I had a very good summer between my fifth and sixth grade year, but one of the highlights of my vacation was a week and a half road trip I went on. It was at the end of July, and my sister had gone off to music camp in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, the place where my family used to live. My mom, my dad, and I, were going to meet her up there to see her performance.

We set off in a car on a Wednesday, and boy, did the car trip tire me out! Our first stop was in Sandusky, Ohio, where we would spend the night so we didn’t have to drive too much in one day. But the next day, we weren’t going to drive again. We were staying very close to an amusement park, Cedar Point, and since I love amusement parks, we decided to stay an extra day so I could go with my dad and ride roller coasters. We spent the entire day there, where we rode eight of the seventeen different roller coasters they had. At seven, my mom picked us up and we went back to the hotel. Even though I had been ecstatic to ride them all day, at the end I was exhausted, even more than I was after the car trip. The next morning we got up and hit the road to Michigan.

We got to Michigan at about eight in the evening, which meant I spent about twelve hours in the car, more than ever before. We were staying with an old friend of my mom’s, where we would do things such as swim in the lake and roast marshmallows. The next day was my sister’s music performance, so in the evening we all drove out to the theater to watch. It was amazing, like no other concert seen before. We got home very late, so we all went to bed right afterward. We spent the next day relaxing there, right before a long drive.

We left on our fourth day in Michigan to get to Minnesota, where we would drop my sister off at another camp, this one a Japanese camp. We went through orientation and said goodbye to her. After doing that, we drove for another four hours to a hotel in Wisconsin, where we would stay for the night. The next morning we were in such a hurry to leave, that when we left we accidentally forgot my suitcase full of clothes. It was such an odd surprise when we found out two hours later, when they decided to call. We had to stop in the middle of the trip and buy me all new ones, because most of my other clothes were somewhere in Eau Claire. Afterward, we drove to Chicago and I spent two nights with one of my old friends. We spent the time playing four square, watching movies, and writing together on the couch. I hadn’t seen her in six or seven months, so getting to spend two nights with her made me overjoyed. It was sad to leave the morning after our second sleepover, but after many hugs I had to say goodbye for real.

I watched Chicago disappear as we started to drive to one of our last stops, Ohio again. We weren’t going to do anything special on that trip, just sleep the night in a hotel and leave the next day. That’s exactly what we did, and the next morning we got up, packed our stuff, and drove back to New York. I had a great trip, but after a week of excitement  I was happy to be home.