 1 day to go before the 2 week vacation, and have I started packing? ... Of course not.