Lake Michigan {Filling in the Gaps}

Since I didn't have my nice camera with us on all of our adventures, the phone photos really fill in some of the gaps.

We got up at 4:45am the Monday we left and were on the road by 5:15a. We just transferred Sutton to his carseat, and he didn't even cry which was surprising. He usually cries if you wake him up not of his own volition. So Sutton and I slept all the way to Kansas City (3 hours away) and we got breakfast there just after 8:00. Then we kept driving. And driving. We went through Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana. I was excited about Illinois because I can't remember having been there before.

And Indiana meant we were nearly there! We hit the morning rush hour in KC, and we hit the evening rush hour in southern Chicago. Adam was DONE with Chicago after that, which is part of why we never went to the city on our vacation, haha.

This was our first campsite, before we moved to the one with more shade. Sutton was in a timeout.

Our first full day there, which was Tuesday, we drove to South Bend, IN to stock up on food and supplies at their Walmart. The Jeep had also been making a weird noise, and I am so grateful for a husband who knows cars and knew what needed to be fixed. We stopped by an auto parts store for a new radiator fan, and when we got back to our campsite, he replaced it. He even had to splice some wires because the connection wasn't right (I don't really know what I'm saying...), and he figured that all out. Worked like a charm.



That evening, we went to the swimming area that was at our campground, and it was nice for a lake, but not beachy and I was unimpressed.

I never get to wake up next to this face in the mornings and so it was extra special to sleep next to this guy every night. Luckily he didn't invade my bed at all (you know, since he was busy sleeping on the floor instead of his sleeping bag). But do you see the sweetness? Gah.

So Wednesday was the glorious day that we got to go to the beach for the first time. Here's Sutton's first glimpse. Not sure what he's thinking. Probably just being jealous of that other little boy's sweet sand toys.

Burying Mr. Whale.

Digging with no pants on. I don't think he was even wearing underwear. Whoops.

That evening, we took a walk through some of the trails at our campground. These are the woods right behind where our tent was. So beautiful.

This frog was in our shower two nights in a row. He didn't bother us, but it still made me a little weirded out.

Thursday morning, we drove to a town called La Porte, IN which was in between our campground and Lake Michigan. There was a really pretty lake there (I think it was called Pine Lake) and we took a short walk around it to look at all the boats that were parked in the water. It was hot though, so we quickly went back to the car and drove on.

This was our second day and the beach, and Sutton was just in a funk. Didn't want to swim, didn't want to be happy, I don't know. So we swam a little, but then it started raining, so we sat under our umbrella and waited for it to stop. It didn't, so we packed up and made a mad dash back to our car in the rain. It wasn't raining hard, but they were cold raindrops!

Friday morning, Adam and Sutton rented a bike at our campground and went for a bike ride around the whole place. Looks like they had a fun adventure!



We got in the Jeep around nap time and Sutton napped on the drive to Michigan City, where we went to this amazing store called Captain Ed's that had the most random collection of goods.



There was lots of pirate decor, and even some hats and props that had been used in the movie Pirates of the Caribbean. The back half of the store looked like a furniture store, with tables, chairs, beds, sofas, you name it. The front half had all kinds of candy as well as music and old pinball machines. So weird. Sutton is obsessed with Jake and the Neverland Pirates, so he posed next to this pirate for me.

We all got some candy and bought Adam's dad Ed a shirt that said Captain Ed on it. Then we went drove on to a nearby outlet mall that was amazing. Every store you could think of. But alas, I get frustrated with outlet malls because I'm a cheapskate and find their "outlet prices" less than impressive. We didn't buy much. Mostly just a few things for Sutton at the OshKosh outlet. They had this cool helicopter that Sutton got to ride in.

Let's face it. An outlet mall is probably the last thing that a 3-year-old wants to do. So we told him we'd find a toy store. There wasn't one at the outlet mall, so we drove to a regular mall that was a ways away. Nothing in there either. We even went in the Sears, hoping they'd have a toy section, but no dice. We at least found a fun photo booth in there, so the trip wasn't fruitless.

We ended up going to Hobby Lobby and got him something there. Then we drove over to another campground with beach that was actually ON Lake Michigan. Every campsite was full. Which was why that wasn't where we camped. :) But it was pretty there, and they had a neat two-story building with restrooms and a concession stand and pretty views.

Saturday morning was the train ride that I already blogged about.

And our stop at the Wooden Nickel restaurant on the way out of North Judson, IN. They served this sausage soup as an appetizer and it was SO GOOD. I ate all of mine and some of Sutton's.

Then I had this amazing pizza...of which I ate nearly half. Whoops. I was hungry. :)



We drove for awhile and then stayed in a hotel in Springfield, Illinois that night. Got up the next day and drove some more. I was impressed by the size of the Mississippi River as we passed from Illinois into Missouri.

And the bridge that went over it was pretty cool too.

We got home Sunday evening, and boy, were we all tired of driving.

