Chicago/Ohio Part 1:

Quite awhile ago, Ryan came home rambling about some guy he works/ed with who would take a day trip somewhere for a baseball game. He said he'd take an early flight out to Chicago or Boston, catch an afternoon game and then take a late night flight home. Since hearing about this, Ryan was on a bit of a kick to catch a game somewhere outside of Philly. However, flights aren't exactly as reasonably priced as they once were, so the thought of him taking a round trip flight in one day seemed crazy... and from this, our 2011 family vacation was born.

Ryan decided his go-to city would be Chicago. Pizza and Wrigley Field just seemed like the best option. We considered flights before finally deciding to make a road trip out of it, stopping more than half-way into the 13 hour drive to 'camp' on the western border of Ohio.

Looking for a place to camp in an area that we were relatively unfamiliar with was a bit challenging - not to mention we were aiming for a specific area of Ohio because the day we left the campsite we had to be in Chicago by 1:00pm at the latest. In addition, we don't own a tent, sleeping bags, air mattress, etc, so we were a bit confounded to specific types of lodging. We ended up finding a place that was literally ON the border between Ohio and Indiana that offered 'small cabins' for rent. Online the place looked great, the cabin was more than reasonable and it was the ideal location.

We left Sunday afternoon, drove until about 9pm, stopped off for the night in a hotel before finishing the trek to the camp ground Monday morning. I must admit, pulling into the campground after staying in a hotel had me worried. Looking around I couldn't help but immediately think we had made a huge mistake. Camping? In hot/humid weather? with a two year old? in a tiny cabin? What were we thinking?

Jude didn't like wearing the wristband until we explained to him that by wearing that he was allowed in the water - that was enough to convince him.

our cabin - small and perfect in every way.

But the second we got the key to our cabin and located it on the camp ground, those fears washed away. The cabin had AC, a fridge, it's own bathroom, etc. It was actually perfect - all of that in about a 10'x10' space. It was quite simply one of the cutest house-type things I'd ever seen. After setting up camp, we made our way down to the lake on the camp ground and rented a canoe. Once we had arrived, Jude saw the other kids swimming in the lake and had been begging for his own turn - so was THRILLED with the idea of the canoe. We spent about an hour paddling around and exploring the lake. Jude insisted on being put in the water (and even tried a number of times to climb out of the canoe on his own). The water was surprisingly really clear and so we were able to see fish and stuff.

This kid is like a little fish. And you must admit the life vest we bought him before the trip is to-die-for

After the canoe ride, we went to the roped-off swimming area and let Jude bobble around in the water a bit. There was also a 'high dive' that Josh and Ryan took turns on - and eventually Jude took a turn on with them (he thinks he's at least ten years older than he really is) - which he only pretended to like.

The 'high' dive... he insisted we take him off of it... and then hated it, but when we asked if he liked it he put on a fake smile and said yes.

By the time swimming was over, we decided it was dinner time. We didn't have a grill and the cabin only had a microwave, so all of our cooking for the trip had to be down over the fire. It didn't take long for the guys to get the fire ready and to prepare some yummy BBQed chicken. We followed that up with S'mores and some fire side chat before retiring for the evening.

Camping isn't complete without s'more's

cavemen.

Day 2 - went roughly the same way. We started the day by heading to a local museum, which we thought was a science museum (but ended up being a children's museum) to burn some time during the peak hours of the day (have I mentioned it was 90+ degree weather?). Afterwards, we were back to the campsite to relax, swim and prepare dinner like cavemen once again.

At the museum - pretty lame, but Jude liked it, and we got out of the heat for a couple of hours.

Considering we were hesitant upon pulling onto the grounds, we were all relieved that the camping portion of our trip was as enjoyable as it ended up being. I could almost venture to say it was the best part of the trip!

Wednesday (Day 3) was our day for heading off to Chicago, so we made it an early morning, loaded the car and were on our way.

(To Be Continued...)