When we were thinking about our vacation for this summer, we were looking to go somewhere we'd never been to before. While we love going to the beach in South Carolina, it's not a destination that we want to go to every year--we definitely want to explore some new areas, and see different things.
I've heard of people vacationing in Michigan, and absolutely loving it, so we started doing some research and asking for ideas fro those who've been there before. We definitely wanted to go find some sand dunes, but we also wanted to include the Mackinaw area in our week. So, we opted to split the week into two parts, and we spend Sunday - Thursday on Michigan's west coast (Ludington area), and then traveled up to Mackinaw City on Thursday and were there until Sunday.
We loved that our road trip was only a little over 6 hours, and as we got to the Ludington area, it was rainy and chilly. We found our Airbnb house and unpacked the van and got settled in. This was our first time using airbnb, and it will definitely not be our last. We LOVED have several bedrooms to spread out in, and we were able to buy groceries and cook most of our meals during the first half of the week. The house had a little kitchen/dining area on the first floor, and then upstairs we had a living room, 2 bedrooms, and a bathroom. Nothing huge or super fancy, but it was perfect to spread out in and relax when the rain prevented us from being outside.
After we ate supper, the rain ended, so Mark and the boys walked down to our street to a little park area where they could do some fishing.
Our house was right next to Lake Hamlin, and then we were only a 5-7 minute drive from Lake Michigan and Ludington State Park.
The fog over the lake was eerily beautiful . . .
On Monday, it was a little rainy in the morning, but then the rain moved out and the sun started shining. We drove over to the State Park, and decided to check out the Skyline trail. LOTS and LOTS of steps to climb, but the view was just gorgeous.
And this was our first time playing on the sand dunes . . . the boys couldn't wait to run down them!
Running down was fun! Coming back UP the dunes . . . that was a workout!
And of course, any time they found a ledge to jump off of, the boys took full advantage of it . . .
The view from the bottom of this dune . . . it was a long way back up!
Back up at the top of the dune, ready to walk back DOWN the stairs :)
One of my favorite things about this week was the variety of things we could, all while being in one state park. Ludington not only has big sand dunes, but there is also lake water for fishing, and a big beach to play on. We definitely took advantage of the variety and didn't get bored . . .
This was the beach, and even though the water was too cold to swim in yet (think 56 degree water!), it didn't stop us from having fun in the sand and dipping our toes in the water.
They found more dunes to jump off of!
Even Mark & I joined in the fun (but thankfully no cameras were rolling for my attempts :)
