6,582!

I'm ending the weekend with 6,582 points total. When I recorded my points last night at 10pm (24 hours ago), I had 6,300 points exactly. So, that gave me 282 points for the past 24 hours.

I did some more research for my camping trip this summer, and started looking for other parks that might be cheaper, and in slightly better locations, at least for the first two places. I didn't find much, though. I would love a campground with a view of the Mighty Mac (the Mackinac bridge, to those not from Michigan), but I could only find one, and it had limited info online.

I would ideally like to make all of my reservations by mid April, at least to the parks that accept them. I prefer reservations, since I won't have family at the park already. In the past, we go camping where my Aunt goes, and she pays for the site in the morning to get us one near her site. That campground does not take reservations, though.

I also am changing my start date. I looked at the school calendar, and I think it's been updated. I -know- when I looked at it before, they got out of school on June 12th. Now it says the 5th. I had planned to leave right away on the 12th, and return on the 22nd, so that I could be home in time for our Anniversary on the 26th.

However, now I have some lee-way. I think what I'll do is leave on Sunday the 7th, so I'll have my pick of camp sites at the first camp ground. I was thinking of waiting until Saturday, but campgrounds typically fill up from Thursday until Sunday. So, if I do it on Sunday, the sites will be emptying out.

I want to do 3 days each at 3 different locations. I have some points of interest, mostly during stop 2, that I want to hit.

I am planning to have $1000 total for the trip, which is more than we'll need, I think. $300 for the campground fees. $100-200 for groceries,, which includes some splurging. Another $200-300 for taking the kids to see some things while we are out. The rest is just in case money.

The younger two kids have never been up north. Gillian has never seen any of the Great Lakes. I want this to be a vacation they remember for the rest of their lives. I also plan to make up a photo book afterwards of all the fun things we do and see.