![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Lake Michicgan Trip Part Two
So now we're on the second day of our stay at our destination (or the first full day). By now this is Monday. We had our first big beach day. We set out at hit up the beaches towards the south. We'd brought along this nice, VERY portable tent to set up and I could hang out in it and not get sunburned! It turned out pretty successful, I think. And the tent's very lightweight and just pops out all set up when you open it (getting it to fold back in is a bit tricky, but usually not difficult once you've figured it out). Mostly I just hung out in the tent while Mary Beth swam, sometimes reading, sometimes just relaxing and feeling the breeze blow into the tent. At one of the beaches, I overheard a conversation from a nearby family with a teenage kid talking about how hard high school has been, him being a nerd and all that (I think talking to a younger relative maybe about to enter high school, his voice is the one that carried so I'd mostly just hear what he was saying). Anyway, lots of talk about what subjects he likes and doesn't and then at the end he started talking about movies and 2001: a Space Odyssey and Stanley Kubrick in general. So it was a little heartwarming nerdy conversation. Then I think at the next beach or the one after that, I overheard some little girls talking and I completely missed what came before so I have no context for this, but I know it doesn't need it. One said to the other along the lines of "you can tape your butthole shut...or you could glue it" and the other, younger-sounding replied "Why would you glue your butthole shut?" At the last beach we went to I got in the water and swam too. Then back to town. Wait, or did we do the Shipwreck Cafe this day? Yeah, we probably did eat there this day. But now I don't remember what we did for lunch the day before. Or I'm just mixed up on these details. So I had forgotten to pack my sandals, I thought they were already in beach bag but just had flip flops. After the first day of flopping through sand we went looking in a few of the shops in the town for sandals. Finally found some in the last of three that looked like they might. They were more expensive than I was hoping for and they had these straps that seemed like they might cut into or blister my feet, kinda similar to seatbelt material, but I figured I'd try 'em out and they ended up being a great investment. They actually ended up being pretty comfortable and I was able to walk in the sand better. So then we had Cherry Public House for dinner again. Well, there was some awkwardness this time. The first time we got in and tried to wait in a line but it was the line for the bar and someone said you just seat yourself. So the second time we just came in and seated ourselves. But then afterwards noticed there was a greeter that day and he was seating people. Promise we were just confused given what went down the day before and we weren't trying to break protocol!
Okay, the next day was another swimming day but this time we went to beaches to the north. The first beach we got to, at first, we were the only people there and it was nice and isolated. And once again I swam at the last beach. We took a little hike up to Pyramid Point, on a dune cliff with a great view of the ocean. One of the places with a sign about how it's harder to climb up than down and how people have to be rescued and stuff. So we didn't climb down! We also had more smoked fish at a little shack called Carlson's Fishery in Leland. Okay, I see I did get dinners mixed up. Okay, the night we arrived in (Sunday), we had some deli kinda salad thingies we got from the market. Then on Monday night (first beach day) we ate at Cherry Public House for the first time. And so we're bumping these dinners up a day. The one in the last paragraph where we went there a second time and felt embarrassed really belongs in this paragraph, for Tuesday. Sorry I confused things, I would have gone and fixed it all up but I started messing up the days in my last post so I figure I'll just correct it like this (which doesn't make it easy to read but then again you probably don't care about this level of detail anyway!). Oh yeah, one detail about the Cherry Public House dinners is that we sat outside and every time, a bee would get obsessed with my drink (cherry flavored root beer) and keep flying all around us and getting into my cup (at least by then I was really finished drinking it, but we were pretty bee-harassed!).
Then on Wednesday we hit up the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Park. We did the dune climb. It's two miles each way over sand dunes! Took us about four hours total. Pretty arduous! Most of the uphill is in the starting direction, but there were a few uphill climbs coming back and one that was especially steep and long. You make it to a beach at the end. But we didn't carry stuff for beaches because we were doing that strenuous hike and definitely were not lugging extra shit. At a point coming back, we heard the lady in an older couple saying, "It's fun and it's challenging. I like it but I hate it." We were pretty exhausted as fuck after that. And I'd gotten sand all in my eyes so I pretty sand blind for a while and needed my sunglasses to drive. It took 'em a while to clear up. We ate again at Shipwreck Cafe then we hit the scenic drive in Sleeping Bear park. It was a nice drive and it has a few nice attractions. The biggest is the dune cliff and it has an incredible view. And people fucking climb down it, it's like an almost vertical climb back up. After trudging through dunes all day, we did NOT climb down that. They had signs about how people need to be rescued a bunch (lots of that this trip!). We did some beaches and stuff again afterwards, this time I just passed out in the tent. I think coming back we hit a smaller lake (Lake Glen, I think) with a scenic drive and an Inspiration Point and a little dock Mary Beth went out and waded the waters in (a very shallow lake going out far), there were some old ladies walking a dog around the lake, it was having fun. We just ate sandwiches back at the motel for dinner.
