Michigan

Ahnalies suggested a beach vacation this year. I immediately pointed out that we really aren't very close to a beach, in any direction. She, with only a small eye roll, suggested the possibility of a lake. Hmmm. What a good idea! We started investigating Northern Michigan and ended up staying in a house North of Traverse City on Grand Traverse Bay. It was substantially easier to find accommodations for 4 than for 6, I must say. We arrived on Saturday night, just in time to settle in, get some groceries, and go out for dinner.

Sunday wasn't a very sunny day, so we decided to get an idea of what lay around us by driving around the Leelanau Peninsula. We stopped in a few little towns before going to Sleeping Bear Dunes. We started with the scenic drive.

Then we took advantage of the picnic facilities.
We had enough time to unpack some food and take a few bites before the rain returned and we finished our picnic in the shelter of the car!
The drive led us to a stop where we could overlook Lake Michigan and sand dune. These were some seriously steep sand dunes, to be sure! Ahnalies and Joe liked jumping down them.
There were some people who walked to the bottom and back up, which we considered but passed on - "maybe another day" we said, but that day never came.
We continued on to the "Dune Climb," which was much smaller and more manageable in the dress I was wearing.

More jumping ensued.

Joe is such a cute little Junior Ranger! It's a bit surprising he let me take his picture with these on.
We rented a 4 person wave runner with a tube one afternoon. It was a perfect day for it.

Love the hair, Dude

Other vacation activities included reading...

and running,

hanging out on the beach,

playing in the sand,

visiting a lighthouse,

kayaking,

playing in the waves of Lake Michigan,

and more playing in the sand.

One cloudy day we decided to go miniature golfing, but so did everyone else in the area. The cloudy day soon turned into a very rainy day, and we opted for a 3D movie instead.
On our final day, we rented a boat with a tube. Sadly, after about 2 hours and before the sun popped out, the boat died. We spent the next 2 hours waiting for this nice man and his dog to come find us and tow us back to shore. Fortunately we had food with us!

This was before the boat died, when the day stretched before us with endless promise.

We drowned our sorrows by eating onion rings the size of our heads.

Oh, and one more beach picture.

It was a great week. Mark has been telling me for years that Michigan is such a great place, now I'll have to join the "Michigan Rocks!" club as well. We missed having Jake and Sam with us, and it seemed strange to have only 4 of us, but as they are having all manners of fun in France without us, we don't feel a bit bad about their missing our fun!