Sunday, April 28, 2013

A Good Afternoon.............

It was a beautiful day on Saturday, so good to be out in the fresh air at last. We ... that is, Gerry, me, Laura, Reina and Tristen got in the car and off we went. We headed out towards Empire and the Sleeping Bear Dunes. The kids were so excited to be going for a walk. We started out on a walk in the woods at Windy Moraine. Here we go......off into the woods.
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Windy Moraine is a trail that's about a mile and a half, something like that. All up hill for half of it, then down hill for the rest. You can hear the wind howling through the tops of the trees its wonderful. I think Tristen covered 3 times the amount as we did. He ran and ran. Laura and I felt the winters inactivity in our legs. The kids walked right through the snow, of course they did.
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See my garden journal blog for more on the woodlands. After we left the woods, tired out we were. We went to look at the water down at Glen Haven. It was a small lumbering town in the late 1800s, now its taken over by the park. There is a blacksmith there who demonstrates his craft during the summer. The other buildings are kept up and restored one way or other.
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The park service is restoring and has enhanced the parking area, built in ramps and walks to the beach. Its great, but I think I preferred it as it was before. We would take the dogs and let them run, now its not allowed. Things change. Still we are lucky that we can go when no one is around, those dogs are gone now so its not an issue for us. I think we felt that it was ours and now we are apparently the most beautiful place in America, and the tourists come in droves. Not yet though. For now its ours. The snow fences are still up, and snow is still on the beach, but further down a couple is sunbathing. That's Michigan for ya.

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From Glen Haven we went down to Empire. We let the kids play at a small park before heading for the beach. There is a bigger playground there so I got some time on my own to walk on the beach and take these pictures.
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Look at that sand, big pile of the stuff haha.......well I got plenty in my shoes that's for sure.
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This is Empire Bluffs, could not do that trail that day. Legs would certainly not take two hikes in one day and that one is all uphill.
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This is South Bar Lake.

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Deer like the beaches and lakes, no salt. Michigan Unsalted haha
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The kids had a grand time at the playground. Tristen makes friends easy and didn't want to leave. They had fun.

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We promised that we would stop at another park. We wanted to go to eat at the Hayloft and it was rather early so off we went

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I dont know how they had the energy to still be running

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Thirsty work.
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Reina had a cough, not sure if it was a cold or allergies but it didn't stop her having a great day.

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Tristen did not want the day to end, he was devastated when Reina had to go home. They can't imagine that they will have another great day like that, so they didn't want it to end. Next week maybe.

1 comment:

Magic Love Crow said...

What a great day!!! Truly loved all the pictures ;o)