We needed to get out of the house and stop unpacking boxes! Looking at the nice weather for the weekend, I knew that a lighthouse tour would be just the ticket. I decided to stick with the tour that John and I took last Fall, but we just started at the beginning and waited to see how far we got during the day. It was perfect!
Everyone was almost ready by our 8:30 starting time. I decided at the last minute that we would pack a lunch (instead of risking more points of contamination) so that took some extra time, and we got on the road at 9:00.
One of the ongoing jokes in the family at the moment is John's "free solo!" When we had the leather couches in the apartment, John didn't want to wait to lower the footrest so he would grab the adjoining half-wall and pull himself up. It's a nod to Alex Honnold in the National Geographic movie, "Free Solo" who climbed El Capitan in Yosemite. Now, with several on us at any one time on a couch, it's a bit tricky to get up without lowering the footrests, so we yell "free solo!" when we get up. So Hannah getting into the backseat of Greenie, in between the two car seats, when it was parked a little too close to the S2000 was a good "free solo!" laugh ;-)
There's definitely something about being in the car with people with whom I am comfortable. Baby, Brother, Hannah and Rebecca and me? A perfect quintet for conversation, laughing, sleeping and just having a good time over the 2.5 hour drive to the west coast of Michigan.
We arrived in Saint Joseph and we needed a bathroom. I hadn't really thought this through, but with COVID-19 still rampant, there weren't a lot of options for using the restroom. We decided to find a Walmart and stop there. We went in gloved and masked and got in and out pretty easily, but I knew this was going to be a bit of a struggle throughout the day with no restaurants open and no facilities open at the beaches. We ended up on the wrong side of the bay initially. But after hopping back in the car for five more minutes, we found the pier and hopped out. Baby was so excited about all of the sand! I don't know if they truek that stuff in like they do in Grand Cayman, but knowing the dunes are a couple hours north, I'm guessing not. I'll tell you thoughp--Cayman would pay good money for that top quality sand. It's white and soft and beautiful. Baby did this funny thing where she would bend over at the waste and tell us to watch her digging, and she would go at it with both hands at the same time like her hands were on fire. We had to remind her that we would soon return to the sand to get her to walk out to the lighthouse.
I heard someone say along the way that they had never seen the lake so still and indeed, there wasn't a single wave. Because of this, we could walk all the way out to the inner and outer lighthouses, but it was quickly obvious that there has been lots of water on the pier over the past few months--the pier was completely covered in long, dry algae. It's usually green, but being dried out, it was a reddish-brown. At first, we worried it would be slippery, but it was so dry that there was no fear.
I see the attraction to lighthouses, and why they are constantly restored and preserved and visited. There is something so beautiful about their colors versus the colors of the sky and the water. I thought that the pictures we took back in the fall were just flukes, but we got just as pretty of pictures on our spring day. We found someone who had caught three Coho salmon (just babies, as she said), and Brother was brave enough to touch them when we told him to.
By this time, it was almost noon, and all of us were starving. We had decided to have lunch on the adjacent beach, and it turned out perfect. We dragged out our camp chairs, and our cooler, and our "tote" (said like Glo with the long, exaggerated "o"). The beach was basically empty so we didn't have to walk far for a perfect spot. We had turkey sandwiches (and peanut butter and jelly) and chips and grapes and pop and Oreos. As Rebecca said, Baby was definitely living her best life there ;-) Hannah headed out to the sand bar--as she said, the water wasn't bad at all once you got used to it. We didn't really want to pack up, but we also didn't want to drive 2.5 hours to only see one lighthouse, so on we went.
