After saying good-bye to our cousins, we headed to Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore to set up camp. It took us a while to find a campsite, but when we did we set up camp in a jiffy. My mom wanted to walk down to the beach so we headed down there and Wil-e claimed his own island.

We cooked herb and butter chicken for dinner with some popcorn for dessert. My mom started reading the sequel to Hatchet but Wil-e fell asleep so we all went to bed around 11:00. The next morning we woke up and went into town to stock up for the winter on groceries and grabbed some breakfast. Then we went to the big Sleeping Bear Dune for a hike; little did we know that it was about three and a half miles to the water and the sand was like five hundred degrees. We had to turn around about halfway, but running down the dune was really fun.

After shaking all the sand out of my pants, we stopped at a place known as the Cherry Republic, where they made cherry everything. We tasted all of the sodas they had, the original cherry being our favorite. We also got some ice cream and floats, which were killer, and took some sodas and sour cherry candy to go. We went on a scenic drive after, which was really cool, then we headed back so my parents could go for a run.After the run, my dad jumped in the lake while my mom just waded; she just is not the polar bear that I am.

Finally, we feasted on tacos, cherry soda, Oreos, and popcorn, then listened to three more chapters of The River, the sequel to Hatchet, before heading to bed. When we got up we decided to get on the road as fast as possible and started moving as soon as we finished packing. We stopped for breakfast at Potter’s Bakery in Traverse City, which has some awesome, well, everything, and headed toward Mackinaw City. We stopped in St. Ignace at Clyde’s (old school) Drive-In for lunch, before heading to our destination, Cedarville, MI; it’s on the northern shore of Lake Huron.

We had some great Italian food at Ang-gio’s for dinner; I highly recommend trying their meatballs. After dinner, we drove to the shore chasing the sunset, but we found ourselves on the wrong side of the trees. The lake is amazing though. And we saw these majestic swans.

Tomorrow, we get to explore Mackinac Island. So far, Michigan’s UP is pretty cool and has some good eats.

After leaving Cedar Point,the Armstrong clan journeyed to Canada to see Niagara falls and try some Canadian Hershey’s chocolate, which is better than American Hershey’s chocolate, for some reason. We had to stay one night just to say we did. The next morning, we faced the crackadon to journey to our cousin’s house. We had to stop at a tire repair place, as our car was being all weird and swervy. Once we made it to our cousin’s house, we met, we went swimming with Noah, ate dinner, and played Legos before heading to the trampoline with Anna and Noah.

After playing an air hockey tournament with John and Anna, we went and set off sparklers and snappers.

We soon learned that Rick is a ATF-certified pyrotechnician, so we made a lot of noise in their quiet neighborhood. All this fun led us to our next adventure: we went on a search for their dog Daisy after she ran away, we assume because the noise from the fireworks scared her. Then we all had a sleepover in Noah’s room. I woke up to find out that Daisy had returned filthy, but happy, and I had missed breakfast.

We played a little more and then our baby cousin Weston came over with his dad, David, who is also our cousin. We played on the trampoline then played some more air hockey.

After Weston went home, we played with Legos, then went into their awesome treehouse. We then had to say goodbye and Willy and Noah were very sad to have to separate, but we were going camping and they were going to an awesome concert event to see Toby Mac and some other pretty amazing artists. I think everyone will have some fun adventures, but we would love to spend more time with that branch of cousins.

Alright guys, This park is legit. Five rides over 200 feet tall, and has 13 roller coasters. It also has great food and a couple basketball games where my brother and I won Cav’s gear.

 

This is a list of my top five roller coasters:

The Valravn:

This is the newest coaster in the park and normally has about a two-hour wait, which is totally worth it. Now, we stayed on site at Lighthouse Point, so we got into the park an hour earlier than most people and only had to wait about half an hour. It starts off with a two-hundred foot, 90-degree drop and the rest of the coaster is just as awesome, I definitely recommend riding this one.

