Spring Break in Minivans

This week was Spring Break for a lot of the Michigan Public schools.  Since camp workers tend to use this time to go on vacation, I decided to take the time off to spend some time at home.  Like usual time at home turned into time on the road.  18 hours in fact, and most of it in a couple different minivans.  Here's a breakdown of my time at home:

Monday/Tuesday- Catching up with some friends.  Catching up on some tv (the Office mostly) and On Demand movies.

Wednesday- Spent the morning driving with Tim Wygant, our Youth Pastor, to visit Rob for lunch in Chicago.  He gave us a quick tour around campus and showed us "Go Roma", a nice pizza shop with a crazy drink center that makes whatever drink you want using a touchscreen.  After lunch we met up with the Ford family from Camp Barakel and brought Samuel and Isaiah on the El Train and then the Subway.  They said the Subway smelled bad.

After the public transportation adventures we headed over to the University of Chicago Oriental Institute.  It's a neat museum that holds many special treasures from the Persian Empire and beyond.  Rob, Tim, and I enjoyed looking at these artifacts that Daniel used to walk by everyday on the way into the King's Throne Room.  There was a lot of information to take in, then we pretty much headed right out of town after that.

Thursday- Trip to South Haven with the Youth Group.  It was still cold outside but we still enjoyed a meal at Captain Nemo's and some cards on the beach.  The highlight of the trip was honestly some crazy kids who were doing donuts in the parking lot.  There were four cars that were driving me nuts with their shenanigans.  One of them was trying to power slide out of the drive way and slammed into a sand dune.  He hit it so hard he bounced up onto two wheels for a moment.  The crew gathered up, picked up the pieces, and then hustled out of there before the cops showed up.  In the end we couldn't even watch the sunset because the clouds were too thick.

Friday- Normal day with some time at Pizza Sam's.

Saturday/Sunday- Trip with Dad to Chagrin Falls (Cleveland Area), Ohio.  We visited some of his old motorcycle friends (the Stoners) on Saturday, then visited Parkside Church on Sunday morning.  I've been a long time fan of Alistair Begg, so it was a lot of fun to visit and see him speak in person.  I also met Matt McAlvey who is both Barakel and Battle Creek Central Alumni.

After returning from Ohio Sunday evening I was able to get in a couple hours of Tennis with my friend Grant Penrod, and then a bunch of Monopoly Deal at Tim's house.  The weather was plain shocking to me on Sunday.  Every time I walked outdoors I expected to feel a cold blast, but was greeted with warm winds.

It was a great week of catching up.  I always like seeing Battle Creek.  I'm sad to see it deteriorating slowly, but it's the way of the world.  We're all sort of falling apart in this worldly state we're in.  Amongst the troubles of the world it's fun to slow down and walk through history with some friends.