The only struggle of the day was when we had to stop for gas, or to fill the oil when the angry red "low oil" light came on in Greenie, or when I had to go to the bathroom. It was such a pain, having to suit up and be rather fearful to protect ourselves. In fact, we found the cheapest gas we've seen ($1.24/gallon), but one gas station was actually out of gas (and I can't blame them at that price) so we drove across the street. That station had gas but they said their bathroom was out of order. So we drove back to the other gas station and asked to use theirs. The masked guy inside told us that we could use it but there was no toilet paper. I asked him if we could just bring in our own, and he told us he wouldn't allow paper towels or napkins, because people kept stopping up his toilet. Thankfully, we had brought a box of tissues, so we went in armed with our square box of Kleenex. Baby didn't want to go, but when she finally relented (and released), I heard it was quite the marathon pee!
Next up was South Haven. There were more tourists there, but we just kept our distance and walked out and walked back.
Our third stop was in Grand Haven. I get it why this place had the most people. The town is larger, a bit more up-scale, and their beach is wonderful. Again though, we walked out avoiding people and walked back. It was beautiful though--at the end of the pier, past the lighthouse, it almost looked like an infinity pond from the water on the pier to the water off the edge of the pier. It was really beautiful.
At this point, Baby wanted to get back in the water and Tante Hannah was happy to oblige. We probably spent the next hour hanging out on the beach. Brother was a little scared at first, but by the end, he had soaked through his shirt and was throwing a giant rock over and over into the water while standing in the water (hence the soaked shirt). I was happy to lay on the beach in my winter coat, soaking up the rays. Turns out, both Brother and I got a little sun-kissed ;-)
By this point, we were hungry again and ready to make the trek back home, so we decided to stop by Culver's. Unbelievably, Culver's had everything figured out. Lanes for traffic, a system for parking cars, multiple kids delivering the food. And there were signs everywhere, describing how they disinfected everything between orders, even the plastic number tags they give each driver! The deliciousness of that food coupled with the hunger we felt (and the sun headaches) reminded me of getting McDonald's in Poland after a night and a day of traveling to Poland and then shopping for pottery. It tasted like heaven on earth, and believe it or not, I got the COD. I mean, I'm no Catholic, but fish and chips on a Friday? YES PLEASE!
The ride back wasn't as smooth as it should have been--I had to pee twice, and we had to fill the oil in Greenie--but it was such a perfect day.
Everyone was almost ready by our 8:30 starting time. I decided at the last minute that we would pack a lunch (instead of risking more points of contamination) so that took some extra time, and we got on the road at 9:00.
One of the ongoing jokes in the family at the moment is John's "free solo!" When we had the leather couches in the apartment, John didn't want to wait to lower the footrest so he would grab the adjoining half-wall and pull himself up. It's a nod to Alex Honnold in the National Geographic movie, "Free Solo" who climbed El Capitan in Yosemite. Now, with several on us at any one time on a couch, it's a bit tricky to get up without lowering the footrests, so we yell "free solo!" when we get up. So Hannah getting into the backseat of Greenie, in between the two car seats, when it was parked a little too close to the S2000 was a good "free solo!" laugh ;-)
There's definitely something about being in the car with people with whom I am comfortable. Baby, Brother, Hannah and Rebecca and me? A perfect quintet for conversation, laughing, sleeping and just having a good time over the 2.5 hour drive to the west coast of Michigan.
We arrived in Saint Joseph and we needed a bathroom. I hadn't really thought this through, but with COVID-19 still rampant, there weren't a lot of options for using the restroom. We decided to find a Walmart and stop there. We went in gloved and masked and got in and out pretty easily, but I knew this was going to be a bit of a struggle throughout the day with no restaurants open and no facilities open at the beaches. We ended up on the wrong side of the bay initially. But after hopping back in the car for five more minutes, we found the pier and hopped out. Baby was so excited about all of the sand! I don't know if they truek that stuff in like they do in Grand Cayman, but knowing the dunes are a couple hours north, I'm guessing not. I'll tell you thoughp--Cayman would pay good money for that top quality sand. It's white and soft and beautiful. Baby did this funny thing where she would bend over at the waste and tell us to watch her digging, and she would go at it with both hands at the same time like her hands were on fire. We had to remind her that we would soon return to the sand to get her to walk out to the lighthouse.
