Our first destination was St. Joseph, Michigan. This was also our first stop last year, and we all decided it was a must on our to-do list again this time. We ate lunch at Silver Beach Pizza, which I highly recommend to everyone! They have awesome pizza and a cool atmosphere. If you go, expect a long wait, but there is plenty to do within walking distance as you wait. The girls rode the carousel and we took a walk down to Silver Beach. There is also a pier with a lighthouse and a huge fountain for the kids to play in.
After lunch, we headed north to Ludington, Michigan. We rented a 4-bedroom house just about 10-15 minutes out of town along Hamlin Lake, and it was perfect! Ludington has lots to do and is a beautiful little town. Stearns Park had a nice, big beach along Lake Michigan, and there is a pier that leads out to a lighthouse. It is a great place to view beautiful sunsets! There are tons of neat little shops downtown, and one of our frequent stops was House of Flavors for ice cream. We didn't have a single flavor that we didn't love!!
Ludington State Park was just about a 10 minute drive from our house as well. One day, we all rented bicycles and rode on a trail out to the Big Sable Lighthouse. We climbed the 130 steps to the top of the lighthouse and enjoyed the awesome views! Another day, we hiked on the Island Trail and Lost Lake Trail. It was a beautiful, relaxing hike through the woods with views of several lakes and ponds. There is also a beautiful beach at the state park that the girls enjoyed visiting several times.
Just south of Ludington, in Mears, we rode the Mac Wood's Dune Ride. This was definitely one of the highlights of our trip! It is tons of fun and you get to see some amazing views! Last year, we also did the Saugatuck Dune Rides, and it is also totally worth it! I highly recommend both of these if you visit Michigan.
On our way home from the dune rides, we stopped at Little Sable Lighthouse. The lighthouse was closed so we weren't able to climb it this year, but we did climb it last summer. It is another very cool lighthouse with amazing views from the top!
We also visited The Jam Farm, which I had found on Pinterest. It is a cute little family-owned store with delicious jams, preserves, dips, and more. We loaded up with goodies and will definitely be back on our next trip!
We also made the drive up to the upper peninsula this year. We crossed the Mackinac Bridge and then took a ferry over to Mackinac Island. The island was very cool, but a little more crowded than I expected. We ate lunch and took a horse and carriage ride around the island. We did some shopping and bought some delicious fudge at one of the many fudge shops on the island.
We stayed overnight at a hotel in St. Ignace, and then woke up the next morning to make the drive back down to Ludington. We stopped along the way at a couple of different lighthouses and beaches. One of our favorite things to do in Michigan is collect rocks on the beach, so we spent a lot of our time doing just that! (We always collect rocks or shells on our vacations to put in our flower bed at home!) We ate lunch at Legs Inn, which has awesome Polish food and unbeatable views from the backyard! After lunch, we continued on our journey back to Ludington through the Tunnel of Trees. This was an amazing drive on a narrow, winding road with breathtaking views of Lake Michigan and gorgeous homes along the way. It was a long trip but totally worth it!
If you are looking for a relaxing, family-oriented vacation that isn't too far from home (if you're from Indiana), then we highly recommend the west coast of Michigan! I know there is so much more that we didn't even get to do, and we are looking forward to exploring more of the state in the future! If you have any questions about places we visited or things we did, we'd love to share. Also, if you have have any suggestions for our future trips, we'd love to hear them!
No comments:
Post a Comment