A long weekend with nothing to do. Those don't come around very often. We sat there at home on Saturday morning, quite bored, and after what seemed like forever, we headed out to get a slushie and go for a walk. As we sipped our drinks, we decided that we needed to get out and enjoy the weekend, so we drove home, threw a bag together, loaded the tent and the sleeping bags and headed east to Lake Michigan.
A few hours later we ended up at Saugatuck Dunes and walked through the forest until we got to the dunes and the beach. We didn't think it through to well, and ended up in the water. Emre had a dirty diaper, so we just took it off and had him run around desnudo. It was a lot of fun to see him throwing handful after handful of sand into the water. We stayed for an hour or so before we headed back to the car to try and find a campsite.
We got the last spot in the Holland state park campground, and arrived as it was getting dark. All we knew about the site was that it was asphalt, so we didn't expect much, but as we arrived it was slightly funny and slightly embarrassing to see that every single other space in what was essentially a car park was taken by RVs and fifth wheels. Our spot was obviously completely surrounded by these huge vehicles, most of them with some kind of makeshift porch with an above ground fire pit or some kind of flag pole with special lighting. And there we were with our yellow two man tent! As we started setting up, the lady from the RV next to us said "oh we started out just like you guys!" which was kind of sweet but also kind of assuming, as if getting the RV was the pinnacle that we would work towards throughout our days on this Earth. Seems like a lot of fun, and I have great friends who love traveling in RVs, I just don't think it's for me!
Anyways, we slept so well in the tent, we had the rain cover door open so that we had a nice breeze coming in all night. We could hear the waves on the lake just a little ways away, which was great. It seriously was a great night's sleep.
The next day, we spent a lot of time on the beach, Emre throwing same in the water of course. At one point, a big deal fish washed up on the shore close to us, and Emre was really sad that the fish died. It is sweet to see him get sensitive at things like that. After chilling at the beach for a few hours, and having lunch, we headed back to Ann Arbor.
The next day continued on a similar vein - we didn't have a plan, or much to do, so we went to walk at a park. As we walked over a bridge, we saw people kayaking and thought that it looked fun, so we ended up renting a canoe and floating three or four miles down the river. It was a lot of fun. Emre loves throwing stuff in water so we collected a bag of rocks before we set off and had him throw them into the river as we went. The weather was great and the water was pretty warm. Definitely the right choice.
The last day of the four day weekend was the 4th. We didn't do anything special but had a great time. We started the day with an 8 mile run, from one side of Ann Arbor to the other, all along the river. After a good nap, we had a BBQ with friends in the park. All in all, we had a great few days as a family. The weather was awesome, and even though we had zero plans we ended up having a really fun time! I wonder where we will be this time next year. I'll be interning somewhere - who knows!?