September 13-15, 2009
Holland State Park

School may have started but our adventures in camping are far from over. However, our planning changes slightly. Because we only have short weekends once school starts - we play every weekend by ear. We basically wait until Wednesday to watch the weather forecast and if it looks dry and decent we head out. Sometimes it's Friday before we actually decide where we are going - but it doesn't matter to us, we just want to be outdoors having fun as a family.

This weekend found us at Holland State Park's Macatawa Campground. This was our first time camping in Holland and therefore, we had lots to explore.

Friday evening we road our bikes over to the beach area to take in the sunset.

The kids loved - just laying around in the sand as the sun fell below the horizon.

They had 2 decent playgrounds there for the kids to enjoy.

We spent the morning on a wonderful hike. The trail started at the campground and went up to the top of Mount Pisgah where it wound through the woods for bit and then joined up with a huge boardwalk which provided us with an absolutely awesome view of the beach from a high vantage point. We then had to go down over 200 stairs to the road level. (Glad we went down them and not up them!) Soon after that - We made our first ever stop at Smitty's Pronto Pups for some Pronto Pups and Deep Fried Pickles. MmMm good!
We also took a walk down to Ottawa Beach General Store for some Ice Cream. Needless to say - we didn't have a very nutritious lunch that day, but it sure was good!

It may be September and school may be back in session - but the weather on Saturday evening was beautiful and the Lake Michigan water temperature was warmer than it had been the entire week before while we were at Pioneer. The kids had a great time splashing around in the wonderful waves and enjoying the warm water.

I was trying to take a group picture of Paul and the kids like I usually do - and a kind young woman offered to take my camera so I could get in on the picture. An actual family picture was nice to have for a change.

On our way to the park, we had passed a sign that said "Stu Visser Trails" so we took a drive down there before heading home on Sunday morning. It was a wonderful neighborhood nature area with a nice trail running through it. There was a pond and creek and made for an enjoyable morning seeing where the trails would lead.