Great Lakes Tour 2017

Every year, DH has a conference in mid-September in Chicago. Our godson was kind enough to be born at the end of August and baptized on September 14th. This year we combined all of those wonderful events into our first homeschool field trip of the academic season. Since we touched or saw 4 of the 5 lakes, we've dubbed it the Great Lakes Tour ;0)

The kids and I set out early on Friday, September 8th. I had planned a stop at a monastery but the trip was already lagging and we all just wanted to be on our way. We ended up stopping at a launch dock just east of Toledo. #1...Lake Erie!

It was windy and cold

I can't remember what this was

We had to keep moving because I wanted to get to at least one of the churches on the itinerary (I'm becoming so lax with that...or over planning!). The National Shrine of the Little Flower Basilica doesn't have all that much to do with St. Therese that I could see but it was an interesting example of "church in the round". I remember attending Mass there once with DH and I remember it being fairly distracting. Still, beautiful place.

There are side altars the whole way around and a balcony so the stained glass is tiny and high up!

St. Clare altar

St. Sebastian

We landed at our Drury, unpacked, freshened up and headed about 15 minutes away. DH's cousins were kind enough to provide us with family, food and fun. The cousins enjoyed themselves marvelously.

They were looking for tennis balls in the giant hosta

These three were hysterical

An apple from the apple tree!

And ice cream!!!

Cousins big and small

Cousin Thomas is very, very strong

Our fun ended for the day, we headed home and little boy got his first (of many) whirlpool baths. Livin' large, that one.

We are blessed.