After spending four days in Chicago, we headed up to Saugatuck, Michigan. Oh. My. Word. Let me tell you, those Pure Michigan ads on the radio are no joke. Michigan is glorious!! We fell madly in love. (I warned you... a million photos!)
It was hard to pick a Michigan destination because there are so many great little beach towns there. We wanted to pick one that was less than a few hours from Chicago, so we settled on Saugatuck. Saugatuck is this cute little, artsy town. Its beach, Oval Beach, is rated among the 25 best shorelines in the WORLD! It's tucked away after a drive through a wooded area and the beach is surrounded by dunes. The water is really clear, but soooo cold.
When we first got there, we checked into our condo and then headed to the beach to watch the sunset. The kids played and played and played. It was a Thursday evening and we almost had the whole beach to ourselves.
After watching the sunset, we headed to Holland, Michigan for the closest Walmart to stock up on breakfast and lunch stuff for the next couple days and we grabbed some dinner. We came back super late, the kids took a bath and they were absolutely whipped. At that point, they had done the aquarium in Chicago, rode for two and a half hours to Saugatuck, played on the beach, and endured a Walmart trip way after their bedtime. Poor kids. They zoned out on the couch for a little bit before begging us to get their bed ready. Ha!
The next morning, we wanted to go on a dune ride tour. It was tough getting them out of bed!
It was a chilly ride!! Here are the kids in those same dang hoodies and me in my jean jacket (again!) because that's ALL we brought for the cooler temps.
At the top of one of the dunes, they let everyone get out and explore. The kids loved running down the sand dunes.
We LOVE LOVE LOVED the dune ride!!
Look at this adorable little beach shop we passed on the way back to our condo.
I told Mark I wanted to move to Saugatuck and work there. :)
After that, it was time to hit the beach. Oh, how we loved Beach Day! I think we were there for about eight hours. For real.
It was not even 70 degrees that day and there were probably only about six other groups of people there. Every now and then, more people would come, but it was mostly just for walks on the beach, so we literally felt like we had our own private beach. So much space for the kids to run, dig, do cartwheels (Kate), and make sandcastles. It was SOOOO relaxing! Mark even took a nap.
The next day, we took pictures of the kids on the beach. We didn't get there as early as we had hoped, so we battled the sun. They were squinty eyed in most pictures.
Afterwards, we drove a little ways north and explored a couple other towns, Holland and Grand Haven.
We loved Grand Haven!
Kids standing by the pretty flowers and then oops, they realized there were thorns! :)
Jack and his wax mustache and Angry Birds sucker from the cute candy store.
We went back to Saugatuck to walk around downtown, get ice cream, and ride the old fashioned chain pulled ferry.
Of course, we had to visit the cutest little toy store ever.
Jack bought a harmonica. He was in love. He played it walking down the street. He played it while we waited for the ferry. He played it on the ferry. He played it sitting on a bench watching Kate play on the playground. Aaannnddd, he played it on the long ride home. Until we put the harmonica away and said "no more harmonica for awhile".
The cute little ferry ride...
After the ferry ride, it was time to load up and head home. :( I hate the end of vacations. I wanted to stay an extra day, but Mark needed a day to recoup at home before going back to work. Heck, I could have stayed an extra week. I loved that little town.
Hands down, Saugatuck was my favorite town out of the three (granted, we just did quick little "downtown" visits in Holland and Grand Haven). When you throw in Oval Beach, though, there's no contest. I'm sure towns in the Upper Peninsula are amazing, but the fact that I can get to this little slice of Heaven in seven hours is pretty amazing. We WILL BE BACK!!
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