Us vs the Dune Climb

The kids are napping, so  I’m going to jump in with a quick post. Yes… I am going to bore you with more photo’s of our vacation. Yes… I have other things that I would like to write about,  but for some reason I feel a little tongue tied right now. Maybe it’s the heat… it’s 1:30 and currently 94 degrees out… with a heat index of over 100… Did you hear that? It’s the sound of me melting just thinking about it.

Two weeks ago, the weather in Michigan was perfect… upper 70’s and just perfect. The day after we got there we drove up to the Old Mission lighthouse. Yes, we took some photos there… Ray actually got a few really good ones of the kids, but this post is not about that (this is a reminder for me that I want to post those though). No this post is about our trip out to Sleeping Bear National Lakeshore and more specifically the Dune Climb there.

Ahhh, the Dune Climb… otherwise known the dune of mirages. At the bottom, all you see is the big sand dune in front of you… so you climb,

crawl,

let yourself be carried by the “Daddy robot”,

and bury yourself on your way to the top.

But once you get to the top, you realize that this was just the halfway point. No, the top of the dune has not been reached… it’s right there in front of you… but no need to rush, you’ll get there after admiring the view…

After turning your back to the view, you march onward. The second stretch wasn’t so bad, since at the top of hill #1 there’s a sand table that is nice and flat… perfect for little legs and feet to run and play in, which they do… it was also apparently Abby’s mission to touch each and every grain of sand on the way to the top of dune #2… which was fine, because my legs could use the rest.

It’s also the reason why Noah and Ray made it to the top of dune #2 so much faster than we did!

I was hoping for a great view of Lake Michigan from the top of dune #2, but all that I saw was sand… and more sand… and some sand loving shrubbery.

So we climbed some more…and took another break… and then climbed some more. This time when we got to the top of dune #3, we were prepared for what we saw, since we had been warned.

Yes, we were able to “see” Lake Michigan, though if we really wanted to get up close and personal with it, we would have had to hike another 1 1/2 miles… too far for us, since the kids were doing less walking and we were doing more carrying at this point. It was still a great view though. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky and we could see not only the lake, but also the two islands off the coast.

The view behind us… the view of the path we had just walked… was almost equally as impressive.

Those black dots in the sand… people crossing the sand table (or plateau) between dunes 2 and 3!!

(This was how Abby was carried much of the way… both up and down! and yes if you’re wondering I photoshopped my bathing suit so that it wasn’t so cleavagerific… it is a family blog after all!)

Noah ran with a huge smile on his face, all the way from the top of dune #3 to the bottom (with a few rest stops of course, but he was on a mission!!). Once we were back down to “ground” level, we set up a little picnic spot and let the kids play (and eat and re-hydrate!), before taking the driving tour through the Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive. That drive was beautiful, quiet (because both kids fell asleep) and relaxing. It also included a stop that was worth waking the kids up for… more on that later! =)