Hart Family Reunion - Greenville, MI

A few weeks after our adventure out West, we loaded up the van again and headed East. Our destination - Greenville, MI for the Hart Reunion.

We left the house around 9 am, anticipating to arrive in Greenville around 4 or 5 (included the time change and lunch). Unfortunately, the Tri-State traffic was horrific and we ended up arriving at our hotel around 7! We were all very tired of being in the car - Matt especially as his nerves were shot while dealing with the traffic.

We only made three stops on the drive - bathroom/gas break in Peru, the Indiana Welcome Center and lunch in Michigan City.

The stop at the Indiana Welcome Center was a fun one - Christmas Story was based on the fictional town of Hohman, Indiana, which is very similar to Hammond, Indiana (home of the author). The Welcome Center had statues and photo ops throughout the building. It was a great stop for our weary bodies!

Maddie & Kaitee modeling their legs in front of the Infamous Leg Lamp!

Ralphie: I want an official Red Ryder, carbine action, two-hundred shot range model air rifle!

Mrs. Parker: No, you'll shoot your eye out 

"...the soft glow of electric sex gleaming in the window"

We left the welcome center in search of lunch. We ended up stopping in Michigan City, IN to eat at Schoop's. It was a bit of a longer lunch than we are used to (more of a sit down place than fast food) - but the food was wonderful!

We arrived at our hotel and got caught up with Matt's dad and grandma. Matt & his dad left to run to the gas station and to grab dinner while his grandma and I took the kids swimming.  It was a nice way to end our day of travel.

Saturday morning, we woke up and headed out to Grand Rapids. We had a few hours to explore the town before heading back to Greenville for the reunion.

We stopped to find a few letterboxes and then spent the majority of our time downtown at the Gerald Ford Museum. While we didn't go inside to tour the museum (not enough time), we enjoyed the museum grounds and the riverfront.

See our reflection?

The history of Gerald Ford's Presidency is an interesting one. He was never elected Vice President or President of the US - he was House Speaker when VP Agnew resigned. Ford stepped in to the VP position at that point. He later was sworn in as President when (former President) Nixon resigned.  This statement from Ford says so much.

We spent a good hour, 90 minutes at the museum. We really enjoyed the quiet of the morning and seeing the beautiful grounds. Here is Maddie (notice Alex on steps behind Maddie and Will over Maddie's shoulder)

This seems to be a "thing" now with the kids. They say, "Titanic" and everyone knows their role! Evidently Kaitee wasn't sure this time around??

Gerald & Betty Ford's Burial Site

We continued along the walkway and enjoyed the riverfront.

We left Grand Rapids and headed back to Greenville. We were looking forward to seeing the Hart Family! We had a fun afternoon, full of visiting, eating, playing cards, volleyball and floating the river.

Will (Green Boat), Maddie/Alex (Blue Boat) - they really enjoyed floating down the river!

We said our goodbyes and headed back to our hotel for the night. The kids swam again for a bit, we had a late dinner then headed to bed. Our plan for Sunday was to leave the hotel by 8:00 and drive in to Saugatuck for the paddlewheel boat ride.

Matt's family often did a vacation around Lake Michigan. Having grown up in the North Chicago Suburbs and having family and friends throughout Michigan, it was a logical choice for vacation. A few of those years, they rode the Star of Saugatuck (paddlewheel boat in Saugatuck). Matt has been wanting to do this with our kids for a number of years - we finally made it happen. We were thrilled that Matt's dad, Ken, was able to go with us.

We made reservations for the 11:00 departure but they asked for you to arrive up to 45 minutes early. Given the fact that we had a 1 1/2 hour drive plus possible traffic delays, we left with plenty of time to allow for that.

We made great time and actually found great parking spots too!  (They were a hot commodity the previous days we were there!) We decided to walk along the waterfront until 10 - when the boathouse opened for the day.

Once we got checked in, we knew that our next decision would be the hardest we would make all day. Which kind of ice cream do we want?? We all got yummy ice cream and sat down in line until boarding time.

The Star of Saugatuck II takes you for a paddleboat ride along the Kalamazoo River and Lake Kalamazoo - all the way to Lake Michigan and then turning around again, heading back to the boathouse. It is a beautiful boat ride with so many amazing homes along the way!

Another Titanic scene - luckily it wasn't true to life!

Heading out to Lake Michigan. Unfortunately, it was too rough on the Lake this day so we had to turn around before entering the Lake. We later found out that there were numerous rescues in Grand Haven (south of Saugatuck) because of the rough waters. Very scary!

You can tell where the River and the Lake meet because of the change in water color. That is the one thing that Matt remembers most about his childhood trip!

We disembarked the boat and said our goodbyes to Grandpa Ken. He would be heading back to Oregon after another day of visiting friends/family.

We had a long drive ahead of us to get home that night. Luckily our drive home was uneventful with very little traffic snarls. Go figure!?!

It was a great weekend to get away, see family and explore more of God's beautiful land.