The Maverick:

This roller coaster is only about one hundred feet high, but don’t let that fool you. The first drop is 95 degrees and it’s one of the fastest rides in the park, and it features lots of twists and turns. But, like The Valravn, it has about an hour and a half wait at all times including right before it closes. The only good time to ride this one is as soon as you get into the park. This is just as fun as the big rides and I would recommend riding it to anyone.

The Gatekeeper:

This ride still remains my favorite, even after riding all the rides in the park except three. While not as tall as some of the others, it features a lot of twisting and turning and loops, and you’re riding next to the track rather than on top. Starting off by twisting straight into a huge loop this ride is surprisingly not scary at all.The best part about this one is it never seems to have a wait longer than thirty minutes. I would recommend this ride to anyone as well.

The Raptor:

Sorry I do not have a picture for this one. This is a large green coaster that is somewhat tall and incredibly fast. Having quite a good number of loops and dips this coaster brings in quite a crowd, and doesn’t lose this crowd until about an hour before the park closes. This one is cool but if you don’t get to ride it, the others were way cooler. This one is still awesome so if you get the chance, ride it.

The Gemini:

This 188-foot tall wooden coaster looks like it will beat you up like most wooden coasters, but is surprisingly very smooth. This roller coaster has two tracks and four cars, so the wait is never longer than five minutes. Ben is not a roller coaster fan, but he loved this one. I definitely recommend riding the Gemini.

 

Best Name Award: The Rougarou

This roller coaster was awesome, but didn’t make it into my top five because it gave me a headache. It was very twisty and jerky, but the first drop was awesome, and the wait is usually not long. If you like spinny rides you’ll love this one, but those are not my favorites. The name comes from the legendary shape-shifting monster which is said to dwell in the Louisiana swamps. This coaster definitely lived up to its name.

 

My list of Do-Not-Rides:

The Corkscrew:

This roller coaster was shaky, painful, and the harnesses gave me a crick in my back for the rest of the day. It has four loops and never has a long wait, for good reason.

The Blue Streak:

This is a wooden roller coaster that is very shaky. At one point our car actually left the track and I felt like it was about to rattle itself to pieces.The line is like thirty minutes long and not worth it at all.

The Mean Streak:

This wooden coaster is 160 feet tall and is very shaky and too long for a wooden coaster, do not ride no matter how cool it looks or how short the line is.

The Magnum XL-200:

This 200 foot tall beast of a coaster looks really cool, and I would say ride it once maybe, but the way the harness fits makes it so that every time you drop it cuts off the circulation in your legs, making the ride almost unbearable. It’s also very shaky and painful.

 

Roller Coasters I did not ride:

The Millennium Force:

This roller coaster is over 300 feet tall and was my dad’s favorite. I really wish I hadn’t wimped out on this one as it looked really cool. The best time for this one is at the beginning of the day.

The Wicked Twister:

This one is very hard to describe, but it’s pretty much two poles and the car goes up each one and spins as it goes, you really need to look it up to get the picture. There is never a very long wait for this one.

The Top Thrill Dragster:

The biggest and fastest roller coaster in the park, standing 420 feet tall, and reaching 120 miles per hour in under 4 seconds, this beast is terrifying. The wait is almost always over two hours, and the ride itself lasts about thirty seconds, but it looks awesome and I will ride it the next time I go to Cedar Point.

Kiddie Rides:

The Iron Dragon:

This roller coaster is slow, tiny, and boring, but great for little kids, and there’s never any wait. Right next to Rougarou and Valravn.

Camp Snoopy:

This section of the park has a lot of little kid stuff and is a great place to take munchkins like Wil-Da-Beest. It’s near Maverick and Gemini.

Dodgem:

This bumper cars ride was fun for everybody as we ran into each other a lot and had lots of fun. It’s located right next to GateKeeper, Wicked Twister, and Raptor.

Water rides:

Snake River falls:

Classic Log Flume with no wait, easy way to cool off and have fun, I recommend riding it at least once.

Thunder Canyon:

A raft ride with no wait; the best part is waiting to see who gets wet. Ride it a couple times and remove your shoes.

**Wait times referenced above are for days of the week other than Saturday. Everything was crowded on Saturday, and most rides had a longer wait time.**

 

Soak City:

Alright, my last note: This water park has something for everybody-tons of water slides, a water obstacle course, and a cool lazy river.

