A Walk in the Woods

On Tuesday morning we drove to Saugatuck Sand Dunes State Park.   The road to that park was not exactly well marked.  There were no neon signs pointing the way.  In fact, without a map I wouldn't have been able to find it.  Once we entered the park, the guard station where the fees are collected was empty.  The sign said "Ranger Back in Ten Minutes. Use the honor system and leave your fee in the drop box."  Since we had purchased an annual park sticker on Monday we didn't have to pay again, and drove on in.

The same sign was up and the booth was unmanned on our way out a few hours later as well.

To my delight and surprise there were trails through a forest to get to the beach and dunes. The kids and I had a nice walk through the woods, then arrived at a beach where people were swimming. There were no flags there to tell us whether we were being idiots or not. We had to use our common sense! Aha! The kids played in the waves close to shore and all was well.


The beach there was beautiful, wilder and more natural than many others here.  Sierra hadn't even worn a swimsuit becuase we didn't know there was a swimming beach there.  We thought there would just be dunes to climb.  She started out wading in her t-shirt and shorts.  Then she took off her shorts and waded in her t-shirt and underwear.  Once her underwear got wet, her t-shirt soon followed, and later she just started sitting down and letting the waves wash over her and forgot the whole no-swimsuit issue.
 
Dinner last night was at Subway...a step-up from the DQ?  I think not.  The poor fellow behind the counter was there alone.  He was very nice, thanking everyone for waiting patiently.  Which we all were because we could see the poor fellow was there alone, of course.  When it was our turn to order, the kids had gotten a little wound-up and were bouncing around a bit, so I ordered their sandwiches then said, "And I'll have a Vodka Martini."  He laughed and said they didn't start serving those until 5:30, sorry.
 
Tomorrow the kids want to go back to Subway.  I'm thinking something fancy instead, you know, like Applebees.