Pokagon State Park - Sept 2009

Campground: Site 391
Dates: August 18-20, 2009 total $51 (plus $7 entrance fee)
Weather: Fall weather, highs in the 70's, lows in the 40's

We decided to take another camping trip at Pokagon, even though every time we go something bad seems to happen. This time was different - our spell was broken. We got the campsite on time, didn't have any issues getting there or setting up, and had beautiful weather all weekend!


Note the big rock by the campsite - it was a great hit with the kids. And when they weren't climbing and jumping off of the rock, they were riding bikes around the little cul-de-sac we had were on. Very nice!


It was also nice that the kids are getting big enough to ride around the great trails they have at the park. Zack is getting so big he can make it up hills by standing up on his bike and pumping hard on the pedals.





The leaves haven't started turning colors yet, but the weather was a little chilly and you can tell Fall is right around the corner.

The kids were racing up and down the toboggan run. We made a vow that we will come back this winter and go for a ride.

We took a walk down to the springs and had a drink of the fresh cool water. It really was as good as bottled water!

Sydney only found one caterpillar the whole trip.

On Sunday there was an seaplane "fly-in". The lake behind the Inn was the perfect landing spot for these planes and about 25 of them arrived.

It was pretty cool to see them land in the water, cruise over and then pull onto land.

East Harbor State Park

Campground: Site C154
Dates: July 24 - 26, 2009 total $62
Weather: Nice, but chilly (for July!), highs low 80's, lows in the 60's

This was our first trip to East Harbor. The park was nice, but unless you were camping on a cul-de-sac, it was very crowded, without much space between the sites. Our site was very private, we liked it alot. This weekend was the Christmas in July weekend, so people decorated their sites with lights and other displays which was fun to see.

Zack got to use his new camping chair. Not surprising, we had to buy one for Sydney too as she thought Zack's chair was now bigger than hers (which it really wasn't).





A big surprise was a "meow" we heard from the bushes. It was a cat! A very friendly, and probably hungry, cat came out of the woods and hung out with us all night.





It rained a lot on Saturday morning, and the people next to us packed up their stuff and went home because they were in tents. We just laughed at them was we watched DVD's all morning in the comfort of our nice dry camper. haha





We went to see Santa and Mrs Claus, but Zack was less than thrilled to talk to them.





One of the nature items to see at East Harbor are the glacial grooves. I remember seeing these as a kid when we camped here. Sydney had some other thoughts on what the glacial grooves would be and went to go pout (and probably cry!) and she told us they weren't cool. Here she is pouting!!





The beach was very soft and sandy. In fact, the majority of it had a sandbar! That was nice for the kids to go play on, while I enjoyed laying on the beach :)









We made a camping speciality, "fire pies". We were very careful this time not to burn them, like we often do. The kids actually ate several of them, this will be added to our camping menu!





On the way home we stopped at the Marblehead lighthouse.




This place was cool because we could see Cedar Point. So close, but so far away. *sigh*

Maumee Bay State Park

Campground: Site 142
Dates: July 2 - 5, 2009 total $99

Weather: Nice, but chilly (for July!), highs low 80's, lows in the 60's

For the 4th of July we took an extended weekend camping trip to Maumee Bay. We camped in our "regular" site. The weekend was full of activities. We camped right next to Grandma & Grandpa Bachli (much to the kids delight, they had brought cookies AND suckers along!). We took several walks by the nature center and checked out all of the critters.

Here are some of the animals we saw on our walk. The baby deer and racoons were soooo cute!

We walked up the "big hill". It was pretty darn big, and it offered a nice view of the campground and lake. For July, it was surprisingly chilly - felt like it was late September. I can't remember the last time we wore jackets and long pants for the 4th.

Alan also enjoyed watching the kites flying. Hey, is he actually napping??

Alan made us a delicious breakfast outside one morning. On another morning we had cereal - and the kids informed me that they didn't want to use their bowls anymore, because they were "baby" bowls! what?? waaaaa I guess they are growing up. :)

One of the best, most anticipated (at least in my opinion!) is the ice cream social that the park puts on. Where else can you get an enormous ice cream cone for $1? Yummy!!!

Here's the whole gang.

The park also had a bike decorating craft, and then a bike parade. Zack shows off his patriotic spirit on his decked out bike.

Sydney tells Daddy how it should be done! ;)

That night there was a concern down by the lake. The kids had fun rolling down the hill, again and again.

As it got a little later, we decided to bust out our "fireworks". We had some party poppers, which ended up being harder than we thought to fire off. But somehow Zack got his to go...

Sydney needed some help with hers.

Next came the sparklers.

And no burned hands!!

For a treat we cooked some Jiffy Pop out on the camp stove.

By the end of the night, after treats and watching fireworks, the kids were exhausted. In fact Sydney fell asleep on Daddy's lap.

By Sunday it was finally warm enough to go down to the beach.

A shrewd marketer has given all of the kids in the campground a ticket for a free ride on the slide. It was so much fun, who can go down just once? So of course we bought more tickets for the kids. They had such a great time on it.

On the day we left the campground we found this caterpillar. It will eventually be a monarch butterfly. We took him home and it him in Sydney's butterfly house. Within a day it turned into a chrysalis and we are now patiently waiting for the butterfly to emerge!

Pokagon State Park

Campground: Site 328

Dates: June 19-21, 2009 total $51 (plus $7 entrance fee)
Weather: Nice and warm, highs in the 80's, lows in the 60's

Like always, a little black cloud tends to follow us to Pokagon. I'm just not sure why, but this trip started out with my comment "uh oh, I forgot my jacket". Well that would have been good enough, but sure enough a bigger bump was coming our way - our camper tire blew out on the turnpike!! That would not have even have been a big deal - we had a spare tire - but unfortunately Alan didn't have the right tool to get it off the camper! oh man. So we ended up going to Angola's Walmart to buy some tools, out to dinner, and then 3 hours later we made it back to the camper (which we left on the turnpike) and were on our way to the campground.

Look, there's our camper on the turnpike!!

Setting up the camper was breeze since we bought those Lynx leveler blocks, but not long after we started up our campfire it started to rain so we headed for bed. It rained really hard that night, but it was nice to hear as we snoozed. Luckily our campsite was on a little hill and it was not wet the next morning.

Saturday we spent down at the beach, which got pretty crowded. The kids had a blast playing in the sand and building a big trench for the water to pour through. That night we had a big campfire (and oh, Zack jumped on Alan's lap and Alan's chair broke!! waaa). On Sunday we went for a bike ride and Zack got a little out of control on a big hill and almost ran head first into a post. That was the scariest thing I've ever watched - Zack speeding towards an obstacle with no apparent way to stop! However after his initial sobbing, he was over it, and the camping trip went on. We went over to the horse barn and Sydney got to ride on the horse twice because Zack changed his mind about riding. A trip to the nature center finished our day and we packed up.

On the way home Alan was cautious about the the spare tire we were using and he thought we should stop and rest and let the tire cool down. We just happened to find this really cool ice cream parlor for a pit stop. It was a perfect ending to a fun camping trip!