2024 Michigan Family Vacation Day 5: Sleeping Bear Dunes

 Today we packed up the trailer and headed down the other side of MI toward Holland. 

Of course we started off with coffee and pastries. This place had some neat fans.

Then, Ben found some wood alongside the road. Our running joke when we bring a u-haul is "throw it in the trailer" and this time it worked! Ben was able to get a great deal on some wood that way. He was stoked.

Before long we were at Sleeping Bear Dunes. It was chilly and very windy. Little Red wasn't having it so Ben carried her most of the time. 

The overlook was insanely windy. It might win the prize for windiest place we've been. It was hard to catch my breath.

Beautiful Lake Michigan

The scenic drive was not very scenic. It really was mostly woods. I love woods, don't get me wrong, but I was thinking we'd see more of the shoreline. Oh well. There was a great area where we could leave our trailer. After taking the scenic loop, we grabbed the trailer and then headed to the Dune Climb.

Pictures do not do the dunes justice. They are STEEP and they just keep going. After hiking up a huge dune, it levels off for a bit. Then there's another dune. Again, it finally levels off. And then there's a dip and a dune and a dip and a dune. I would have LOVED to keep going but everyone else was done and back at the car and it started to drizzle. The sand was deep and soft. It was an excellent workout.

Everyone was hungry so we grabbed Mexican in Manistee, MI. 

There was a lovely downtown area and riverwalk. It was chilly and overcast and not much was open, but we walked around for a bit. 

A short drive away found us at the Manistee lighthouse. We couldn't get out to it, but it made for some nice pictures. It was a cute area.

Further down in Whitehall, we stopped for coffee and pastries again at Colby's Coffee Roasters. 

gluten free!

We ended our day at our hotel in Sagatuak. It was the cutest little Mid-century modern roadside motel. Very charming!

The grounds were really nice, too. They had a pool, gazebos, yard games, playhouse, and a swing and lot's of large, leafy trees to provide shade.