Our Trip "Up North"

We had a week vacation and decided to spend it in our own lovely state of Michigan.  We rented two cabins in two different places - one on a lake and one on a river - and had a fantastic week only a few hours from home, but what felt like thousands of miles from civilization.  It was amazing.  We kayaked, hiked, swam, BBQed, and simply enjoyed nature and time with each other away from work, callings, and all the other distractions of life.

Our first cabin was on a lake.  We had our kayaks, the cabin owner's rowboat, and the slide out in the water which belonged to the neighbor, but which he said we could use.  We also had a section of beach where the kids and I spent half a day just leisurely making a sandcastle.  Oh, and let's not forget the hammock - wow - was that thing comfortable!  We all had a nap or two in that while we were there.

The back view of our cabin:

On the way to the second cabin, we went to Sleeping Bear Dunes and Traverse City and Torch Lake.  It was all very beautiful, but sorry to say I thought Sleeping Bear Dunes was overrated.  We must have missed the best parts because surely what we saw could not be what so many Michiganders rave about.  Just simply couldn't be.  But running up and down the dunes was fun for 45 minutes or so.

Then we went to our second cabin on a river.  Amazing.  Gurgling river day and night and not another person in sight the entire time we were there.  There we kayaked and tubed on the river.  One day just the kids and I kayaked down the river for 4 hours to a point where Kelly had gone fly fishing.  That was a fun adventure because we discovered that downstream from our cabin, the river mostly looks like this:

I told the kids to pretend we were Lewis and Clark and we were exploring where none had gone before and we had to use our wits and be brave.  It was awesome and a great bonding experience navigating that crazy section of river together for several hours without any way to contact Kelly or anyone else.

View of the dock and the back of our cabin:

Lunch in the cabin on our last day there.  First time I thought to take any pictures inside one of the cabins!

Benjamin caught a frog for the first time.  The highlight of that day for him.

It was a wonderful trip.  Hard to come home and leave such beauty and peace behind.  It's nice to know it's not far away.