After waking up to the leftovers of a diabetic raccoons midnight snack, we packed up our camp and headed towards Lake of the Ozarks. We stopped at the Neighbor’s Mill Bakery for breakfast and had french toast and omelets. We also stopped for custard for the second time in two days. We also stopped and played football with a staff guy named Connor at Lake of the Ozarks. While trying to keep the ball from going into the lake, I myself ended up in the lake.

After drying out, we climbed in the car and drove to the birthplace of Mark Twain where we found the Mark Twain Brewery which broke the mediocrity record in the culinary industry.

We then went to the hotel in Quincy and watched food network for three hours. We woke up today around ten o clock and hit the road immediately to grab some Lunch at Zoup. We stopped for custard again and my dad’s only excuse was that he went to Crossfit back in Quincy. Sorry about my face in the first pic.

After custard we stopped at a little pond park thingy.

My brothers and I decided to make stick fishing poles and go fishing, but unfortunately didn’t catch anything due to the one hundred degree weather and our short attention spans.

 

My mom wanted to go hiking but the steamy weather had the same effect on her as it did on us boys, making us sweat about as much as a bull elephant.

After that little escapade we drove to the hotel and worked out then went to the Gabby Goat Bar and Grill for dinner and it had some sick Mozzarella sticks.

After leaving the hotel, we went to Buffalo National Park to go camping. Us three young fellows decided to pitch hammocks on this awesome tree.

When we got to the park the bugs were awful and it was hot, so we decided to check out the river. We were going to rent canoes, but we then decided to go tubing instead. The water felt great, but tubing was a little boring for my taste.

After rafting, we drove up to a restaurant on top of a mountain with a great view of the river, and the food was pretty good.

After dinner, my brother Ben and I hung out in the car listening to game 5 of the NBA finals. When the game ended, we went to sleep in our hammocks.

The Willy Mammoth (our youngest brother) was already sleeping in his hammock. However, he had left some candy on the picnic table. When we woke up the next morning, we discovered that a gluttonous raccoon had raided our camp and probably developed diabetes in the middle of the night. We never saw him, but there was plenty of evidence under our hammock city.

 

 

Wiliwilinui Ridge Trail in Oahu

The condo our parents rented in Oahu was awesome.  We will post information about the VRBO experience and about the condo we used in the Waikiki Lanais in a separate post.  The owner, Sana, was awesome and really made our stay great.

Our parents asked about hikes and Sana suggested the Wiliwilinui Ridge Trail.

We are a hiking lot with 5 seasoned hikers and backpackers so off we went.  The youngest brother in our group of 3 is Big Willie or the Wilverine as he likes to call himself.  We had to do a trail of the same name.

Here is a map of the trail from Google.  You will take Laukahi Street from H1 / 72 going east from Waikiki or Honolulu.  It is easy to find and very near Diamond Head.  You will drive for what seems like days and finally reach a guard station.  The trail head is located in an upscale gated neighborhood.  We felt very comfortable leaving our car.

The guard was super nice and gave up a parking sign for our car, after scanning my mom’s ID.

There is a parking lot at the trail head and plenty of parking.

The trail starts off pretty calm and for about the first 2 miles, it is scenic and calm.

There were some amazingly large trees on the trail.

The last half mile is roughly 700 feet of straight up incline.
Wilverine is only 5 and he hiked the whole thing, while persistently chattering about the geneology & hierarchy of Bionnicles. (That was fun…)

We were bouldering and rock climbing with ropes for much of the 700 feet.

There is a cool swing at the 1/2 way point.

It was fun and every one of us survived, but it was tough.

The entire hike was about 5 miles and it took up easily 4 hours.
We took a few breaks, but this hike takes a while.

Was it worth it?  For sure.
This was our top hike in Oahu.
We hiked Diamond Head, Koko Head, Makapu’u Lighthouse, and the Manana Trail to the Waimano Falls/Pools.
If you are in Oahu, make time for the Wiliwilinui hike.