I'm home from our not-so-spontaneous spontaneous summer vacation. We decided to hit the west coast. Of Michigan. haha. There are sand dunes out that way that my family has never seen and I decided if we were going to ever move out of state, now might be our last good chance to see a bit of Michigan before we leave it.

Hubby traveled with us. The deal was he was going to work during the day while we did touristy things. This sounded perfect. It turned out to not exactly be perfect, however. Our hotel had a weak internet connection and no cell signal so work was difficult, he was stranded without a car which meant I was on a somewhat short leash and we had almost non-existent communication thanks to essentially no cell signals on that entire side of the state. Cingular might not drop calls but that's becuase they have no towers to begin with!!

BUT! We had fun, darnit!! We walked the most luxuriously silky sandy beaches that ever exist, I am sure of it. There is so much silica in this sand that it is one of the premier places to find fulgarites (petrified lightning). The dunes are an incredible sight to see, Lake Michigan is beautiful and the kids were most definitely impressed.


First we went to explore the beaches of Lake Michigan. Gorgeous. Truly amazing. The kids sort of tide-pooled which was fun for them and they played in the water and splashed around despite the water temp (58 degrees). None of them had ever been on such an amazing beach with amazing sand. If I could have caught their expressions the first time they put their toes in the sand, I would have. They were truly awe-struck. And remember we have our own little beach in our own backyard so they aren't exactly cityfolk but this was different - this was a REAL beach.

I made the mistake, straight away, of climbing the dunes on Day 1. Have I ever mentioned how pathetically out of shape I am? I am out of shape. Very out of shape. I was looking forward to this vacation for it's plethora of enjoyable exercise opportunities but this was, perhaps, not the smart one to begin with. I felt faint walking up the very steep flight of stairs which then abruptly ended in an even steeper, non-shaded hill of sand. Every step I took, I swear, my feet sank 4 inches and my ankles would turn and it was so hard to walk I thought I might die. The kids, of course, were sprinting off like little antelope. Then they'd say things like "It's not hard to walk in - your feet don't sink in at all!" Well gosh, not when you weigh 50 lbs I suppose! Sigh. Finally, at the top I saw a tree. Or rather the top of a tree (the rest was covered by sand dune which apparently is "alive" and moves and shifts to the tune of 10-20 feet a year - not great for local homes and businesses!!). And I sat under it to catch my breath and stave off the heart attack. That's when I saw it: miles and miles of nothing but hills of sand. I thought I might die just looking at it. The kids were thrilled. I immediately knew doing this adventure, in my condition, without my husband was a grave error. I let the kids run off and play but then quickly realized I had no way to find them, get hold of them or rescue them should something happen. I wobbled slowly over to the top of a hill and just started miserably calling for them, sure I'd lost them to the Dunes forever. Thankfully they heard and made their way back to me. I thought I had lost them forever! Never again, I swore. But they convinced me to let them go off and play on some dunes within sight so I stayed with Noah, under the shaded tree top, and let the bigger kids go off and play. This worked out well. I was none too thrilled to get out of there eventually with my heart still beating in my chest :-) Unfortunately there was one big casualty. I set our digital camera down on the dune and it hasn't worked since. Sand. I was so sad - no more pictures :-(

Later we went out and did this dune ride and it was amazing and thrilling and relaxing and beautiful. That is definitely the out-of-shape fat girl grown up way to explore the dunes! The kids all loved it and said it was the most fun they had while on vacation!

The next day sort of sucked. We had to check out of our (crappy overpriced) hotel by 11 and Tony had to work so we had to sort of run back and forth with me keeping the kids out of his hair and him trying to pack up and get us out of the hotel. It wasn't fun. We did get to walk out to some lighthouses and do some pier fishing but not nearly enough. When Tony could escape, we headed out on a rafting trip and that was fantastic. It was so quiet and gorgeous. Unfortunately it appears neither Tony nor I can actually navigate a raft! haha! We spent an inordinate amount of time crashing into trees, rocks and whatever else came our way. Occasionally I'd drop my paddle (or oar? I dunno) into the water when I had to quickly make a choice between small child and large tree branch. Eventually we figured out that if we just spin the raft enough we can avoid maybe 50% of the obstacles in our paths! haha. Really it was beautiful and we all had a great time. It was hard work but definitely my kind of exercise - very invigorating. I'll trade dunes for rafts any day.

We drove on to Muskegon where we stayed the night in a very beautiful room only to be kept up half the night be people partying above us. Eventually they shut up or were kicked out and we got a few hours sleep before it was time to head to Michigan Adventure amusement park. We've never been - we are Cedar Point lifers. But I heard Michigan Adventure - owned by Cedar Faire, the same company as Cedar Point - was geared toward younger children and also doubled as a water park. Perfect! It was definitely more fun for those who aren't interested in the whole stand-in-line-for-2-hours-for-15-minutes-of-top-thrills variety of amusement. The water park was a huge hit as well. We had a great day and decided to head the 2.5 hours home at 7pm.

And here we are! It wasn't exactly the "live free, fly by the seat of your pants" trip that I had hoped for and needed. But it was a realistic good vacation. The kids were (generally) well-behaved, they all had a great time and we did, too.