just beachy

 

We have a house guest! Diesel, the Holidays' dog, is staying with us while they are on vacation. Luckily, Diesel and Charlie are BFFs -- last time Charlie stayed with the Holidays, when it was time to say goodbye, Diesel pressed his nose to the window of the van, and Charlie did likewise, then Diesel followed us halfway down the road. I think they have been pining away for each other for weeks now.

To celebrate their happy reunion, I decided we should go check out the dog beach at Potato Creek State Park. And since I was already taking two dogs and three kids, I decided to go all in and fill the rest of the seats, so our cousins Jimmy, Gracie, and Taylor came along too. It was super hot today, and about halfway there, we ran into rain so strong that we had to pull off the road and wait it out -- which was FUN with the kids all asking why we were stopped, how long we would be stopped, what would happen if another car hit us, etc., all while the dogs whined from the way back. But eventually the rain let up and we got back on the road (thankfully without having been rear-ended).

In a stroke of good timing, we got to the beach just as they were letting people back in the water ... but then a park ranger came and told me that the dog beach was closed because of algae in the water, and that it had been closed basically for a couple years now, and that it would probably continue to be closed for the foreseeable future, but we could wade along the shore as long as we washed the dogs off afterward. (Confidential to Potato Creek SP: Putting that information on your website and/or Facebook page might be helpful! Just saying.) All righty then. So in we waded with the dogs, who seemed to be maybe sort of halfway into it but then flopped their wet selves down in the sand and watched over the kids, who were playing at the people beach (basically the other side of a roped-off area).

I stayed with the dogs for a decent chunk of time, watching the kids play in the water, and occasionally one of the kids would come and walk the dogs along the beach for a while, then disappear off to find water spiders (?) and bury them in a frenzy of excited squeals. And when everyone had their fill of the beach, we went up to the locker room building, where there was a hose we could use to wash the dogs -- and of course get all the kids and towels and everything else wet in the process! Once we had everyone loaded back in the van, we stopped and got ice cream cones for the ride home -- the cherry on top of a classic summer afternoon.

wild life

Happy Father's Day!

Mike loved the hibiscus tree, as well as the selection of hot tea I got him. He has been saying for a while that he is bored with drinking plain old Lipton in the mornings, so I did a little research with my best friend Amazon, and came up with a few new options for him to try.

I think everyone got a little of what they wanted this Father's Day. We had breakfast at my parents' house, after which a group that most assuredly did NOT include me went out to clip the chickens' wings and work on building the chicken coop. Since Avalon went out with them, Max had the perfect opportunity to get in a little one-on-one time with Jack. Have I mentioned that Max now wants to be a teacher when he grows up? I'm sure you are shocked. Shocked!

After breakfast, we headed back home, and Mike spent the whole afternoon working in the garden, which he loves. Meanwhile, I rode my bike over to my grandpa's house and spent the afternoon hanging out with Gramps and various aunts, uncles, and cousins. I asked the boys if any of them wanted to come with me, but they were all too busy playing video games to make eye contact, much less get on a bike, so I went by myself -- a real treat!

return to the dunes

Mike had the dreaded mandatory overtime today (BOO!) so I decided to take the boys back to Indiana Dunes State Park to take advantage of the parts we missed before. We left early in the morning because I don't do well with crowds or extreme heat, and when we got there, there were only about 10 other people we could see up and down the beach -- just my speed.

The water was COLD, but they frolicked happily for a while, and I set up our new Sunbrella (a hybrid tent/umbrella thing that's perfect for people like me who need a little shade) with the beach blanket under it. I felt very accomplished and prepared! Well, until a family of four came and set up right in front of us, and they had an umbrella and blanket PLUS a cooler full of juice boxes and healthy snacks, and everyone had sun hats and life jackets, and they had a bucket of beach toys. Seriously, it was like camping -- they had ALL the things. They probably could have just moved to the beach. I told myself that they were probably planning to stay all day long, until the sun set over Lake Michigan, but the truth is they had little kids, so they were probably only there for an hour or two, just like we were.