So, the one day we have a scheduled thing to catch (a ferry, so that's not something that could be missed!), we come outside ready to leave and there's a giant plumber's truck emptying the septic tanks and it's blocking the entire back part of the small parking lot. This was also the first time we'd had to park on that side. So we're just stuck until he finishes. Anyway, he finished RIGHT on time for when we had to leave. The times we'd had ended up giving us cushion anyway and the boat didn't board as soon as it seemed like it might, so it didn't end up being too bad of a rush when we got there. So the ferry went out from Leland harbor to South Manitou Island. It's an island that's relatively deserted. Not settled anymore, part of the national park. So there's a few things to see like a lighthouse and they have motorized tours but we opted to walk to stuff we wanted to see and then have time to swim. Mary Beth thought there'd be good swimming on the other side so we could walk and see the shipwreck and the cedars and then swim. Maybe a two mile walk total. So we walk...and walk...and walk. It took way longer than expected to reach the other side of the island. And you have so much time before you have to be back to get on the ferry (or you're stranded for a day!). Well, we went by the lighthouse but by the time we started making it towards other stuff on the other side of the island we were running out of time so we skipped looking at the shipwreck and the cedars and made it to...dunes! Yes, more dunes! we didn't want to see more dunes, but we climbed up to see if we could make it to a beach but no, just more dunes. So we turned around hoping at least we could hit beaches by the dock when we got back. So we ended up having another long walk. At least it wasn't overall as arduous, just long. And we were carrying stuff this time so that added a dimension to it. On the way back, we did run into this nice kid with his grandmother we'd run into and talked to earlier and he showed us pictures of the shipwreck. I was kinda expecting something more submerged but the whole ship is sticking up out of the water, seemed pretty cool-looking! And the place is on this bluff that has a big view. Well, we did finally make it back and yeah, the place for swimming is literally right next to the dock. But Mary Beth got some swim time in at least! Then back on the ferry and back to the mainland. We hit another beach while we were out and then back to the motel for more sandwiches.
Then Friday we made it to a little diner called The Foothills Cafe and it was a nice little quaint thing. We had a drive up to Traverse City for a boat tour. It was originally planned as a brunch tour and was at an earlier hour but that had gotten cancelled and we changed it for a later one around noon. But we get into Traverse City and the timing's divided up a little funny. So we look at the beaches and parks and docks and stuff along the bay to spend time. We see geese and black squirrels (Trudy squirrels as we call them). We make out way into the little city/town area and stop at a few markets and poke around. Then right when it's close to time to make it to the boat, we get a notification that this one's cancelled too. So our plans were shot! Well, Mary Beth saw a shack by the dock with kayak and paddleboard rentals so we did our one unplanned activity and rent some paddleboards. They asked if we'd done it before, we hadn't, so they showed us which way to point the paddle, say it's about balance, and suggest we start off on our knees before standing. Okay, then we're off into the bay on these paddleboards! Okay, I've set things up and I'm going to break for a minute to continue in another post. I've gotta make it to my standup so I GUESS this is a good place to pause before I get into the story! Cliffhanger? Suspense? Uh...I dunno.
Okay, the next day was another swimming day but this time we went to beaches to the north. The first beach we got to, at first, we were the only people there and it was nice and isolated. And once again I swam at the last beach. We took a little hike up to Pyramid Point, on a dune cliff with a great view of the ocean. One of the places with a sign about how it's harder to climb up than down and how people have to be rescued and stuff. So we didn't climb down! We also had more smoked fish at a little shack called Carlson's Fishery in Leland. Okay, I see I did get dinners mixed up. Okay, the night we arrived in (Sunday), we had some deli kinda salad thingies we got from the market. Then on Monday night (first beach day) we ate at Cherry Public House for the first time. And so we're bumping these dinners up a day. The one in the last paragraph where we went there a second time and felt embarrassed really belongs in this paragraph, for Tuesday. Sorry I confused things, I would have gone and fixed it all up but I started messing up the days in my last post so I figure I'll just correct it like this (which doesn't make it easy to read but then again you probably don't care about this level of detail anyway!). Oh yeah, one detail about the Cherry Public House dinners is that we sat outside and every time, a bee would get obsessed with my drink (cherry flavored root beer) and keep flying all around us and getting into my cup (at least by then I was really finished drinking it, but we were pretty bee-harassed!).
