Pure Michigan

I was riding in the van one day with Mommy and Daddy and heard a commercial on the radio. It was a guy that was talking about all the wonderful things that a person can do and see in our great state of Michigan. At the end of the commercial, he concluded with the words "Pure Michigan". I was fortunate enough to experience "Pure Michigan" for a whole week recently.

We went camping at Straits State Park in St. Ignace Michigan. All you Michigan folk probably know where St. Ignace is. If you don't, it is located on the north side of the Mackinac or Mackinaw Bridge. The spelling depends on if you are from the Upper Peninsula (ac) or the Lower Peninsula (aw).

This is where I took up residence from Monday July 9 to Sunday July 15. This is our tent. It is quite a large tent. It is big enough for Mommy, Daddy, and me to sleep in and still have enough room for our clothes, food and toys.


Our campsite at the campground was as close the water as you could get. This was the view from outside our tent. Ok, we had to go on the other side of a small line of trees in order to see this majestic view. It was perfect. Uncle Tracey called it "breathtaking" when they arrived. This is the Mackinaw Bridge. It is 5 miles long and will be 50 years old this year.


After we set up our tent and got everything organized. Mommy and Daddy took me swimming. The water was COLD. Uncle Tracey said the average temperature of Lake Huron was in the 60's. Mommy defied the cold water and took me in anyway. I LOVED IT!!! At first I wasn't too sure about it. I hadn't had much experience with water, except for taking baths. I loved splashing around in it. When Mommy and Daddy noticed that my lips and cheeks were a slight shade of blue, they decided that it was time to get warmed up, so they dried me off and wrapped me in a warm towel.

The first full day of our vacation, we went to the beach. There wasn't a very good beach at the campground, so we loaded everyone into the van and took off down the road for about 20 minutes and found a beach that ran for what seemed like miles along Lake Michigan. Here I am in my beach garb. The yellow thing under my jacket is my swimming suit. It was a little chilly for me so Mommy dressed me in my hoody jacket and my capris.

This is my buddy Anthony. He is 4 years old. We had fun playing in the sand and trying to catch bugs with his butterfly net. I think that he actually caught something in it. He was also a master at scaring the seagulls away at the campground. Whenever I was feeling sad, Anthony and Christian would make a funny face at me and make me smile.

Here is Uncle Tracey and Aunt Michelle, well at least the back of them. After we ate lunch and Daddy and Uncle Tracey did a little swimming in the cold waters of Lake Michigan, Uncle Tracey and Aunt Michelle "hunkered down" on their beach chairs and listened to a little music. As you can see in the back ground, it was cloudy, but it was warm. We also took the canopy that Grandma got Mommy and Daddy for Christmas one year. It was a wonderful thing to have. We even put the removable side up and stayed out of the wind and played in the sand for most of the day.

On Wednesday, we headed to Tahquamenon Falls. It was about a 1.5 hour nap for me. We left in the middle of the morning and arrived there just after lunch. We had to stop in Paradise and everyone dipped their toes into Lake Superior, except for me, because I was sleeping.

After we ate lunch, we hiked to the Upper Falls. It was quite a long distance to get back to the falls, so Mommy and Daddy front packed me for a while.

After we saw the Upper Falls and did a little hiking, we went to the Lower Falls. This time, I got to ride in style in the backpack. Do you know how easy it is to hike when you are riding around in a backpack? It was no trouble for me at all. I stayed right behind Mommy the whole time. I thought I did a good job of keeping up with her.

Part of the day on Thursday, we explored St. Ignace. It was sort of a relaxing day for us. Again the weather was sort of gloomy, but it didn't rain until we were on our way back to the campground. We explored some of the shops and then went to the park to eat lunch. Daddy took this picture of me and my Mommy with the light house in the background.

There was a playground at the park that we ate lunch at. Christan and Anthony were playing on slides and crawling up the bars. I spent my time walking around and taking in the sights, although every once in a while I would peek over at them to see how much fun they were having.

