The Michigan Coast

Are you tired from following us around the Lakes yet?! Wednesday morning we left the U.P. and headed down the Michigan coast. We drove through some of the coastal towns while the kids slept off the effects of our past few days’ schedules.  Henry and I enjoyed the scenery in the quiet.

In one of the towns, I could see a group of kids gathered and woman singing. I knew it was something my kids would like so I woke them all up to go to a sing-a-long in the park. Ryan especially liked when she brought out the big parachute. The girls were too cool for the parachute, but not for catching bubbles!

We continued on until we hit Traverse City, a little coastal town with a great beach. It was the first day where the stars aligned and it was both warm enough to swim AND we had a lake shore to swim at. The kids were in heaven.

The kids played while Henry tried to find us a hotel. This was the first night we didn’t have reservations because this was the point in our trip where we weren’t sure what we’d choose to do each day. We had a rough plan, but there were a few options. Turns out Traverse City was also hosting the Michael Moore film festival that week so finding a room was a bit trickier than we thought it’d be. But daddy came through and found us a great place to stay not far from our beach.

In the evening we cleaned up a bit, then walked through downtown Traverse City stumbling upon a movie in the park where we ate vendor food for dinner, listened to some bands, and watched Pirates of the Caribbean on a huge blowup screen with Lake Michigan as the backdrop. Kindof couldn’t have planned it better.

As a side note: about half way through the movie Ryan asked me where the pillow was. We were sitting on a blanket the girls had brought for the car and using their two pillows. I was propped against a stone wall and was using a pillow to cushion my back. I told him to use my legs as a pillow. He laid down and promptly went to sleep. The girls managed to make it the whole way through but one little hobbit was very fussy on the walk back to the car because she was so tired. It was midnight so I can’t blame her! Overall though, I couldn’t have been more proud of how flexible our kids are on trips.