Eventually, the boys decided they needed a break from the cold water, so they hiked up to the top of a nearby dune. I opted to stay at the bottom and watch, so Liam took my phone with him and captured the view from the top.

After that, they alternated between running into the water and running up the dunes. Despite my lack of foresight and beach toys, they managed to bury Liam in the sand, which was fun until Max walked past and casually kicked sand into Liam's eyes. Then Liam and Henry devised a game in which they rolled around in the sand, then ran into the water to rinse off. Unfortunately for Henry, when it was time to go, he didn't think things through, and he rolled around in the sand one last time AFTER I told them no more lake. They had public showers to rinse off, but the water pressure was insufficient, so Henry got well acquainted with the discomfort of having sand in his parts. Live and learn, kid.

On the way home, we stopped at a nursery and got Mike's Father's Day present: a hibiscus tree! He's been talking about wanting a tree for the one remaining corner of the house that didn't have one, but he couldn't decide what he wanted, so we made an executive decision. It wasn't that we expected to buy a hibiscus -- the boys made a wish list before we went in, but none of the trees they had in mind were available, so we went with the one we liked the best. It's supposed to flower from July through October, so we can't wait to see how it does in its new home!

state parks project, part 11: chain o' lakes

And now for something a little different: boating! It was WAY too hot and humid today to do any hiking, but luckily for us, Chain O' Lakes State Park was the next one on our agenda, and a day on the water was just the thing. I should tell you at the outset that neither one of us has done any sort of boating in a very long time (like, since we were kids), so we weren't sure how this particular adventure would go. Some of us (ahem) were more skeptical than others.

When we got there, I asked the rangers at the rental area what would be the best type of craft for us, and they said rowboats, so I rented two of them, then waited for Mike and the boys (who were parking the car) while holding all the things.

So once we got settled into the boats and set off, we realized something: Rowing a boat is hard! Not just physically hard, though we were all tired after a couple of hours on the water, but hard in terms of steering/tacking/whatever you call it ... you know, maintaining a steady direction to get yourself where you want to go. It got a lot easier with some practice, but you may be surprised to learn that I am better at it than Mike is. The hardest part was not facing the direction I was going in, which meant depending on Liam to navigate for me (if you have ever asked an 11-year-old to navigate for you like this, I feel your pain).

Once we crossed Sand Lake, we found a hell of a reward: a great blue heron near the edge of the lake, EATING A TURTLE (turtle not shown, but it totally happened). I may have mentioned that my hands were both full of oars? Well, Liam gets the photo credits here. I am very fond of the picture where the bird is taking off.

And shortly after we entered the first channel, we found these turtles sunning themselves. Of course, to get close enough to take a picture of them, I had to go into the heavily seaweeded area. You can imagine how that turned out. I left my good camera with the zoom lens at home (curses!) for fear of getting it wet, and I ended up being very sad because this trip had the best wildlife sightings since the sunrise eagle watch way back at the beginning of our quest. Oh well.

Dear readers, if you know me at all, you won't be surprised to learn that once we got to some smaller channels, Mike and I had a difference of opinion re: whether a rowboat would actually work as a viable means of transportation. I thought yes, SURE!, but Mike thought no way. So we diverged. Max and Liam came with me, while Mike and Henry stuck with the bigger bodies of water. And I'll admit, it was a tight fit. More than a few times, my navigators would wait until the very last minute to call out, "Left! I said go LEFT, Mom!!!" just as we ran into yet another thicket of plants/seaweed/tree stumps/other obstacles. It was a little frustrating, I'll admit, and the rowboat was less ideal than a canoe or kayak would have been. In fact, yeah, ours was the only rowboat out there. But we made it a long way, and would have gone all the way to the next lake, except that the boys outvoted me, so we headed back in.

But we didn't finish without one more moment of maternal triumph. On the way back in, Liam and Max decided they wanted to try their hands at rowing because they were sure they could do a better job than I could. Liam, in particular, had been getting less and less subtle about making that point as the day wore on. So we did some maneuvering, and each of them got to take a turn at the oars. And as probably everyone in the world except for Liam and Max could have predicted, that didn't last very long, and I was left to row us back in by myself. Mike and Henry were waiting for us at the dock, and Mike and I enjoyed a moment of parental solidarity over the whole thing.

