Camping Vacation- Days 2 and 3

On Monday morning we packed up and headed up north to Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore in northern Michigan. It took us most of the day to drive up there (we stopped for a bit in Holland, MI to do some grocery shopping and have a picnic lunch) and we also lost an hour from the time change, so we ended up getting to camp around dinnertime.  Our campsite at Sleeping Bear Dunes was great--it was very wooded and had a great area for Jesse to play.

Tuesday morning we did a short hike near our campground.  The Empire Bluff trail took us up to a beautiful overlook above Lake Michigan.

After the hike we had a picnic next to the trailhead and then used Jesse's naptime to drive the Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive. I was amazed at how well Jesse slept through all of it, even with all the stopping and starting and with us getting in and out of the car at the various overlooks.

At one of the overlooks, lots of people were going down the huge sand dunes, but the climb back up was supposedly a one or two-hour ordeal, which sounded totally unappealing to me, especially in my current "condition". Apparently it's not terribly uncommon for people to get stranded and require help getting back up.

You can see in this picture how long and steep the dunes were, and you can even see (just barely) a few climbers on their way back up. I didn't envy them at all.

Jesse woke up right after we arrived at the little village of Glen Haven, just in time to see some boats at the Cannery Boathouse museum.  He thought the boats were ok, but what he really enjoyed was going up and down all the stairs in front of the boats.

 After seeing the boats we went to the dune climb, which was probably one of the major highlights of the trip for Jesse. Any mention of playing in the sand gets Jesse excited, but he was particularly interested in the idea of "sliding" down a sand dune.  He even surprised us by being quite enthusiastic about climbing up, which is pretty challenging.

Sometimes you need to a take a break to play in the sand...

Playing in the grass is a lot of fun, too...

The best part is probably going back down.  This also requires several stops to play with the sand.

This (below) may look like nothing to you, but it is a classic Jesse pose.  When he gets really into explaining something, he sticks one pointer finger up into the air and gets this really intense look on his face while he is talking. I'm not sure what he was talking about here, but it was probably something really important ;)

Back at the campsite we got dinner ready and let Jesse play with his buckets and the rocks and leaves. He could have entertained himself endlessly with these things.  He was mostly pretending to make all sorts of food.

After dinner we hiked out to the lakeshore near our campground and enjoyed relaxing in the sunset while Jesse continued to entertain himself with the sand and later by throwing pebbles, sand and shells into the lake. It was nothing short of Jesse heaven, that is until the swarms of gnats came out and we decided to pack up our gnat-infested things and go back to camp.

Camping Vacation- Day One

After James' graduation last Saturday (I'll save that for another post since I didn't take any pictures on my camera and will have to wait for those), we packed up and headed on a week-long camping trip with James' parents. This year has been very busy, especially for James, and it was wonderful to have a week to relax and be removed from a lot of the responsibilities of everyday life and enjoy just spending time with family.

Saturday evening, after graduation, Jesse got to go to the campground (Indiana Dunes State Park) "by himself" with Grandmama and Grandpa.  We stayed here and enjoyed packing in peace and sleeping in (well, only if you count 6:20 as sleeping in...it's kinda frustrating when you can't sleep in when the rare opportunity arises, but oh well).  On Sunday morning we took our time eating breakfast and packing up the rest of our stuff, made a quick Wal-Mart trip and drove over to Indiana to camp for one night at the state park.

Jesse is a natural camper and loves anything outdoorsy it seems.  He had endless fun playing with his sand toys at the campground's playground and at our campsite.  He especially enjoyed "watering" all the grass at the campsite.

 

We hiked to the top of Mt. Tom, the tallest sand dune in Indiana, after Jesse's nap and got some nice views of Lake Michigan. Jesse seemed to really enjoy riding in the backpack on this vacation, unlike the last time we put him in it.

 

 

 

Jesse loved the playground so much, so we walked there again after dinner.

 

He played in the sand a little while, but the gnats were pretty bad and seemed to be particularly attracted to Jesse's face, so he couldn't take it for very long. I think he is trying to get one off of his ear in this picture. Poor guy.

 

After a day full of playing, it was time for a bath.  Jesse thought it was pretty cool to take a bath in this little tub.  Once we got up into Michigan it was too cool for outdoor baths, so this was the only one he got.

After bathtime, we put Jesse down for the night in his pack and play inside the camper and we enjoyed sitting around the campfire for a bit.  It took him a while to get to sleep, being in a new environment and with lots of new distractions, but once he fell asleep we transferred him to a bed and he slept great the rest of the night.