This is a composition on the WONDERFUL vacation me and my brother Jamie took up to the U.P. to visit our Grandpa Bennett, and Grandma Joni.

Getting up there was not easy! We had me, my brother, mom, dad, dad's dog Butch, and mom's dog Jazz. To add to that we had 3 weeks of luggage for Jamie and I. All pilled into a little Jeep Cherokee! Of course you must also know this was not some little trip to the bridge, we were headed across the bridge to the far lower left of the vast UN-inhabited wilderness that is the U.P. of Michigan. Don't get me wrong! I was looking forward to this little vacation away from nagging friends and the weight of dealing with them.

To get back to the trip up I bring you to scene 1. packing for such a venture as this. I brought about 15 pairs of underwear, 6 bra's(3 of which don't even fit right), my only 3 pairs of pants(One of which wasn't mine, another which didn't fit right, the other I wore so frequently that they are a virtual garden of stains), somewhere around 5 tank-tops, 2 sweatshirts, 4 regular shirts, and 5 sleeping shirts. On top of that were a few pairs of shorts and other odds and ends. Oh wait, don't want to forget my CD player and entire collection of CD's, along with 4 pairs of shoes, and a dozen or so books. Half that fit into the biggest suitcase in the house, half of the other half in a duffel bag, and the last of it at my feet and shoved under my seat. So I'm packed, now lets get on the road!

Scene 2. Setting:On the road. Temperament:testy. BordemLevel:high. You can imagine how fun this was. Having to share my greasy fast food with two sweaty smelly dogs! All my worldly possessions atop the roof with nothing but twine and plastic to hold them there! We left at about 11am (possibly a bit later) and arrived at somewhere around 9pm (possibly later). That's 10 +hours cramped into a car with my hypoglycemic mother, sullen brother, testy father, smelly dogs, and my own frequent mood swings. Stop me here! Remind me it wasn't all that bad. I got some reading in, I saw the sites of Upper Lower Michigan, and Upper Upper Michigan, spent some bonding time with my feather pillow. (And Jamie's guitar which only fit lodged between me and my window!)

Finally(*insert big sigh here*) we arrive. My parents leave. Wait lets back track. Upon arriving we inspected the house, found it to be one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen, and spent some quality time refereeing two HUGE husky's, one BIG husky, one small husky, and of course my parents two small border collies. That's not all! To top the 'peaceful evening of loving on our grandparents and there pets we where treated to the wonder of two boxes, sitting on the mantle, wrapped in Christmas paper. I assumed logically that they where some sort of weird decoration. WRONG! As the evening wore on and we all got drowsy my Grandmother whispered a few things towards Gramp's and my parents. Me and my confused brother both got a present. The tags told us to make guesses of the contents. We did, got it wrong, and opened the box's..........WOW! Another box! With more guesses! We opened it and got......another box! And so on till we got to mailing envelops, business envelops, letter envelops, and finally tiny envelops. Which held a simple scrap of paper reading something like 'Merry Christmas, where all driving down to Florida to see Disney World!' I turned a nice pasty white, and stared in awed disbelief at the culmination of our first night 700 miles from home.

Now we can get to the part where my parents leave. Took long enough aye? Oh, wait again, notable mention of one of my BEST memories! The whole gang (gramp's, grams, mom, dad, Jaime, and me) piled into one of the pick-up trucks and drove around, for lunch we ended up at a nice (kind of) burger joint, roughly based on the days of swing music and poodle skirts. Are waiters where all cute so me and Gram's played a game of boxers, briefs, bikinis(dont ask!). Are main waiter was so hot we picked boxers. Then he picked ME to hit on! To shorten this tail I was flattered and embaresed and my Dad was a scary shade of red(hehehe)!

Really now my parents are gone! Gone gone gone! I swear! To get to some memories that come right to mind. Animals! Not to abundant in my comfy city life down under the bridge. But VERY abundant in this virtual paradise of woods and UN-inhabited land. 4 husky's dwelled in a big kennel by the old part of the cabin, I helped with them a lot. Even going so far as to dare take one out at a time once.(I almost let them all loose, might have if not for Grandpa's timely save!) I brushed them, scooped poop and helped to feed the ravenous beasts! Up on a hill a couple dozen yards from the house sat one of two chicken coops. The one in question held a turkey who when I arrived was a sissy and after some training became a nice fighter. It also held one of the meanest roosters I have ever known. If the creatures where still alive that rooster could tell you many a-tale of my shoed foot up it's feathery butt! No I don't get kicks from doing that, the stupid bird kept jumping the turkey and trying to rip it's skin from it's face. My job was to feed and water these abomination's every day, you can tell how easy it was!('Sadly' they where later ripped apart and eaten my a bobcat, one of my personal favorite animals!)

Going past the subject of animals we move onto activities and day-to-day life. At the start of a week we set up a plan as to our activities for said week. Usually it was work day/play day/work day/play day/play day/work day. Or something like that. On work days we simply did things such as picking up and UN-loading floor boards for the older half of the cabin, washing 7 loads of laundry at the local Laundromat(35 miles away!), or shucking shingles into a pile as my brother removed them from the roof. The best work day I remember was volunteering with my Grandma at St.Vincent's (A U.P. version of salvation army). I could almost filled a page with that, but alas onto play days!

