Saturday, July 15, 2017

Friday, July 14th

As much as I want to go to  sleep because we have to get up early tomorrow morning, I want to get things written up. I told Matt today that I want to write here not just so other people can read it, but for my own memories. We have pictures too, but  Matt has not had time to download them yet. I am bummed that I didn't make much of an effort the first week of vacation. I really want to from here on out! Things are going to get exciting!

Yesterday (Friday) we traveled from Chicago to Hoffmaster State Park in Michigan. We were meeting up with our friends there, and we would be with them for the next week while we stayed at state parks in Michigan. Before we left Chicago, we drove around downtown in the morning. We were going to walk to a beach that wasn't too far away, but changed our minds once we saw that there were no sidewalks. We drove over there instead and then realized that we would have to pay to park, so we decided that we were just not going to go to the beach! I wanted to go to Millenium Park while we were in Chicago, and we had already determined that Matt's truck was too tall to fit in any parking garage, so we drove there in a slight chance that maybe we could find street parking. HAHA! The area around Millenium Park was crazy!!  We drove down Michigan Ave and I am amazed that we did not get in a car wreck. There were people and vehicles everywhere. I almost felt like we were back in New York City! And needless to say, we did not find  any street parking and we did not go to Millenium Park!

We needed to be out of our truck parking facility by noon, so we were back there by 11:30.  We got hooked up and we pulled out about 11:45. Good bye Chicago!

We got on the interstate and our next stop was Hoffmaster State Park in Michigan. It was 189 miles away, so about 3 hours. About an hour or so later, we stopped at a WalMart along the interstate near Michigan City. We needed to get lunch and get a few groceries.  This stop took a lot longer than expected! I made leftover chili, but we had no potato chips. Megan and Courtney like potato chips in their chili, so Matt and Courtney ran into the store to get chips and a few items for the truck. Once they came back out, we ate lunch. We then decided to Skype Matt's mom because it was her birthday.  That took twenty minutes and we still needed to get into Walmart (again) and get groceries for the next week. Needless to say, this was not a quick stop!

About 3 pm, we were back on the road and again heading towards Hoffmaster. Soon we go into Indiana and saw signs for  Indiana Dunes State Park. This was one of our favorites campgrounds from our east coat trip in 2013. We also went through a time change in Indiana. We moved ahead one hour. Matt also realized that the interstates were horrible in Indiana. They were not smooth at all and kind of rough to drive on with the truck.

About 6 pm (new time), we pulled into the state park. Christian had to go to the bathroom soooo bad when we got there! We already had reservations, so I just had to get checked in and get a park pass. They call them "passports" in Michigan. Once that was all taken care of, we found our campsite and set up.

Luckily, our friends were already there and had made a big pot of chili over the fire. They offered to let us eat it. (We had chili for lunch already, so I wasn't super thrilled.) I took them up on their offer because it was getting too late to make something decent for supper.

Once dinner was over, everybody headed down to the beach. This campground was  right on the shores of Lake Michigan and had a really nice beach. Our friends had already been down there all afternoon, but we hadn't been there yet. I had the kids put their sandals on because they all had their tennis shoes on yet from Chicago (remember we were going to go for a walk to the beach). Most of our kids ran off ahead, even Christian and Erich, and  they ended up getting a nice lecture about  how they could not do that, even if they were with their older sisters!! I carried Micah the whole way to the beach, which was not very fun.

Once we got to the beach, we played on the sand dunes, let Micah walk in the water, and eventually all our kids ended up IN the water. All their friends were in it too. Remember, nobody had their swimming suits on!! Everybody was in the water in just their clothes!! Silly kids!! They were having a blast though! Unfortunately, once they all got out, they were pretty cold!

We stayed down at the beach until the sun set and then headed back to our campsites. It was a gorgeous sunset and one moment the sun was up, and the next moment, it was gone! Micah was very mad that he did not get to play in the water anymore, and he screamed all the way home. Matt carried him home and his back hurt when we got back. I wonder what all the other campers thought about this screaming kid!!

Once we were home, everybody headed to the showers! The shower houses at Hoffmaster were awesome. They were each individual showers. The kids hung their wet clothes up after their shower and everybody headed to bed.  Some children wanted to have a campfire yet, but all of us adults said no!! It was almost 10 pm by the time we got back from the beach. I think I got into bed at 11 pm.

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