Friday was our trip into Mackinac City. We spent most of the day wandering around the shops and eating Ice Cream. I had a raspberry sorbet. It was yummy. We darted in and out of the fudge shops, popcorn shops, and of course the had to hit the kite store. It was Mommy's favorite store. For lunch we went to the park to eat. It was right on the water and we had a wonderful view of the bridge and the water.


This is my other buddy Christian. He spent a lot of time riding his bike around the campground with the friends that he made. They were doing all the things that boys do. Most every morning, Christian would accompany Daddy and Uncle Tracey on a coffee run to the local gas station.

Saturday morning, we woke up and it was quite cold and rainy. We decided to have a hot breakfast, so we went out for breakfast and then headed north to Sault Saint Marie. It didn't make much sense to me to head north when it was so cold, but nobody asked my opinion so we went anyway. When we arrived at "The Soo", it felt warm. There was hardly a breeze and the rain had stopped to just a small drizzle, one of those drizzles where you really don't get wet. We arrived about 20 minutes before two boats were scheduled to go thru the locks. One boat was going upbound to Lake Superior, while the second boat was going down bound to the St. Mary's River. It was really fun to see the boats get raised and lowered. They are really really big when you are that close to them. But why to they have to blow their horns where they exit the lock? Do they think that we can't see them? It was really loud and it scared me.

Sunday morning came and the sun was shining and there was hardly a cloud in the sky. It was definitely one of the better days that we had there. So instead of wasting the sunshine driving the 5 hours back to Southeast Michigan, we decided to pack up our camping stuff and head to the beach for a final swim. The Lake Michigan water was still cold, but that didn't stop me from wanting to play in it. I loved splashing around in the waves.

So to recap our busy week of vacation, I got to see three of the 5 Great Lakes and dip my toes in 2 of them, the Mackinac/Mackinaw Bridge, the Soo Locks, and I got to play in the sand on the beach for the first time, all in 7 days. I also got to experience the camping lifestyle--drinking cool bottles in the morning, sleeping in a tent and enjoying a nice warm campfire at night.

One Year Old

Today, I turned 1 year old. My birthday was officially at 10:09 pm. Wow, what a year it has been. I have taken tremendous steps in my development. When I was first born, I slept, I ate, and I, you know, all the time. I really couldn't move much. I would just lay in my Mommy and Daddy's arms just waiting for the day that I could smile at them. Then that day came a few weeks later and I had to set another goal, and then another goal, and then another goal.

Right around six months old, I was able to sit up on my own. It wasn't hard at all when I finally figured out how to do it. Next came crawling. Now this one took a little bit of work. I would get my self up on my hands and knees and sort of rock back and forth for a while. It was hard to get all my muscles working in the proper order to actually crawl. Then one day, I took off across the living room floor. Finally some independence. I was able to crawl to where I wanted to go and the toys that I wanted to play with.

My next big challenge was walking, but first I had to be able to stand up on my own. I sort of surprised Mommy and Daddy with this one. They weren't paying attention one day and I was standing in the middle of the living room. It was soon after that, that I took my first step. It was in the bedroom as you recall. I took about three steps and landed in Mommy's arm. What a safe place to be. Since then, I haven't stopped. I have logged many miles walking thru the house.

All this has taken me to today. July 17, 2007, and my first birthday. The day started out like all the other days. First it was getting up and eating some breakfast. Then Mommy took me shopping. We had to buy me a new pair of shoes, because we can't find my other shoes since the camping trip, which I will post about later this week. So we called Daddy to have lunch with him. Luckily he wasn't busy. After lunch. I entertained Daddy's co-workers for a while, and then it was off to another store. Once we got home I took a nap. Before long Daddy was home from work and it was off to Mr. Steve and Mrs. Cindy's house for Gideon's eighth grade graduation party. Mrs. Cindy babysits me while Mommy is working two days a week. It is my home away from home. Once we got back to the house, it was time to open presents. I got lots of toys. Mommy, Daddy, and I played with the toys the rest of the night, until I had to go to bed. But stay tuned because Saturday is the big party. My first birthday party. I will have lots of pictures. Mommy even said that I get my own cake to tear into at the party.