Talk about an unexpected journey. For more than a week Christina and I had planned to go to Traverse City, Michigan again, staying at the bed & breakfast aboard the SS City of Milwaukee, an old 1930s ferry which now stays in one location as a museum. Unfortunately for us, the rest of the world must have also decided this was a good weekend for northern Michigan, as the SS City of Milwaukee was booked completely and all other hotel options were in the $350 a night range.
With our original plans blown to smithereens, Christina and I spun the dial on which direction to go. North from Chicago, we had family and friends and could potentially coordinate some team adventures in or near Green Bay. East, we could stay near Detroit and possibly even push on to Niagara Falls if we felt up for the drive. South we could revisit St. Louis where we had a few pieces of unfinished business, in particular Unchained’s lobby scavenger hunt which only a few groups had ever solved. South could also allow us to visit my brother who recently moved to Springfield, MO. West… Ok- we didn’t really consider going west.
We ended up settling on east with little more than the flip of a coin behind the decision. After about an hour on the road, we realized we forgot our passports which ruled out a Canadian foray and made a Niagara trip somewhat less likely, but we still figured there’d be plenty to do around the Detroit area.
One of the problems with travel between Illinois and Indiana/Michigan is that the Illinois / Indiana border has been a problem all year, with the dreaded combination of construction, accidents, and natural congestion leading to an hour delay nearly around the clock. What should be a four hour trip becomes a five hour one, which is an unfortunate headache on an otherwise convenient trip.
While on the road we decided to find an escape room to play along our route, and we picked EpIQ Escape in Jackson, MI. I’ll write more in depth about that experience later (short answer- we loved the 90s room!). We also decided that a 7-Eleven slurpee sounded really good. We discovered at that time that there’s no 7-Eleven directly between Gary, Indiana and Detroit, so we settled for a McDonalds Minute Maid slush, which wasn’t really the same thing. Oh well.
After EpIQ Escape, we headed to our hotel and arrived late. The next morning, we set our sights on a nearby air show in Ypsilanti and picked out North Bay Park as our viewing point. Unfortunately, despite all the airplane engines we heard, we couldn’t SEE the show from the park, so we missed out a little. But the park was gorgeous, with a path winding across a narrow land bridge in the middle of the bay, and we got to observe a wide variety of birds and even a deer up close.
The only downside to the park was that there were shockingly no geocaches in it (perhaps because it costs $3 to get in?). But we still had a wonderful time enjoying the natural views.
After North Bay Park we checked out Decode Detroit and played the Aurora Society game in Ypsilanti. Following that we headed to the University of Michigan’s campus and got some bubble tea at Sweeting Cafe in Ann Arbor. We regretted not being able to try any of their ice cream concoctions, especially when we saw them flame toasting marshmallows behind the counter.
Christina had heard a lot about Insomnia Cookies, located next door to Sweeting, so we grabbed a peanut butter chip cookie sandwich (frosting in the middle). It lived up to the hype. The cookies were warm and the texture was perfect- we were able to dig in with spoons. Highly recommended.
To wrap up our Saturday, we played the Houdini Trap game at Fifth Wall Escape and grabbed a Hungry Howie’s pizza with cajun-flavored crust (I had never had it before, but it was a staple for Christina during college). It was very different, but I think I still prefer traditional pizza crust.
As we head back to Illinois, we’re not quite done with adventures. We’re tempted to stop at EpIQ one more time, and who knows where else we’ll go as we have all day to make the 4-5 hour trip back home.
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