We just returned home from our beach vacation and I wanted to share our details. A couple in our church owns this "cottage" in Silver Lake and they offer it up to folks for vacation times in the summer as their family uses it more in the fall/winter for hunting. Well, we didn't want to turn it down! Outside of camping, this is our first "Michigan Beach" vacation.
Saturday
We loaded up and headed out! My mom and I stopped on the way in and picked up some fresh Michigan veggies. Once we unloaded, Darryl grilled burgers. We found out on Friday evening that Darryl's mom and her husband were camping about 25 minutes from us so after dinner we headed to their campground for the evening. Nate got to enjoy swimming and we all enjoyed some S'mores.
Sunday it was stormy/rainy so we enjoyed a day at the cabin.
We played some games - all new to us and all fun! Lots and lots of laughs for sure. We also introduced Joshua and Nate to "The Princess Bride" which they found funny. We had a break in the rain and Darryl cooked some amazing steaks on the grill!
Monday - It was another rainy day where we just hung around the cottage.
We played games and watched "Facing the Giants". It rained pretty much all day so we had sloppy joes for dinner since grilling was not a good option.
Tuesday - We finally got to escape :-) HA! The weather was amazing so we headed to the beach!
I made a charcuterie board for lunch. These are always a fun little thing to do when there is a group of people to enjoy it!
After lunch we headed to Silver Lake State Park - can you guess who the first person in the water was? HA! Nate! He is my water kid for sure!
It was a beautiful day and the water was near perfection! This is Nate and I out enjoying the small waves. He and I enjoyed the lake for a good hour plus while everyone else enjoyed relaxing on the beach.
Darryl did a lot of grilling and Nate helped him a lot. This time they cooked amazing pork steaks!
After dinner we headed out to Whippy Dip for Ice Cream. This was some of the best ice cream ever - their Turtle Sundae is the best I've ever eaten!
We then took off to drive around town and ended up at the pedestrian part of the park where you can climb dunes. Darryl, Joshua and Nate took on the challenge and climbed to the dune. They ended up at a place where they could see both Lake Michigan and Silver Lake.
Once they came back down the dunes we made a quick run to the Lighthouse at the beach to try and catch the sunset - we were just a few minuets late but the colors were still amazing. I just love sunsets on Lake Michigan.
Nate and Joshua - I just love them and love hanging out with them. They are both amazing people!
Wednesday - Our Pastor and his family had stayed at the cottage the week before us and they left us a gift of Dune Rides!
The Dune Ride was amazing AND we had the best driver! This was probably the highlight of the trip.
After the Dune Ride we went back to the cottage and did burgers again on the grill (they were THAT good).
We were finally able to have our first campfire of the week. Darryl got an amazing fire going, we were on our second round of Marshmallows roasting when the skies opened up and it down poured HA! It was such a great fire too!
Thursday - Darryl, Joshua and Nate I took off to Ludington for a bit to explore the Hydro Electric Plant.
We had hoped we see some wild life and we finally did! The deer were walking along the trail behind the cottage and had a great view of all of them including a good size buck.
At the Hydro Electric Plant we were able to walk across a pedestrian bridge to see the workings at the base of the plant. Then Nate's shoe broke (oops!) so I gave him mine so that they three guys could climb the super steep hill to the top of the reservoir! They said it was pretty cool and Nate has some photos but I haven't downloaded them yet !
Thursday afternoon someone from our church was hosting a BB Gun safety shooting "thing" at the state park and invited us over for it. The guys all got to shoot. Neither Joshua or Nate had ever shot a gun and Darryl hadn't done any shooting since he was a teen. It was an unexpected event that I'm glad they got to do.
We picked up pizza for dinner from a local pizza place that was really good before heading to actually watch the sunset for real :-) It did not disappoint. I could watch the sun set every single night.
Friday - I'm so thankful for so many beautiful days and Friday did not disappoint either.
We had a cook out for lunch. Darryl got another great fire going and made some hot coals so we could cook hot dogs and hobo pies for lunch.
After lunch we headed just down the road to this great garden. It was really to appease me because I enjoy it so I didn't make everyone hang around too long :-)
We then headed back to the beach where Darryl, Joshua, and Nate climbed the light house! They are up there at the very top!
We then enjoyed the beach - the water was a good 20 degrees colder then it was the first time we went. Of course, Nate was the first one in - but it was even cold for him! Both Darryl and I managed to get in up to our knees but that was about as far as we went!
We enjoyed chicken on the grill or dinner and then we ended our vacation with a game of Five Crowns because that is the game we always play with my mom :-)
Saturday it POURED. It made loading up a little tricky but we did it! It was so nice to be home - as it always is after a vacation :-)
Here are a few photos of Dash on his vacation too!
He made a fast friend when someone scratched his belly HA!
Dash spent the week with a boarder. He made some new "friends" but was SUPER glad to be home and back in his big bed. I'm thankful he had a good week too!
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