It’s The Most… Wonderful Time of the Year.

Well, we set out driving west from Boston on the 21st. Heading for a week+ of family fun in Chicago. Boston has had an unusual amount of snow before the arrival of winter- beautiful. Here we are getting on the MassPike.

Here we are a few short hours later in upstate NY. Still lots of snow.

By the time we got to the Ohio line, it was warm (about 55) and most of the snow had vanished. We made it into Cleveland by sunset and it was a balmy 60. My ears were ringing, my eyes were burning and I had a sore throat coupled with a splitting headache.

We treated ourselves to a night at the Ritz in Cleveland. It was nice….Marc had never been to Cleveland and I thought he would love it. The Cuyahoga weaves mercilessly though the city so it is covered in steel bridges which I could look at and study all day. Our hotel room had a view of the river and the Lake, unfortunately it was sleeting, and we couldn’t see much. We rolled out late-ish the next day for Chicago via Indiana.

Eastern Indiana (rolling plains and farms):

Western Indiana outside of Chicago (One word. Steel):

Nothing beats coming over the bridge on the Skyway from Gary into the city and seeing the Chicago skyline. You go from gritting your teeth, staring out the window from one bleak view after another to focusing on the skyline that looms ever-larger. When we used to live in Chicago, we made the drive to Northern Michigan a LOT and we always loved the homestretch across that bridge. It was starting to snow again in Chicago, so the skyline is completely obscured.

Here’s a few factoids about the road the next time you make this trip-

• Western MA wins hands-down for most picturesque part of the trip.
• All of the NY service plazas (on the NYS thruway) have free WiFi.
• In Ohio, we saw every license plate east of the Mississippi. Crossroads of America, indeed. Pretty sweet that from Boston to Chicago, we never got off US-90.
• Most of the Ohio service plazas (on the turnpike) have Starbucks.
• Indiana wins hands-down for most painful portion of the trip.

When we made it to Chicago, we drove to the In-laws first. At this point I had a full-blown head cold and did my very best to prevent anyone else from catching it. So, we stayed a few days and headed up to be with my family on Christmas day on the north side.

We proceeded to play a lot of Guitar Hero and took it very seriously. I was continually pummeled by my 6 year old nephew. As it should be.

This is how Lottie felt about all of it….patiently waiting to go home.