Take That Exit

I’m not blogging in real time – this is from our travels on/around August 31, 2015. Follow us on Instagram to find out where we are currently!

After Harrisville State Park, our next stop was just a short drive south along the eastern coast of Michigan to Tawas Point State Park. We just couldn’t get enough of Michigan’s state parks – once we paid the $30 for the annual pass the $29/night camping fee seemed like such a steal for the places we were staying. Beautiful views, wildlife, sandy beaches – Tawas Point State Park didn’t disappoint either!

Within the boundaries of Tawas Point State Park there is an old lighthouse, the Tawas Point Lighthouse – which we toured for a nominal fee. The main building has a great museum on the history of the lighthouse and the area.

Hadley looking out the stairwell of the Tawas Point Lighthouse – while in Michigan we discovered our kids love touring lighthouses – and there were plenty in the state to explore! 

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I’m not blogging in real time – this is from our travels on/around August 30, 2015. Follow us on Instagram to find out where we are currently!

After leaving Wilderness State park we headed around the outer coast of Michigan. We loved the Michigan coast so much that we decided we should just follow it all the way around the eastern side, instead of cutting back through the center of the state. About 140 miles from Wilderness State park is Harrisville State park and it was our next stop.

We were in spot 101 at Harrisville State park and it was nearly as dreamy as our spot at Wilderness State park. Right on the water it had gorgeous views of Lake Huron.

It was one of the HARDEST spots I’ve had to back the trailer into. The spot was tight, there was an area of trees in the middle of the road limited where I could back-in and the spot was a slight hill. When we first pulled up to it, I wasn’t sure how we were going to get the trailer into our spot. . .

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If you are looking for a campground near Mackinaw City (and Mackinac Island) in Michigan – you have to check out Wilderness State Park. This place was GORGEOUS and probably ranks as one of my all-time favorite camp spots so far on the trip. For about $30 a night, we had breathtaking views of Lake Michigan, beaches for the kids to play in and incredible sunsets!

We lucked out and were in spot 88 at Wilderness State Park and it was absolutely perfect. We were able to pull-thru the spot and park with our windows facing beautiful views of Lake Michigan. Someone staying at the park had this beautiful surfboard with a sail and we loved watching it on the water.

Look at the view out our front door! The water was so blue. The sun shining. It was delightful.

It is so hard to believe that this is a lake and not an ocean. That was one of our biggest revelations – the Great Lakes are so impressive. I feel like “great” isn’t a good enough adjective for them. 🙂 We felt like we were staring at the ocean.

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I’m not blogging in real time (about 7 weeks delayed), follow us on Instagram to find out where we are currently!

After leaving Interlochen State Park and the Traverse City area we headed north so we could visit Mackinac Island. This place was one of the TOP recommended Michigan spots from friends, family and our readers, so we knew we couldn’t miss it!

Mackinac Island is a small island located in Lake Huron off the northern tip of the “mitten” of Michigan. It has a fascinating history which you can read about here. Today it serves as a resort and tourist destination.

The island can only be reached by boat, ferry, aircraft (and snow machines in the winter over an ice road). You might find it interesting that motorized vehicles are prohibited on the island – that’s right, no cars! You’ll find only bicycles and horse drawn carriages for transportation.

There are a few different ferry companies that will take you from Mackinaw City to Mackinac Island – we recommend taking Star Line Ferry – it’s the ferry we took and we loved it. You can expect to spent between $12 – $23 for a round-trip ferry ticket to the island (after visiting the island I can say it’s totally worth it).

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I’m about a month delayed in blog posts, here are some of our adventures from around August 25, 2015. For real time updates – follow us on Instagram!

After getting our fresh water tank fixed in Grand Rapids we felt like we had a new sense of freedom! We no longer needed a water hook-up which meant we could venture back into the state parks. We immediately headed north to Interlochen State Park. We picked this park because it was close to the popular Traverse City and the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore – both were on our list to checkout!

We got to Interlochen State Park on a Saturday and it was packed with locals. But the crowds didn’t bother us – we had been used to those in the private RV parks we’d been staying. I was just happy to be surrounded by mature trees that smelled like NATURE. Ahhh, the stress just melted away.

As soon as we got settled in our spot we had a park employee come by and invite us to a kid’s program down at the camp office. A park volunteer read a book about a lightning bug and then everyone got to make a glow-in-the-dark lightning bug to take home. The parks we’ve visited have had some amazing kid’s programs – all available for free.

While at Interlochen State Park it felt like it was our first chance to slow down and relax. We had been moving so quickly to get to Grand Rapids for the repair appointment that we were excited to spend a solid 5 days in one spot for the first time in awhile. The first couple days we did a lot of homeschool, hiking, grocery shopping and laundry.

After resting up those first couple days we headed to nearby Sleeping Bear Dunes National Shoreline. What an beautiful place this is. Huge hills (bluffs) covered with the softest white sand. It was spectacular to see.

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