Play days where more fun, but work days were NEVER torture! Such memorable play days as our trip to see a movie(Never have I so let myself laugh in a theater as I did that night with my Grandmother!), trips to antique shops where frequent and I got lovely trinkets at some of them. One day we even went so far to have fun as to drive to the far town of Escanaba for a fair that will leave such a imprint on my mind as to be thought of fondly for life. I road the Ferris wheel and with much prodding from my Grandma put my arms in the AIR a FULL rotation! We ate an elephant ear, I had a rabid (*grin*)goat trying to rip my pop out of my hand, I even pet someone's handsome show horse after being encouraged as usual by my grandparents that it was ok. The highlight of the day must have been the destruction derby. Dozens of Florissant cars *SMASHING* and *CRUNCHING* into each other with bursts of flame and clouds of thick black smoke! Everyone should try watching this sport at least once!

This brings me near the end of our vacation. Little odds and end's though must be mentioned. After days of begging my Grandpa finally decided I had suffered long enough and went to hook up the internet to there IMAC(*shiver* those things are evil!) The first try failed. With it connecting sort of, but not able to load sites of any kind. Next day was a work day, it found gramp's on the roof, doing surprisingly roofing! After what I'm guessing was a bit of poking from Grandma he suggested I take the up.net help line phone call which was to come in soon. I took it, and with the help a woman with a kind voice fixed the wronged settings and got us online! To further my IMAC experience I later hooked up there printer. It was no day at the beach either! During my stay I also went on a long hike in which I cleansed my Pentacle, and to top a good day off I discovered a staff with great vibes and a wand with decent vibes!

Now we most go home. Yes as much as I was happy then now I wish I could have stayed just awhile longer. In one frantic up till 2am morning I chatted online trying to hide my homecoming from friends, packed my luggage(Which now consisted of a huge suitcase, a stuffed duffel bag, CD holder, CD player, paper bag of stuff, staff, and the odd assortment of things I just tossed in the back of the pick-up), and finished up a nice book.

Early in the morning we started up the comfy if a bit small green found on road dead(AKA Ford Pick-up) Brother asleep in the 'bed' of the truck, I sprawled precariously on the back seat, and my Grandparents comfortably lounging in the front. This first 5 +hour leg of the trip was spent sleeping, reading, and battling a case of travel sickness(Cramped stomach and migraine). Once we arrived in the spiffy town of 'Gaylord' we found my father as expected sitting in our Jeep. Relatively happy bout seeing my father I gave him a big hug, then gramp's, dad, and Jamie all settled against the vehicles for some nice if a bit boring talking. Wall me and Grandma emptied the pick-up into the road then reloaded it into the jeep. That done and vehicles locked we headed off for lunch and teary good-byes.

This brings me to the last leg of the trip. After grandparents left dad popped the question of "Who realllllllly feels like driving for 6 hours?" confused we both mentioned we didn't. So into the HolidayInn parking lot we pulled, and right out again at the 90 dollar fee. I panicked as discussion of just continuing on home came up. I begged to stop at another hotel. Into the Super8 parking lot we pulled. An anxious 10 minutes in the over-heating jeep and Dad came out room keys in hand. Thankfully he managed to get them down from around 86 to 70 dollars.

We brought some articles of clothing in, and I got fed up with those two lazy bums and begged someone to come swimming with me. Begging worked and I got Dad to accompany me pool/sauna/whirlpool side. We warmed in the Sauna, found out it was the same temperature as the pool, and switched to it. Then hoped into the sauna burned the dead skin off our bodies. I went back to the pool dad went to read his book and my swim short phobia struck brother finally came swimming with me. Once other people actually started coming to swim we left. Later I grew bored with eating pizza and wandering and again strapped on my suit. This time to take a dip by myself. Unfortunately 70 percent of the pool was filled with screaming pre-teen girls. I hid on the sides, then watched jaw dropped in awe as Mr.CuteGuy performed flips, dives, and twirls off the pool side. His dad(grandpa?) joined him in the acrobatics. I just floated there openly staring. Mr.CuteGuy nodded hello and I asked him if he could back-flip. This resulted in a 15 minute training session where his dad(grandpa?) taught him tricks of doing it. They both asked me to try it. I blushed and demurely shook my head, "Can't even dive" the beat red me said. As I proved my self wrong and dove sloppily over the edge into the 8 foot deep water, without even choking! Next 2 hours was spent flirting, right until I was sitting with Mr.CuteGuy in the whirl pool and I asked nervously, "So what grade are you in?" his answer was classically tragic, "Is 24 a grade?" I was crushed. And my flirty cheerful grin started to slide from my face, saved though as his dad(grandpa?) came in and we started discussing public school. This was about the end of my night, well I got out, then swam again till closing, but mostly the end.