I’m a bit behind in blogging about our adventures– this is from our travels around September 2-4, 2015. Follow us on Instagram to find out where we are currently!

Okay, so I know I have been blogging a lot about Michigan – there was just so much for us to see and we enjoyed the state parks so much. This should be my last post about our time in Michigan . . .

After leaving Bay City Recreation Area we headed south to Sterling State Park for our last few days in Michigan. We scored a primo spot at Sterling State Park (site 24) – when I checked in at the ranger station I was told it’s one of the most popular spots in the park. Once we got settled I could see why. . . right by Lake Erie it has great access to the sandy beach and just a short walk to the playground.

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I’m not blogging in real time – this is from our travels on/around September 1, 2015. Follow us on Instagram to find out where we are currently!

After leaving Tawas Point State Park we continued to head south along the eastern coast of Michigan. I picked our next stop, Bay City Recreation Area – for a couple reasons – it was on our way south AND they had a FREE kid’s fishing program the evening we would be there. Perfect!

We stayed only one night at Bay City Recreation Area, but we had a nice big camping spot, for just around $23/night. When we are just staying a place one night we LOVE it when we don’t have to unhitch our trailer from the truck. It saves us time and hassle. Thankfully this spot was long enough that we could stay hitched up!

We got settled in our campsite early so we could participate in a FREE kid’s fishing event. My son LOVES fishing and I knew when I saw it on the park calendar that we couldn’t miss it! They provide the poles, the bait and the instruction – how convenient and fun!

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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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I’m about a month delayed in blog posts, here are some of our adventures from around August 20, 2015. For real time updates – follow us on Instagram!

After our short stop in South Bend, Indiana to tour the Notre Dame stadium we made it up to Grand Rapids, Michigan for our Airstream water tank repair appointment at Woodland Travel Center on August 20.  After exactly ONE month of a broken water tank (and one faulty repair) the repair appointment was finally here and we couldn’t wait!

The staff at Woodland Travel Center are amazing! They were very accommodating – taking our trailer early in the day in hopes that we’d have the whole thing repaired by the end of business day. When you’re dropping your home off for repairs a one-day repair is helpful so you have your bed back by the time the business day is over, no?!  While they worked on fixing our home we headed into downtown Grand Rapids for a day of exploring!

We stopped at our first ever Tim Horton’s and I got a steaming hot cup of coffee to go – a luxury these days! Then we headed to the Grand Rapids Public Museum. Thanks to our ASTC reciprocal museum membership (we purchased a membership to Museum of the Rockies in Montana) we were able to get into this museum FREE (we have saved so much money with this membership!).

Honesty I didn’t have great expectations for this museum – we picked it because it was free, nearby and activity that would keep us busy while our trailer was being worked on. Boy was I surprised – it was fantastic. If you’re going to be in the area I would definitely recommend checking it out – it’s worth it!

Here are some of my favorite highlight from the Grand Rapids Public Museum:

Life size games in the main corridor of the museum.

Lots of historical displays for the Grand Rapids area. This one cracks me up. I’m sure Liam is just looking at the cool ceiling, but this photo couldn’t be staged any better.

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