state parks project, part 4: pokagon

We are sucking other people into our parks enthusiasm now! Potawatomi Inn at Pokagon State Park in scenic Angola, Indiana, was running a half-price special in honor of the time change, so we booked a kids suite with beds for six people. Not wanting to waste a bed, I asked my aunt Laura if my cousin Jimmy could come along, which led to Laura deciding to just book a room and bring all five of her kids. Then my aunt Janis got in on the fun and booked a room for herself and her four kids, so it ended up being a Fort/Kruyer/Holiday weekend.

A word about the inn: Wow! It was seriously impressive. (That photo above is of the back side of the inn from one of the trails; I didn't even think to take one of the front!) Aside from the beauty of the building and its rolling lawns leading to a sweet beach on Lake James, this place had all kinds of amenities. The kids enjoyed a pool with huge windows overlooking the lawn/beach (the adults did NOT enjoy the pool so much because there were approximately a million kids in there at any given moment and the acoustics of the room were overwhelming, to say the least, but the area itself was beautiful); a game room with arcade games, air hockey, ping pong, and foosball; and a library with books, board games, and those table-size checker sets that you rarely see outside of the porch of a Cracker Barrel restaurant. Speaking of restaurants, there was also a very nice one of those, along with a smaller cafe offering pizza, sandwiches, and snacks.

We got to the park in the early afternoon and set off for a hike before check-in time. We ended up hiking a loop that included Lake Lonidaw, lots of wooded and marsh areas, and Hell's Point, the highest elevation in the park (1,123 feet). There were lots of photo ops, which the boys were into almost as much as they were into squabbling and poking things with sticks, and by the time we got back to the inn, Mike and I were ready for a nap, while the boys were raring to go once they realized the Holidays and Kruyers had arrived. The rest of the afternoon passed in a blur of taking the kids to the pool and figuring out dinner plans while Brady took his kayak out on the lake to do some fishing (crazy kid, that water was COLD!). We ended up ordering pizza, which the kids ate in Laura's room while watching cartoons and playing video games, and the adults ate in Janis's room while chatting and watching some sort of basketball contest involving IU.

At sunset, Cassidy, Kelsey, and Emma asked if I could take pictures of them by the lake, and Henry came along because he had some sort of shell dispute with Gracie and needed to find more shells. The girls were happy to help him search, and in return he served as the A so their YMCA would be complete.

I woke up early the next morning, and after Liam and Henry woke up too, we decided to head out to watch the sunrise. We were totally unprepared for how cold it was (shocking, I know), and I got more than a little windburned, but I think it was worth it.

After watching the kids eat cold pizza and Cocoa Puffs (yarf, the breakfast of champions), Laura and I decided to take Henry, Gracie, and Elly along for a guided hike and bird watch. We saw (and heard!) lots of red-winged blackbirds, a couple of hawks, wood ducks, cardinals, and robins. More on the birds if/when Mike decides to post since that's more his area than mine.

By the time we got back to the room, Mike had packed everything up and loaded the van, but Laura was planning to take the kids for one last swim, so we pulled a switcheroo: She took Henry, and we took Jimmy, while Janis took her kids and the older Kruyer girls on the hike we did on Saturday. We ate brunch in the inn (delicious!), then set off for one last hike through the marshier areas. It was amazing how much difference our kid swap made. Seriously, instances of "no" and "stop" were down at least 95 percent, and enjoyment level for the adults reached its zenith. So peaceful! And a great way to end our visit, because we got back to the inn just as Janis and Laura had finished loading their cars and were ready to head home. A perfect little getaway!

See also: SPP 1, SPP 2, SPP 3.