Verdict: SUCCESS! I really liked being out on the water, though I think next time I would like to try using a canoe or even a kayak, both of which allow you to see where you're going along the way. I know that a lot of other parks, including our beloved Potato Creek, offer rentals, but I would also really like to come back to Chain o' Lakes sometime in the early fall and try it again. Stay tuned!

See also: SPP1, SPP2, SPP3, SPP4, SPP5, SPP6, SPP7, SPP8, SPP9, SPP10.

state parks project, part 10: indiana dunes

We are really trying to stay on track with this resolution, and so far, so good! Earlier in the week, we were trying to decide which park was next on our list, and I happened to see a Facebook post about a mega beaver dam at Indiana Dunes State Park. The park had posted pictures of all kinds of birds and other creatures from its trail cam, and noted that the dam is 600 feet long. I guess normally park officials don't let dams get that big, but they did this time, and they regularly release water to prevent flooding in the park. Seeing the pictures of the great blue heron, coyote, beaver, raccoon, etc. doing their thing was enough to solidify our decision to head to Chesterton and see what we could find.

I should note here that I've lived in the Midwest my whole life, yet somehow I've never been to Indiana Dunes, either the state park or the national lakeshore, other than to catch the South Shore at the Dune Park station going to and from Chicago. That seems like a weird little oversight. Mike said he had been once, but wasn't too impressed (later he said that he thought it was the specific area he had been to, near some factories/mills). I guess I just figured that (despite all beach vacations to the contrary) hot, sandy dunes just weren't my thing. I can hear you all now: SURE they're not!

Anyway, once we got to the gate, we made sure to ask where we could find the beaver dam, and were told to try Trail 2, a 3-mile, easy trail along the marshy areas. Plan in place, we set off along the trail. I was surprised at how shady and cool and foresty it was along the trail, and we had a lovely time hiking along, not seeing many other people along the way. Jimmy got a mad case of very loud hiccups, but other than that we just listened to the birds, who were quite active. Oh, and Henry was feeling a little philosophical, so he started a conversation with me thusly: "Mom, what if we're really all just dolls inside a giant dollhouse?"

Toward the end of the trail, we kind of ran into some trouble. Apparently the giant beaver dam did cause flooding, and that flooding damaged the boardwalk. We made it past one section of broken boards, then consulted a pair of hikers who were coming the other way, who said it was tricky but passable, so we decided to go for it.

And this is the place where I should note a key dynamic in my relationship with Mike. When faced with a choice that involves carrying on in the face of tricky/dangerous/less than optimal conditions or retreating the way we came, 99.5 percent of the time, I will say, "Let's DO THIS, Forts!" Mike, thankfully, is more cautious/sensible than I am, so I count on him to veto the plan should my enthusiasm prove to be more powerful than my common sense. This time, his doubts were written all over his face, but he eventually decided to give it a go. And we made it! Of course, along the way, the dog decided that he would rather flop down in the muddy marsh, then wade through it rather than navigate the boardwalk, so he was a huge stinky mess, but I guess that's a pretty small price to pay.

In the end, we hiked about six miles but never found the actual dam. I suspect maybe we could have seen it from the bird-watching platform, but sadly that was also damaged from the flooding, and Mike laid down a big NO on even going near it. Oh well.

After our hike, we kind of realized that we had sorely neglected the main draw of this park: the dunes/beach! OOPS. I also neglected to pack swimming clothes and sandals, and the beach was WAY too crowded for me, but I took the boys down to the water anyway, and was really impressed that we were able to see the Chicago skyline across the lake. They climbed one of the small dunes right before we decided to head back home. The boys were all wiped out, Charlie was wiped out, and we were all starving. Safe to say though that we'll be back again soon for some swimming, this time without the dog since they're not allowed on the swimming beach.

See also: SPP1, SPP2, SPP3, SPP4, SPP5, SPP6, SPP7, SPP8, SPP9.