On Monday morning, August 12, bright and early – we finally packed up in under 30 minutes and set off for Chicago. Chris was impressed that I beat him on getting the inside packed up before he did the outside. (Everything is a competition btw) It was a long day of driving and we were trying to get to Chicago in time for our dinner cruise.

However, we saw forecasted storms for the evening so we called ahead and were able to push our cruise back to the following night. Since we didn’t have a time restraint anymore, we took a pit stop at Cabela’s. We were hoping to find a nice blow up platform to take to the lake for the end of our trip but we were unsuccessful. For once, I was hurrying Chris out of the store in an effort to get to Chicago in time for a comedy show at Second City comedy I had bought tickets for last minute. We checked into our campsite at Bullfrog Lake in the pouring rain (first time this trip we checked in and set up with bad weather) and we soon realized we were back East when the campground told us their ridiculous rules. One of these rules was that they closed the gate to the campground at 10pm and in order to get in and out, you had to call someone to come down and let you in. More on that later. We quickly got changed and ready and headed to Gino’s East for some genuine deep-dish pizza – my first time having it.

Our plan was to head to the comedy show after pizza but it took so long to come out and we walked outside to the pouring rain so we ended up skipping the show and going home. It will be something to see next time we go to Chicago! We were able to make it back to our campground before the gate closed so we were safe.

Tuesday was our full day in Chicago and of course, it was jam packed. The first activity on our itinerary was biking the waterfront which is a very cool feature of the city. We were able to rent bikes so we wouldn’t have to worry about ours getting stolen. It was a beautiful day as we rode past several beaches, stopping to see the signature Bean and Buckingham Fountain along the way.

We ended our ride at the John Hancock Observatory to do Chicago 360 and a very over-hyped “TILT” experience that was not worth the extra $8.

After taking in the views, we headed back to our car, stopping to check out some Teslas on the way! And we bought one! JK JK

Back at camp, we showered and changed for our dinner cruise. As Chris patiently waited for me to get ready, he scheduled an Uber so we wouldn’t have to worry about parking in the city. Our Uber driver was definitely a city driver – I feared for my life as he swerved in and out of cars, slamming on the brakes every few minutes. I tried to distract myself with a few selfies.

He dropped us at Navy Pier where we were going to meet up with an old childhood friend of mine who I haven’t seen in 10+ years! We met up with her and her 16-month old son and had a nice walk through Olive Park and around Navy Pier as we caught up and talked about all-things city living.

As the time for our cruise approached, we said goodbye and climbed aboard. We were greeted by a crew member about every 5 steps up the ramp and seated at a table for 2 with our own personal server. The cruise was very nice and we had great views of the skyline from the open-air observation deck on top as the sun set and the city lights started to twinkle.

This cruise was a wedding gift complete with open bar and a DJ and it was a wonderful end to our honeymoon as the rest of the trip we would spend with other people.

To cap off the night, (and where the camp gate comes back into play), we had a nice lady Uber driver take us home but we started to realize she may have never driven out of the city limits before. As we left the city behind us (about a 30-minute drive) and entered into the dark wooded area where are campground was, I heard her start hyperventilating. I told her to turn down the road she almost missed (it had no lights on it) and she said “HERE?? Where are the closest houses around here?”. Chris – distracted and not keyed into the fact that she was scared at this point – casually says, “Oh I don’t think there are any houses around here.” If that wasn’t enough to make her think we were taking her in the woods to kill her, we pulled up to the ‘gate’ (really just a piece of rope hanging across the road) and told her to just let us out there. She was very hesitant to let us out of the car, thinking we were just going to walk off into the darkness and never be seen again. We tried to assure her that we would be fine and explained what a campground was but don’t think she was very convinced. As we walked down the road towards our site, we hoped she was finding her way back out to civilization. 

The following morning, we packed up our gear and headed for Detroit where we planned on staying with friends of Chris’.

Even though we drove through our last time zone change, we made it to their place by 3:30 and Chris attempted to back into their driveway. It was probably the worst park job of the trip. Jon and Susan Strunk were great hosts as they had a whole itinerary planned for us, giving us a personal tour of the area. We toured their house and witnessed them buy a new one (ok this wasn’t on the itinerary but it was exciting to see), we had great beer and pizza at Brooks Brewery, saw a lot of cool cars, went downtown and had a beer on The Belt, and topped off the night trying a Coney Island Hot Dog!

The next morning, they both went in late to work so that they could take us to try a delicious breakfast spot called Recipes. Too bad we couldn’t have personal tour guides the whole trip! Before setting off on our final 9-hour drive to Lake DeRuyter (where Chris’ lakehouse is), we drove in circles around downtown Detroit – with the trailer – trying to find some postcards so I could finish wedding thank yous. Excited to be headed back towards familiar ground, Chris drove the last long leg of our journey while I worked diligently on writing thank yous and blog posts!