This summer, we headed up to Michigan for a week of vacation with our friends the Kopp's. We did some research and talked to lots of people and decided to stay just outside of Holland, Michigan, right on the beach of Lake Michigan. It's about a 7.5 hour drive for us, so on the way out there we split it up. We made a pit stop somewhere in Illinois and then drove the rest the next day. Our first stop was the town of
St Joseph, MI.
They have a great splash park right on the beach. We got pizza from an old train station that has been converted into a restaurant,
Silver Beach Pizza. The splash park was fun and every 15 mins or so, the small fountains turn off and the big water cannons turn on!
We walked down to Silver Beach and splashed in Lake Michigan
Thumbs up for sand and sun!
We grabbed some ice cream before heading to our beach house.
Heather found a beach house just outside of Holland, MI. It was a VRBO and it turned out to be a wonderful place to stay! Our house was in
Castle Park, a small private lakeside community with lots of fun things to do. We met our friends at our house and got settled in. Our house was called "Top of Pines" and it was named appropriately with 93 steps to get the front door!
The next day, we headed to Holland, Michigan to check out
Tunnel Park
We really liked Tunnel Park, it was a great beach and not super crowded, so we had a perfect spot right by the water to play and relax!
We brought beach toys for digging and playing in the sand!
This beach is snuggled right into the well known sand dunes of Lake Michigan!
Fun digging..
and building
All smiles and covered in sand!
Bulldozer that is working hard!
Loving the beach!
It seemed any beach that we went to, the kids wanted to dig a hole...
B loved being covered in sand!
Keep digging...
and digging!
Trigg wanted to test out the water, so he grabbed his goggles...
but with the water temperature being only 63 degrees, he quickly dove in...and then got back out!
Next we buried each other in the sand...Ailey is all smiles!
Trigg thought it was pretty fun too!
Eli up to his arm pits in sand and loving it!
If you look close, you can see the tunnel in the background! Tunnel Park was awesome! There is a small fee to park ($8) but there is lots to do and we spent most of the day here!
After Tunnel Park, we drove over to
Mt Pishag Dune Climb. We did make a pit stop at
Dune Dogz to get a afternoon snack! Then we climbed up Mt. Pishag...
Over 200 steps to the top, but it's worth the view!
Back at our house, we learned our neighbors have two great swings in their tree!
G showing off his skills..."no hands"
The dudes!
Pure joy!
The next day, we walked down to the private beach that is right there in Castle Park. Our neighbor, Helen, did warn us that Lake Michigan is about 3 feet higher than normal, so the beach is pretty small right now.
The wind had picked up and it was noticeable with the waves coming in!
The beach was right on the sand dunes!
With a fairly steep path to get down...
but it was beautiful!
And we were they only people in either direction!
We played for the morning...
and enjoyed a snack on the dunes!
Exploring!
We headed back for lunch and more swinging, this is the view from our front porch!
These two loved sharing the swing...
and giggling as they went back and forth!
Found another ice cream stop...with huge scoops...this was a "small"
G didn't mind all the ice cream!
Blythe tried "Superman" flavor!
Then we headed to Saugatuck for a
Dune Buggy Ride
This was AWESOME!!!
Our drive Ian was a wealth of knowledge about the dunes and drove FAST!!!
Lots of thumbs up from these kiddos!
Headed out on the trail!
Wind blown hair!
We made it to the top of one of the dunes!
We tried to run up the dune...and got tired!
Trigg was pretty impressed with our "dune buggy"
He thought it would be a pretty good summer job to drive these around!
I suggested that Heather should get one to take everyone to school in the morning!
We went from the dunes to the forest
Our driver, Ian!
He has driven this route over 5,000 times!
Awesome ride, well worth the time and money!
The next day, we headed to
South Haven, MI. We went to
South Beach for the day. We paid for parking ($10), this beach was the largest of the ones we went to but also the most crowded.
And once we got settled the kids started digging a hole!
Fun in the sun!
and more digging!
Blythe and Eli working on their own project!
South Haven is known for their red lighthouse, so we talked out on the pier to check it out...Blythe was pumped to see a lighthouse!
Family photo!
Our whole vacation crew!
Our family and the Kopp's enjoy the outdoors, so for our next beach, we headed to
Saugatuck Dunes State Park to do a little hiking! We hiked a 3 mile loop and of course it lead to a beach!
Trigg exploring the beach!
This beach was great and the hike was beautiful!
Cheese!
Trigg climbed a big hill to check out this cool tree!
Our view from the top! This beach was great and not very crowded...until a day camp showed up with 30 to 40 middle school kids...so we hiked a little longer...
And found this beach! The view was even better (and no one else was there to photo-bomb out pictures!) Family photo on the beach
Checking out the water
My two gals!
The explorers!
Trigg found a pair of broken sunglasses buried in the sand...missing one lenses, so naturally he turned into a pirate! AAARRRGH
This crew was fun to hang out with for the week! Silly faces and all!
Our house,
Top of Pines, was wonderful, even having 93 steps to get to the top!
One nice feature for hauling up luggage was the cable car!
We didn't ride it and were pretty adamant with the kids to not play around it, but we did make an exception on the last day!
It was a slow ride, but they thought it was awesome!
All smiles from this crew!
Blythe finding a nice relaxing spot
She fully embraced the beach life!
One final stop as we were headed back home, picking blueberries!
We stopped at
De Grand Champ farms to pick our own berries, these 3 are ready to pick!
Blythe finding the good ones!
G picking some blueberries!
Trigg filling up his bucket!
Our picking crew
The blueberries were ripe and delicious!
Our harvest...
Buckets full!
We had a great trip to Michigan! The beaches, the dunes, the food, the blueberries! It was fantastic and I would recommend it to anyone! Traveling with friends was great, our kids got along so well and it was fun to have adventures together!
