It's February. Which means it's high time I talked about our trip last....July. I am always (rarely) very timely on these travel posts. That's usually because they take some time to pull all the pictures, edit them, and then write out the many details of our trip. I don't really have that excuse this time though because this was a super laid back trip where we didn't do much of note. I just haven't gotten around to posting about it until now. It was lovely and I look back on this week fondly! I love a good "do nothing" trip!
Where:
We are BIG fans of the deluxe cabins at KOAs. We stayed in one in Maine, earlier last summer. As well as in Alabama in July 2021 and near Traverse City, Michigan, in June 2014. Then we also did two other weekend stays at one of these cabins after this one in 2022. We LOVE them and some day I will write a whole post about why. The short explanation is that they are just perfect for our family at this stage.
I looked at a few different KOAs for this trip but we ended up in Allendale, Michigan which is just a few hours from our house. It was also not too far from Lake Michigan and we were going one of the few weeks of the year that the lake could actually be tolerable to swim in. They had cabins with a loft which our boys LOVE and a layout we hadn't had yet (and I think ended up being the favorite we've ever had). There were enough activities at the campground to give us something to do on our lazier days but also not too much to do that we couldn't be lazy. Just the right balance. We stayed for 5 nights.
Not a whole lot. But, also, only had one day where we didn't leave camp at all which, in retrospect, we should have planned better.
The boys swam every day of this trip, either in Lake Michigan or at the campground pool. We took our bikes and did rides around the campground. Matt & I each ran twice (also around the campground). We did campfires and read (mostly me) and the boys watched really old Scooby Doo's on DVDs from the library. We ate popcorn and marshmallows and played Farkle on the picnic table.
This was the first campground where we tried "gem mining" which we had seen at other campgrounds, most notably Jellystone, but it always seemed rather pricey. However, this one seemed more affordable and since we weren't really paying to do much, we bought a bag for each of the boys. It's a bag of sand and gems or shells that you dump into a screened tray and dip into a little stream (made for this) and then your dig out your treasures. The boys LOVED this. LOVED IT. It was a solid hour of entertainment there and then we spent much more time back at our cabin going through their treasures. We ended up buying them each another and then sharing yet another. It was a perfect activity for our boys' ages.
We drove to Grand Haven one night specifically for the sunset over the lake. That was about 30 minutes away and then we were not prepared for how busy that little town would be in July. We got turned around and lucked out with street parking to watch the sunset for free. It was all gorgeous and we ate pie on the Grand Haven pier before walking out to the lighthouse and back. This was one of the highlights of the week for me! It was just gorgeous.
The day after we went to the sunset, we went back Grand Haven to spend the day at the beach. It was sunny and as perfect as weather as you could ask for in Michigan in the summer. This was in the few month time that we had an inflatable paddle board (which has since been recalled, returned, and refunded). Matt & I took turns taking it out to get selfies with the lighthouse we had walked out to the night before. And then we took a full family ride out too (it was a big paddle board). That was a delight. Otherwise we swam and played frisbee when the crowd thinned out a bit and Luke tried snorkling. It was a lovely beach day!
Another night we went into Holland to go out to eat (we ate at camp the rest of the time, other than a picnic we packed at the beach). We unintentionally drove past the B&B where Matt & I had stayed for our 10th anniversary 6 years earlier! We ended up waiting 45 minutes or something to eat outside but it was still a lovely evening for that!
That was pretty much it! It was a "do nothing" trip with family bonding, sufficient sleep, and just getting away from our normal routines for a bit! It was wonderful to try somewhere new with lodging we loved, not too far from home. 5 out of 5 stars, would definitely repeat this trip again, with just a little better planning on not driving 30 minutes away 3 of our 4 full days!
No comments:
Post a Comment