Then on Wednesday we hit up the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Park. We did the dune climb. It's two miles each way over sand dunes! Took us about four hours total. Pretty arduous! Most of the uphill is in the starting direction, but there were a few uphill climbs coming back and one that was especially steep and long. You make it to a beach at the end. But we didn't carry stuff for beaches because we were doing that strenuous hike and definitely were not lugging extra shit. At a point coming back, we heard the lady in an older couple saying, "It's fun and it's challenging. I like it but I hate it." We were pretty exhausted as fuck after that. And I'd gotten sand all in my eyes so I pretty sand blind for a while and needed my sunglasses to drive. It took 'em a while to clear up. We ate again at Shipwreck Cafe then we hit the scenic drive in Sleeping Bear park. It was a nice drive and it has a few nice attractions. The biggest is the dune cliff and it has an incredible view. And people fucking climb down it, it's like an almost vertical climb back up. After trudging through dunes all day, we did NOT climb down that. They had signs about how people need to be rescued a bunch (lots of that this trip!). We did some beaches and stuff again afterwards, this time I just passed out in the tent. I think coming back we hit a smaller lake (Lake Glen, I think) with a scenic drive and an Inspiration Point and a little dock Mary Beth went out and waded the waters in (a very shallow lake going out far), there were some old ladies walking a dog around the lake, it was having fun. We just ate sandwiches back at the motel for dinner.
So, the one day we have a scheduled thing to catch (a ferry, so that's not something that could be missed!), we come outside ready to leave and there's a giant plumber's truck emptying the septic tanks and it's blocking the entire back part of the small parking lot. This was also the first time we'd had to park on that side. So we're just stuck until he finishes. Anyway, he finished RIGHT on time for when we had to leave. The times we'd had ended up giving us cushion anyway and the boat didn't board as soon as it seemed like it might, so it didn't end up being too bad of a rush when we got there. So the ferry went out from Leland harbor to South Manitou Island. It's an island that's relatively deserted. Not settled anymore, part of the national park. So there's a few things to see like a lighthouse and they have motorized tours but we opted to walk to stuff we wanted to see and then have time to swim. Mary Beth thought there'd be good swimming on the other side so we could walk and see the shipwreck and the cedars and then swim. Maybe a two mile walk total. So we walk...and walk...and walk. It took way longer than expected to reach the other side of the island. And you have so much time before you have to be back to get on the ferry (or you're stranded for a day!). Well, we went by the lighthouse but by the time we started making it towards other stuff on the other side of the island we were running out of time so we skipped looking at the shipwreck and the cedars and made it to...dunes! Yes, more dunes! we didn't want to see more dunes, but we climbed up to see if we could make it to a beach but no, just more dunes. So we turned around hoping at least we could hit beaches by the dock when we got back. So we ended up having another long walk. At least it wasn't overall as arduous, just long. And we were carrying stuff this time so that added a dimension to it. On the way back, we did run into this nice kid with his grandmother we'd run into and talked to earlier and he showed us pictures of the shipwreck. I was kinda expecting something more submerged but the whole ship is sticking up out of the water, seemed pretty cool-looking! And the place is on this bluff that has a big view. Well, we did finally make it back and yeah, the place for swimming is literally right next to the dock. But Mary Beth got some swim time in at least! Then back on the ferry and back to the mainland. We hit another beach while we were out and then back to the motel for more sandwiches.
Then Friday we made it to a little diner called The Foothills Cafe and it was a nice little quaint thing. We had a drive up to Traverse City for a boat tour. It was originally planned as a brunch tour and was at an earlier hour but that had gotten cancelled and we changed it for a later one around noon. But we get into Traverse City and the timing's divided up a little funny. So we look at the beaches and parks and docks and stuff along the bay to spend time. We see geese and black squirrels (Trudy squirrels as we call them). We make out way into the little city/town area and stop at a few markets and poke around. Then right when it's close to time to make it to the boat, we get a notification that this one's cancelled too. So our plans were shot! Well, Mary Beth saw a shack by the dock with kayak and paddleboard rentals so we did our one unplanned activity and rent some paddleboards. They asked if we'd done it before, we hadn't, so they showed us which way to point the paddle, say it's about balance, and suggest we start off on our knees before standing. Okay, then we're off into the bay on these paddleboards! Okay, I've set things up and I'm going to break for a minute to continue in another post. I've gotta make it to my standup so I GUESS this is a good place to pause before I get into the story! Cliffhanger? Suspense? Uh...I dunno.