Camping with our friends has become an annual event that both families have come to treasure. It started three years ago when the kids were five with a short, one night in fact, trip to Irish Hills. It was a trial run, the site selected because it was close to home in case of utter failure, but it went well and has spawned what we hope will be lifetime of outings. Last year and this year we set up camp in Wilderness State Park. Different from our July trip to Pictured Rocks, though, this is the kind of campsite you drive right up to, the kind that has electricity and water, and even camp communal flush toilets and showers. I love Wilderness. From just about every site you can see and hear Lake Michigan, there's swimming, there's hiking, and while it doesn't offer the challenge of the backpacking, it offers the kind of calm, relaxing, introspective vacation that I need at least once a year.
This year we spent three nights at camp. We built fires every night and roasted things like hotdogs, chicken, corn, marshmallows, and popcorn, and we make coffee. We ate granola for breakfast and peanut butter for lunch. We hiked the nearby trail around a pond and went in search of a geocache. We constructed in the sand and splashed in the water. We took day trips to Mackinaw City to try the putt putt course there and get a history lesson at Colonial Fort Michilimackinac. And for entertainment at the campsite, in addition to hangman and looking for the thirteen-lined ground squirrel, we watched the young (oh very young) couple who arrived at the neighboring campsite and unpacked everything from brand new, untested boxes, and proceded on their first camping attempt. It made us feel well-seasoned in our art, and gave us something to giggle about quietly.
hot dogs on our first night
waiting for water to boil for coffee
It's the Loch Michigan monster! Shall we call her Michi?
Colonial Michilimackinac
Colonial Michilimackinac
Mackinac Bridge from Colonial Michilimackinac
Love the red accents...those colonials sure knew how to decorate
A little muncher in the grains...
I shall call this: self portrait in an awesome window with red.
watching the ongoing archeaological dig in the center of the fort
talking to the "trader" in his trader's house
Red Coats (who wouldn't have been called red coats then) demonstrate the unreliability of their rifles.
Posing with the enemy
Fun and games!
Watching the blacksmith at work
Frolicking through the waves
Realizing that the little fish really do nibble your toes
Roasting corn
Geocaching
Putt putt
More frolicking
sand fort
new fangled hangman
marshmallows
more new fangled hangman