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Sleeping Bear Dunes
That looks like a long way up! 7/1 What a fantastic stay at Aunt Nancy and Uncle Phil’s house! We arrived at 8:30 last night to cap off our LONGEST driving day of the vacation. Good to get that out of the way.They live in a beautiful neighborhood and we immediately went for a walk. Great to stretch the legs. Freddy commandeered Uncle Phil for some Frisbee throwing and would have gone into the night (the Frisbee has LED lights) if we didn’t call him in for ice-cream! Showers and bed/couches were just what we needed after the day of driving. Slept in until 7:30 (LOL!) and up for a great breakfast. Phil was already on his 10mile bike ride and he wandered in around 8:30.Packed and were off at 9:30 to head up to Sleeping Bear Dunes about 3.5 hrs away.
Well, we woke the Bear at Sleeping Bear dunes and he kicked our butts! It was mid-day by the time we arrived, eager to make to trek up the very impressive dunes.But, alas, the sun was bright, the sand scalding hot on the bare feet (kids, don’t try this at home!) and we did the “run and sit” up the dune – run
Sleeping Bear Dunes
Reached the first tier...burning feet! uphill for as long as you could stand the burning on your feet, and then plop down in the sand on your bum and try not to let anything else touch the sand. Very comical if it wasn’t so painful. Mike, our hero, finally ran down the dune, back to the car, and brought back some shoes for all (socks for the Mama who apparently counted everyone’s sneakers before packing except for hers!) Some fared better than others, but all had very sore feet. Fortunately, the gift shop helped to ease the pain…
Then on to Glen Haven, just a couple miles down the road, to put our feet in Lake Michigan – the second of four Great Lakes we will see. They had very cool white rounded rocks/pebbles on the beach and the water was deliciously cold – as opposed to cringingly cold like the ocean sometimes is.We did hear someone speaking about how it was unusually warm – perhaps due to the lack of rain they have been having. Drove the Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive to see a bit more of the dunes and views of Lake Michigan.Very impressive to see the
Lake from above. Very unusual to see a body of water that big that was so still –no waves at all today. We could just
see Wisconsin across the way. The dunes here were very steep and, while we were happily ensconced on the viewing platform, we were sympathizing with the fools who ran down the dunes to touch the water only to have burning feet and a VERY steep, long walk back up.At that point we were very happy to have done the other dune climb first and learned our lesson, otherwise we would probably been one of those fools! Stopped at a great deli Jimmy John’s and had a well deserved meal. We had not really eaten since the morning except for snacks and it was about 5:00. Drove to St. Ignace arriving just before 10 and checked into the room. Kids were thrilled to hear the pool was open til 11 – where do they get this energy? Anyway, pool until 11, then showers and off to bed. What a fantastic room! Overlooks Lake Heron and has a balcony. It is now 1:00 and I need to get to bed. Off to Mackinac Island tomorrow!
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