There's a lot to love in Michigan.
Our family vacation in Northern Michigan surpassed all of our expectations. Amazing scenery, grand adventures, relaxation and laughter and games with family, plenty of day drinking, and over 1600 miles of family time in the van... what a week!
First stop: Saginaw Bay! Why not see as many of the Great Lakes as possible during one day?
We spent a couple of hours at Bay City Park, which had a pretty little beach out on a sandbar, past a marsh...
We spent time looking for beach treasures and even found a Lake Huron lucky stone!
These two acted like brother and sister, chasing and teasing.
This was Ivy's face for quite a while as Jack stole her sandals...
Jack took advantage of the splash park before we left.
I don't know why we think splash parks are just for little ones. Our great big boy had a blast.
Next stop: Sleeping Bear Dunes! After a quick stop at the visitor's center we decided to drive the Pierce Stocking Scenic loop. Very slowly, in the company of alllll the other tourists. We parked at the first scenic overview and thought we'd found a nice view.
But then it just kept getting better...
(Still at it with each other...)
... and better. The Lake Michigan Overlook! Well. It really was worth all the hype. Utterly breathtaking.
Despite the brilliant sunshine the sand was remarkably cool.
The dunes have this otherworldly texture that just begs to be jumped on. They are also shockingly steep, and this one was 450 feet high, so as my children jumped and giggled their way towards the edge it really did seem as if they were headed over the end of the world, about to hurtle down into the blue. I hear tell it wasn't quite so steep once you were down on it, but I'll have to take their word for it as I preferred to stay near the top...
Sandy and starving, we headed North to Glen Haven and Glen Arbor, hoping for a beach with concessions so we could both swim and eat.... Glen Haven turned out to be a historic village museum with a beach, but everything was closed for the days and there was not only no food but also no restroom facilities so on we went.
Glen Arbor, it turns out, was well worth the extra few minutes of driving. It was about the cutest town going, one main street full of boutiques and restaurants, each more quaint than the next.
We also met up with our cousins there... literally on Main Street as they were heading south to find us... right as we were crossing the street. Had one of those "small town conversations' right there in the road as we tried to figure out where to eat. We landed on pizza to go, eaten at the city park, and it was perfect. As was the free wine tasting at Cherry Republic that Eilieen and I happened upon, and which was timed perfectly to coincide with the cherry pit spitting competition the others were engaged in...
Apparently cherries are the thing in Northern Michigan. We picked up a pint of them on our way out of town and they WERE really good.
After dinner, we took the whole crew back to the dunes. First up, Dune Climb. Not as awe-inspiring as the Lake Michigan Overlook, but also not terrifying. Our whole crew made it to the top and there was a pretty lovely view to take in as the kids took turns rolling down the steep part at the top.
This is Glen Lake-- apparently it was once connected to lake Michigan but now is landlocked and is also groundwater fed instead of runoff fed, which is what gives it such a crazy-blue color. I really enjoyed learning some snippets of geology from the informational signs.
And, because we couldn't get enough of this perfect Michigan day OR these amazing dunes, we went back to the Lake Michigan Overlook for sunset. Us and all the other sunset worshippers, lined up on the dune, feet in the cold sand, hair whipping in the lake breeze. It was sublime.
We had a two hour drive into the dark of the MIchigan night to get back to our Airbnb, but it was worth it.
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