The teens and I took a quick trip to Michigan at the beginning of August. This is the last in-person college visit we have planned for the older teen as they get ready to apply to colleges this Fall. We’ve done some pretty great virtual tours of universities during the pandemic, but it is hard to get a feel of a place online. So, we masked up again and drove the 12 hours each way to take a closer look.
Some of the drive took us right along the shore of Lake Michigan. We stopped to dip our toes in the lake in Indiana and to see a huge dune in Michigan. The choices to stop along the eastern edge of the lake went on for many more miles since the lake is HUGE by tallgrass prairie standards. But we were out of time and headed east for the college visit.
Michigan State University campus was great! And being able to participate in an actual college tour again was pretty great too. The tour went inside of zero buildings, we stay in our small group social distanced and outdoors so it felt about as safe as possible during a pandemic. One interesting thing we learned is that none of the on-campus housing has air conditioning. Our tour guide said it wasn’t really missed for more than the first few weeks of school and the heat in all the buildings is excellent which is much more important for the area! The best bit for the older teen was that we got to see both Marching Band practice fields plus walk past the Marching Band practice indoor area. Go Green! Go White!
KONICA MINOLTA DIGITAL CAMERA 
The older teen found take-out from the Grand Traverse Pie Company for us to try right by the campus.
One the way there and back, we drove through two very *dark and stormy nights* (said in an ominous voice in the car way more than once each night) on our way past the Chicago area. Each night we saw amazing lightening covering most of the sky which. And each night we white-knuckled it through stormy, dark, construction-filled Chicago-area traffic.
As always, I’m glad we went and I’m glad to be back home. The older teen definitely plans to apply to Michigan State and it seemed like it would be a good fit for them for sure. I’m so excited to see what college looks like for them!
