MI Vacation - In Detail

And now, what you've really been waiting for.... the play-by-play photos of our trip!

Saturday - Day 1

Road trippers in the backseat of Nana's Highlander.  Nana told us she'd been to Michigan before... as recently as 1962!

Ice cream on the pier in Saugatuck (the first of MANY ice creams, and where we learned that Sam is still not cone-ready)

The first afternoon - that water was so tempting after 8 hours in the car.  The kids were reluctant at first, but finally stripped down and jumped in!  And our dock was perfect - really shallow water made it easy to play.

Handsome lifeguard  : )

Looking up at our retro house

The enormous all-glass-wall house being built next door

My friend Sarah found us at the Good Harbor Grill and let us play on their beach during the first sunset!  This was also the site of Nana throwing a rock into the back of my head!  Ouch! She was, ahem, trying to "skip a rock"..... evidently that was just code for, "I'm going to throw this rock at you at high-speed and from short range"!

Sunday - Day 2 ******************************

Lach & Mike & beer - our friends had been vacationing the week prior and stopped by to say Welcome/Goodbye!

Alice, Maddie, Timmy, Sam had a great time swimming

Waterbug

Intrepid explorer girls (p.s. See how shallow the water is?)

Creature from the lake!  They found freshwater clams and snails-

Sunbathing boys

Being dragged away from the water

Uh oh.   When the soccer ball goes down the hill!

After a MUCH NEEDED NAP  (staying up til 11 p.m. and getting up at 7 a.m. will do that to some kiddos) - late afternoon swim.  The water was crystal clear.

Our view of setting sun on Glen Lake

Sunset much more spectacular over Lake Michigan

Monday - Day 3 ************************

It was 95 degrees!  That was not part of the plan for northern Michigan!  So while Nana took the kids to story hour at the Book Cottage, Lach and I scoped out the activity options.

How adventurous do we look?? Ready to kayak the Crystal River

Alice & Daddy

Note - we had actually gotten turned around and were going backwards at this point!  Ha!  And I couldn't help thinking at the time, "Eh, no one will know we were backwards on the blog..."

Break time - skipping stones

Riding to the finish line with Mom

p.s. No nap today meant that the kids were falling-apart exhausted, and Sam basically put his head down during dinner wanting to go to bed!

Tuesday - Day 4 ************************

The whole area is made up of sand dunes - so climbing the dune is a must-do

Does this give an idea of how steep it was? 

 Go Nana!

That little yellow and pink dot at the top is Alice - she was somehow able to scoot up the sand mountain much faster than anyone else.  We called her our mountain goat.

And what amazing view do you get at the top?  Um... Just a sandy plateau!  UGH!  More sand hiking across it....

 Lach took one fork and we took the other, with a large sand valley between us

 Alice "playing penguin" trying to slide down the hill on her tummy.  She was basically coated in sand sticking to her sunscreen!!!

 Sam thinking about the downhill run to Dad

Climbing back up with Dad

 A big accomplishment!

When you crest the second dune you see Lake Michigan.  The blue in the background is the lake.  Evidently you climb 10 more hills and you are at the lake.  We did not.

 At the top

DOWN!

 The view on the way back - looking at Little Glen Lake and further in the background, our lake - Big Glen

The toe-crushing sand dumped out from ONE shoe  (the kids were smarter and went barefoot)

 Time for lunch in Empire, MI

 And then the more relaxing Pierce Stocking scenic drive

 A steep way down the dune into Lake Michigan

Not wanting Sam too close to the edge

Overlooking Bar Lake

Wednesday - Day 5 ************************

It's bike ride day!

Look how handy the "reverse" function on the iPhone camera can be

We rode all the way out to the dune from town - a 12 mile round trip

Alice loves bike riding - remember our first adventure with this 2 years ago in Door County?
(this should be a link but I never got photos posted from that trip.  evidently I did not give up an entire MORNING to documenting it, like I just did for this Midwestern travel guide......)

After another mandatory nap, some afternoon swimming

See the little spec of their heads?  Walking out in the lake as far as possible

Out to yummy dinner at the Western Avenue Grill in Glen Arbor, and then some sunset beach playtime next to Lake Michigan

Alice with some crazy hair

Thursday - Day 6 ************************

It rained.  Alice was thrilled to learn how to play Monopoly and beat us at the game of LIFE - twice!
(note Cherry Republic ice cream on table!)   And Nana and I watched E.T. with Alice after dinner.

Friday - Day 7 ************************

Ready for the Pyramid Point hike

 Lovely birch trees and shady forest as we hike up

 And then Wowsers!  What a view!

 So funny that up high, with this view -

You can actually build sand castles because you are on top of a sand dune!

Then a nice country drive up the M-22 to Leland where we lucked in to tasty sandwiches at the Stone House Bread Cafe

 And back to Glen Haven for a short hike, up a sand dune, and into Lake Michigan

 Trying to get Dad in the water

 Such a beautiful, beautiful place

Climbing a dune one last time to see the view

 Our last evening - s'mores instead of ice cream!