We were about 20 miles from our destination when we got a call from Erica, that we had missed all the fun. A storm had blown through (which we were driving in), and they had to set up some other later arrival tents in a downpour. In addition, tents already set up were being blown all over the camp ground. We were happy to hear that they moved our tent from the swamp that had accumulated around it to higher ground.
We finally arrived at the camp ground and everyone was tucked away in their tents trying for shelter from the rain. We ran in, set up our air mattress and got ready for bed, when we suddenly realized that our rain fly was leaking. Not terribly, just a fairly constant dripping throughout the tent. And of course, most of the dripping was on my face while I am trying to sleep. I crawled under the sleeping bag for protection from the drips and somehow even though it was a humid, sticky mess, I fell asleep.
At 2:30 am I woke up to find Teddy just staring at the ceiling (he started to get dripped on too), the sleeping bag soaked, and the pillow soaked with the storm still screaming outside. It was kind of like Chinese water torture. We both then decided we were done with camping for the night and left to find a potential hotel for the night. Teddy remembered seeing a hotel when we got off the highway just a few miles from our campground. So, we went there, and of course, they were full. Teddy explained the situation, and the hotel clerk said, "Well, we do have our overrun room." She took Teddy to see it and he was sold. I think I would have slept in a broom closet at that point.
Their overrun room was a VERY large conference room with table, chairs, two couches, tv, and two double beds. The one wall wasn't a real wall, but one of those dividers that can split a large room into two. On the other side of that wall was the breakfast area. We didn't care, we had a bathroom, a bed, and a roof that didn't drip on us. We woke up the next morning to the beep of the waffle maker through the dividing wall. :)
Here Teddy is modeling the dance floor that was part of the room.
The next morning we headed back to the camp site to meet up with everyone and get ready for the dunes. The sky still looked a little ominous, but we were hopeful that the rain and bad weather was behind us, and we'd be able to enjoy the beach and dune riding. So, we headed out and set up camp at the beach.
This is the entrance to the park. Just over that hill are some huge dune hills and a beach
Heading towards the beach
Some campers got to the beach first and were already relaxing
Emily was having fun playing in the sand
After we got completely set up at the beach we had a quick sand volleyball match. It was Teddy, Kris, Toby, Jill, and Heather vs. Erica, Mark, Casey, Joe, and Me. It was a good game, my team unfortunately lost, but I think we won in spirit! We all relaxed for a bit after that.
Kirstyn, Mark & Shelby relaxing before a dune run
Pretty soon, the group wanted to go out for their first run on the dunes.
Mark, Heather and Erica took their Jeeps out for the first run of the day
While they were gone, Teddy, Becky and I just relaxed beach side chatting and reading. By the time the group got back it was lunch time and the sun was really coming out. So, we grabbed some grub and then enjoyed the sun. There was some swimming, frisbee throwing, football throwing, floating, and talking going on. A group also buried Casey. Doesn't he look cozy.
Emily had so much fun running and playing, that she was ready for a quick nap.
This is when we returned from the run - I popped out the top of the Jeep waving at Teddy
It was a fun ride!
When we got back, we broke down camp to head back to the camp ground for some dinner and campfire time. But of course before we did that, we needed to take a group photo of all the dune runners that day.
Back at the campground we got a fire going while people showered all the sand off. Some people were still drying out things from the storms the night before.
We were ready to make some dinner. Emily was excited to be hanging out by the fire.
Ok, maybe she was a little tired.
After everyone ate, we decided to head into town for some ice cream and go karts. Kris was ready to get this thing going.
So we piled in cars and headed into town.
Kris was really excited to take Emily out on the go karts. She wasn't so sure...but she had some fun.
Emily's getting strapped in
Kris is getting lined up to start the race
Look how fast they were going!
Here they are!
I think Emily had a fun time, but I think we all enjoyed watching her fly around the track even more. Here's a short video of her ride.
We all had a great time in town, but were ready to head back to the campsite fore some more campfire time.
We were about an hour into our drive when we hit Holland Michigan. There was a pretty large area off the highway with 4 or 5 hotels, so we thought this would be a good place to stop. Every hotel had a No Vacancy sign on its front door...Uh oh! So, we headed down to Saugatauk hoping to get a room there. And, no such luck. It was the same situation - No Vacancy.
At that point I was getting pretty sleepy. Teddy insisted that he was fine and would stop again if he was getting too tired. We had about 2 hours and 30 minutes left in our drive. I must have fallen asleep because next thing I knew, I woke up and we were in Michigan City, Indiana about an hour away from home. I couldn't believe we were going to make that full drive that late at night. We pulled into home around 3:00am and just collapsed into bed.
Wow, were we tired! We woke up around 11am on Sunday, ran over to my parents to pick up Fozzie and then spent the rest of the day running errands (laundry, grocery shopping, mowing the lawn, etc...)
It was a busy weekend, but jam packed with fun! Thanks to Kris and Erica for planning everything on the camping trip. You guys always make it a blast for everyone.
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