Our Michigan adventure, part 2

 
The next morning, I woke up early and snuck out of the cabin for an early morning walk to watch the sunrise. It was one mile from our cabin to the sandy beach area. As I headed back, I walked along the rocky beach that led to our cabin.

 
I saw two boys standing on the edge of the beach skipping stones in the early morning light.
 
“When I get back, I have to tell Andrew and Matthew about this,” I thought. “They would love to come out here and skip stones.”
 
I watched the boys a little longer and saw that they were watching me. I squinted. They waved. I waved back.

I didn’t even realize that I had already made it back to the part of the beach that was right in front of our cabin. I guess I didn’t need to tell Andrew and Matthew about this place. They had already found it!


As the sun came up, the nasty wind from the night before died down, and the big waves on the lake settled down. We discovered this was part of life in Michigan. The temperature can change quickly. The hot sunny days are tempered by a cool breeze off the lake. It turned out to be a gorgeous, perfect day.

Like the weather, we found that the landscape was equally as diverse. We would be driving through a forested area and suddenly, the trees would clear and we would be at a beach. Some beaches are what we would expect with warm sandy shores. Others are made of smooth, white stones and still others are a mixture of sand and stone.

We spent our first morning exploring the campground. We rode our bikes down to the sandy beach and discovered we could walk a long way into the bay before the water even rose to our knees. With a clear view of Mackinac Island right across the bay, Matthew and Alayna decided they would just walk across!
 
 

A little farther down the beach, we discovered a hard packed surface of sand and gravel. It was perfect for riding our mountain bikes through the lake.

 
After lunch, we made an even more exciting discovery for a family that loves their bikes. A nice gravel path connected our campground to Mackinaw City. We could easily ride our bikes three miles into town to explore the candy shops and ice cream shops.

That evening we would enjoy the closest thing we had to “media” at the campground: the sunset. Watching the sun rise and set over the lake was a spectacle every morning and evening. It was always fun to watch people rush down to the beach to find a good seat on a big rock for the evening show.
 
No two sunsets were alike. And just when you thought you had seen all of the beautiful colors the skyline could produce, the sunset would grow even more vivid and radiant. Finally, the lights on the bridge would start coming on and the sky would fade to black.
Click the thumbnails to view all of our photos from the day: