June 18-21, 2009
Sleepy Hollow State Park
(near Lansing, MI)

As is our custom, we love trying new campgrounds. This weekend, we enjoyed some time at Sleepy Hollow State Park on beautiful Lake Ovid. We had a campsite right along the woods, and with the way they have their sites organized we couldn't really see our neighbors on either side because of trees and bushes. We loved the privacy. There were several loops of campsites, which lead to several walks through the campground picking out possible sites for future visits.

We were pleasantly surprised to find a very nice, fairly new playground for the kids to play on, and the beach was a wonderful place for them to play. The beach was far enough away that we chose to drive there, but is definately within walking distance as the kids get older.

Unfortunately, we received a lot of rain while we were there (it was the weekend that the Ionia Fair Grounds were flooded) but at least it all came at night. Therefore, the 16 miles of hiking and biking trails we had looked forward to trying out were also flooded out. Given the fact that biking and hiking were taken out of the picture we took the opportunity to make a small day trip into Lansing to visit the Potter Park Zoo. Believe it or not - the last time we went to the zoo Nicholas was 2 and Gabrielle was 6 months old. The kids loved seeing all the different animals. Allison loved the monkeys - as they have been her favorite animal for quite some time. One of the most memorable sections was the birdcage that we could walk right into. Parakeets and Parrots were everywhere - it was really neat.