So there it is. Dreher Family Vacation 2013. Done. :)

Lake Michigan {Campsite & Train Ride}

We went to the beach another day while we were on vacation, but Sutton was in a bad mood and didn't want to swim AT ALL. It was slightly disastrous and put us all in a bad mood. I'll do one more post with Instagram photos and maybe I'll go more in depth about that. Maybe not. :)

I thought we needed a photo of our campsite setup, and Adam was all too happy to "help" me out.

So here it is...our tent on the right, and you can kinda see the air conditioner unit on the left of it that Adam hooked up, which was a lifesaver. We moved campsites after the first night because our original spot didn't have any shade and the A/C couldn't keep up. But once the tent was under the trees, it did great. Just to the left of that mosquito tent thing (which was where we kept cooking stuff), there was a path into the trees that led to a little park. We went there several times so the kiddo could play. It was a nice little setup, I was just not a fan of the heat. It wasn't as bad as Texas would've been, but it still wasn't a cool 70 degrees. :)

Sutton is a weirdo. We put a sleeping bag next to ours for him to sleep on, and EVERY NIGHT he slept on the floor of the tent next to the sleeping bag, not on it. No blankets, no cushion, nothing. He's so strange. Our A/C actually got pretty cold at night, so we turned it warmer and put socks and pants on him since he refused to use blankets.

We split the drive home into two days, so we left our campsite Saturday morning and made an hour and a half drive to a tiny little town called North Judson, Indiana. Adam had booked us tickets to go on a train ride, which Sutton had never done before. We got there and there was a little museum and gift shop. Sutton loved playing with all the little trains.

We were a little early, so after a potty break (where Sutton decided he wanted to pee standing up, which was a first for him other than outside...it was messy), we looked around at the trains. That train on the right is the one we rode on. It had that open car that you can see with just benches in the middle, and then down a ways, there was an enclosed commuter car.

Sutton with his train ticket.

The caboose.

Finally, it was time to get on board.

We decided to show Sutton the commuter car first since that was more like a "real" train. I just love this photo of these two.

Then we moved outside where we stayed for the entire 45-minute ride. There was a tour guide who talked about the history of the town and the railroad during the ride.

Much of our little ride looked like this: Indiana farmland.

But we went through some wooded areas too, which included some old railroad tracks and bridges that have been overgrown and looked really cool!

After our ride, Sutton asked "Can we do that again sometime?" And he told the tour guide that it was "pretty awesome" as we were leaving. So I think he liked it.

We stopped at a little restaurant called the Wooden Nickel before we got back on the road, and we had a great lunch there. Once again, maybe I'll talk more about that in the Instagram post.

Lake Michigan {the Beach}

Adam and I haven't been to the beach since our honeymoon over 7 years ago in Hawaii. And Sutton had never been! So when we were planning our vacation for this summer, I knew I wanted to go to the beach.

But we didn't want to spend a lot of money, so we knew it would have to be driving distance. Our original plan was to go down to the Corpus Christi/Galveston, Texas area but we wanted to camp and with temps in the 100s...I knew that wouldn't be too fun. So we looked up north and decided on Lake Michigan.

Adam found us a great camping site at Potato Creek State Park in Indiana, which was about an hour away from the beach. The second day we were there, we drove to the beach and had an amazing day! It really seemed like the ocean because it was so big.

We built lots of sandcastles complete with rocks and feathers and secret doors to hide Sutton's toy whale.

Sutton gets a little apprehensive when it comes to water usually. He's not one of those kids that will dive right in and splash around. He went up to his waist just fine, but mostly preferred to stay near the shore where it was just foot-deep.

I was just amazed at the kids that were his age or younger that were equipped with goggles and were just running into the waves and going all the way under. Sutton wanted to hold hands to wade out. :)

Smiling for the picture, but not looking at the camera...

I asked him how old he was to try to get him to look at me. No dice. But that's how he does his 3.

There we go!

Sutton made a friend. :) There were these two older ladies that were sitting in these chairs, tanning, right next to us the whole time. One of them got up and Sutton asked me if he could go sit in her chair. I said no, that's not ours. But this lady overheard and said he could sit there if he wanted. So he went over and sat down and started talking to this lady. It was quite hilarious.

Family photo at the beach! Love. Then Daddy got us hot dogs and chips from a little hot dog cart so we could eat lunch on the beach. No pictures, but we were starving and they were yummy!

Which do you like better? The sky...?

...or the sand? :)

There was this pier to our left with a lighthouse at the end. So after we'd swam and played awhile, we decided to walk out to the lighthouse to see if we could go inside.

I took photos of the sites along the way. It was so hot, but having on a wet swimsuit definitely helped!

When we got there, we found we couldn't actually go in the lighthouse. But it was still fun to climb around it and on the rocks in the water below it.

  

I just loved the color of the water.

This is looking back at the beach where we'd swam from the lighthouse area.

We found a good spot next to these rocks but back near the beach to climb down and wade a bit more without getting too sandy again. The water felt so good after the hot walk. We got in the car to leave, and it wasn't long before...

:) I just love that sleeping face.