Ludington Camping Trip

We took our annual week-long camping trip to Ludington a bit earlier this year from July 10-17. The weather was quite a bit cooler than usual but we didn't get much rain so it still worked out well. We hit all the usual spots and, of course, went to House of Flavors for ice cream more than people should. Here are a few shots from the trip in no particular order...

Fishing on the Au Sable River at the Hamlin Lake Dam (Allison, Troy, Breanna, Grandma Anderson)
Floating down the river from the dam to the beach at Lake Michigan

Nathan working on his skateboarding moves at the skate park downtown

Allison and Zoe on the boardwalk by the river...

Big Sable Point Lighthouse (4-mile round trip bike ride from our campsite)...

Allison and Nathan on the old tree stump by the lighthouse... the 127 is how old the tree was when it was cut down.

Family photo at the top of the lighthouse (90-some feet up). Great view... but it was pretty windy that day! Heidi, Allison, Nathan, Troy

Allison climbing a tree during one of our hikes while Zoe took a dip in the lake...

Camp Geneva

Nathan has been at Camp Geneva from 8/7-8/9. I have to admit I was a little jealous when we dropped him off that I didn't get to stay too. It brought back a lot of memories of staying at different summer camps while growing up. Nathan was a bit nervous but he was also very excited. He and cousin Noah Weiss were bunk mates and had a great time at their first overnight summer camp. Uncle John and Cousin Ryan (their cabin counselors) were a lot of fun and kept the boys busy non-stop. Nathan's favorite things were free time (playing box-hockey) and all-camp games like capture the flag. He also met a whole cabin full of new friends. On the last day (pick-up day), Allison got to go along to pick up Nathan and enjoy activities throughout the camp such as swimming and archery. Something tells me we'll be sending two kids to this in a couple years... Here are some snapshots from our camera and from a disposable Nathan took with him.

Nathan and Noah being dropped off at their cabin on the first day (nervous but excited)...
Cousin Ryan, Uncle John, Noah, and Nathan on the last day...
Soaking up the sun at the pool...
Allison at the archery range...

Ludington Vacation - Part III

So, when we weren't fishing, swimming at the state park beach, floating down the river, or riding bikes.... we were at the new skate park, playing on a secluded dune on Hamlin Lake, or searching for treasures! We went geocaching for a "treasure" that we've found the past 5 years or so out on a point in the woods bordering Hamlin Lake. To the right is a shot of the kids looking through the treasure after finding it. It's standard practice to take one thing out and put one thing in. Then sign the guestbook. We looked back in the guestbook and found the last few times we signed it. Then Zoe and the kids played for a little while on the "cliff" down to the lake.
Since Papa Weiss left the boat for the week, we took the kids tubing on Hamlin Lake and then dropped anchor at one of the dunes on the north end of the lake. It's great. We anchor the boat in about 2-3 feet of water and have an entire dune and beach all to ourselves. We had races from the top down into the water, the kids built a "beach hut fort", Zoe chased her retrieval toy, and we all soaked up some sun.

Below is a video Allison and Nathan made while on the dune. They built a "fort" and wanted to do a video like MTV Cribs (Dad is working the camera...). This was the second take. Ally froze on the first one.

The new skate park, called "The Plaza" was the highlight for Nathan. He skated there with his wave board four or five different times when we went to town. Our last day in town, we went early in the morning and had the whole place to ourselves. Ally and I even took took a crack at riding the big bowl (think of an empty swimming pool...). It was actually pretty fun. Below are some pictures from the skate park.

Ludington Vacation - Part II

Our next adventure while in Ludington was our annual bike trip up to the Big Sable Point Lighthouse. It was storming earlier in the day but cleared up nicely so we could make the trip. We've made this trip every year and now that Allison has a mountain bike with gears the ride was MUCH more pleasant for everyone. The ride is a little more than 2 miles each way from our campground. Part of it is bike path but the majority is an old two-track gravel road that goes from the campgrounds straight north along the Lake Michigan beach to the point. It was a special night so they had old fashioned games, tours up in the tower, educational information about the lighthouse, and s'mores around the firepit. During the educational portion, the host used Nathan and Allison as helpers while explaining how the lighthouse lense focused all the light into a narrow band to make it visible for a greater distance. Take a look at what that does to someone's face while they're in the thing!

Afterwards, the kids played around by the beach before eating s'mores...

The next day was spent mainly doing laundry, relaxing at the beach for kayaking and swimming, visiting the skate park (more later), and, of course, going to House of Flavors for ice cream in a waffle cone.

Nathan also got hooked on skimboarding while at the beach. We ended up staying until sunset and were the only ones on the beach...very relaxing. Here's a video of one of his wipeouts... but he ended up getting the hang of it and mastered the 180.

Kodak moment...

Sunset skimming...

Ludington Vacation - Part I

Sorry for the delay in posting, but we just returned from our annual week-long camping trip to Ludington State Park. If you like camping and have never been there, you MUST go. The state park is huge with three campgrounds in the park sandwiched between Hamlin Lake and Lake Michigan. We always stay at the Beechwood campground which is next to a boardwalk on Lost Lake which connects to Hamlin Lake. This was our 9th year going and it's still as fun as the first time. We spent the first day on the boat fishing with Papa Weiss. He continued fishing on day two and ended up with enough for us to have a fish fry and fill a one gallon zip lock as well. We caught bass, bluegill, rock bass, and walleye. On day two, we floated down the river from Hamlin Lake Dam to Lake Michigan to play at the beach and ride the Lake Michigan waves in the kayak. Of course, we made the trip to town to get ice cream in waffle cones at House of Flavors (Heidi's favorite) and Nathan noticed they built a new skate park at Stearns Park in downtown Ludington... but more on that in a future post.

Here are a few pics from our first couple days...

Papa Weiss with some large bluegills. Don't be fooled. Papa has VERY large hands...
Nathan and Allison riding the waves on Lake Michigan...
Nathan and Heidi doing the same...
Ally "The Fish" McDaid swiming in the waves...