I heard someone say along the way that they had never seen the lake so still and indeed, there wasn't a single wave. Because of this, we could walk all the way out to the inner and outer lighthouses, but it was quickly obvious that there has been lots of water on the pier over the past few months--the pier was completely covered in long, dry algae. It's usually green, but being dried out, it was a reddish-brown. At first, we worried it would be slippery, but it was so dry that there was no fear.
I see the attraction to lighthouses, and why they are constantly restored and preserved and visited. There is something so beautiful about their colors versus the colors of the sky and the water. I thought that the pictures we took back in the fall were just flukes, but we got just as pretty of pictures on our spring day. We found someone who had caught three Coho salmon (just babies, as she said), and Brother was brave enough to touch them when we told him to.
By this time, it was almost noon, and all of us were starving. We had decided to have lunch on the adjacent beach, and it turned out perfect. We dragged out our camp chairs, and our cooler, and our "tote" (said like Glo with the long, exaggerated "o"). The beach was basically empty so we didn't have to walk far for a perfect spot. We had turkey sandwiches (and peanut butter and jelly) and chips and grapes and pop and Oreos. As Rebecca said, Baby was definitely living her best life there ;-) Hannah headed out to the sand bar--as she said, the water wasn't bad at all once you got used to it. We didn't really want to pack up, but we also didn't want to drive 2.5 hours to only see one lighthouse, so on we went.
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| Hannah and I always take the exact same selfie, so it's kind of become a tradition ;-) |
The only struggle of the day was when we had to stop for gas, or to fill the oil when the angry red "low oil" light came on in Greenie, or when I had to go to the bathroom. It was such a pain, having to suit up and be rather fearful to protect ourselves. In fact, we found the cheapest gas we've seen ($1.24/gallon), but one gas station was actually out of gas (and I can't blame them at that price) so we drove across the street. That station had gas but they said their bathroom was out of order. So we drove back to the other gas station and asked to use theirs. The masked guy inside told us that we could use it but there was no toilet paper. I asked him if we could just bring in our own, and he told us he wouldn't allow paper towels or napkins, because people kept stopping up his toilet. Thankfully, we had brought a box of tissues, so we went in armed with our square box of Kleenex. Baby didn't want to go, but when she finally relented (and released), I heard it was quite the marathon pee!
Next up was South Haven. There were more tourists there, but we just kept our distance and walked out and walked back.
Our third stop was in Grand Haven. I get it why this place had the most people. The town is larger, a bit more up-scale, and their beach is wonderful. Again though, we walked out avoiding people and walked back. It was beautiful though--at the end of the pier, past the lighthouse, it almost looked like an infinity pond from the water on the pier to the water off the edge of the pier. It was really beautiful.
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| Isn't this beautiful? This was the sand underneath the water at the shore. We could step on it, mess-up the pattern, and it would reappear within minutes. |
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| I took a burst of Brother throwing in his rock, and I thought this photo turned out quite beautifully. |
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| The sun was SO BRIGHT! |
By this point, we were hungry again and ready to make the trek back home, so we decided to stop by Culver's. Unbelievably, Culver's had everything figured out. Lanes for traffic, a system for parking cars, multiple kids delivering the food. And there were signs everywhere, describing how they disinfected everything between orders, even the plastic number tags they give each driver! The deliciousness of that food coupled with the hunger we felt (and the sun headaches) reminded me of getting McDonald's in Poland after a night and a day of traveling to Poland and then shopping for pottery. It tasted like heaven on earth, and believe it or not, I got the COD. I mean, I'm no Catholic, but fish and chips on a Friday? YES PLEASE!
The ride back wasn't as smooth as it should have been--I had to pee twice, and we had to fill the oil in Greenie--but it was such a perfect day.
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