Sleeping Bear, Grumpy Bear

Our week in Michigan was fantastic! We made some great memories at the Sleeping Bear National Lakeshore (on Lake Michigan). None of us had ever seen such scenery. The hilly hardwood forest covering thousands of acres began to burst into fall color while we were there. We lumbered down a dirt road notched out of the forest and then parked the van. A short trail through the thick woods suddenly brought us onto a beautiful untouched beach that stretched for miles up the coast. No condos, no high-rise hotels, just an invigorating mixture of fresh mountain air and cool sea breeze. A combination we've never experienced. We could have stayed and played forever.

Sleeping Bear LakeShore


We also had heard much about the Dune Climb and thought we'd give it a visit. This towering mountain of sand has been blown into place by the storms of the Great Lake. We kicked off our shoes and raced up the near-vertical sandhill that stretched unendingly up to the sky. We all expected to have a good view of the lake from the top of this hill, but instead were surprised by a short flat stretch and then another steep, long hill. By this time Eli had been struck blind by the blowing sand, which was also heating up our bare feet. Grace and I re-doubled our enthusiasm about the vista over the hill and dashed off. What fools! Again another short flat stretch and then a tall hill. By this time our children were exhausted, our lips were splitting, our legs were twitching, and we were the grumpy Israelites wandering in the desert wilderness for who knows how long! I decided to scout out the next hill and if the Promised Sea was not in sight we'd head back to the pleasures of the van. But having wasted all my energy stupidly-sprinting up the first two hills I was only able to ascend the third on all fours. Alas, but more of the same. We fully acknowledged that the Dune Climb had beat us and moped back down the mountain. Later we found out that what we thought was only one hill was actually a 4-mile stretch of mounting sand!

Dune Climb