End of Summer Trip to Lake Michigan

At the beginning of May, I graduated from Iowa State!  While I was a student, I got involved in a campus ministry called Cru.  It has really impacted my life and relationship with God!  Now, this coming year, I am going to be working with Cru at Iowa State, reaching out to students, building relationship with them, point them to Jesus Christ, and helping provide a Christ-centered community where they can grow in their walk with the Lord.

Since doing ministry will be my full time job, I raised support this summer to cover my salary for the year and ministry expenses.  Life has been nonstop since I graduated - driving to support raising appointments, support raising (it kept me busy, but I really enjoyed it actually!), still working my college part time job, and of course some other random things that popped up.  It has been a fun, but busy summer.

This whole year, I have just wanted to go somewhere.  This summer I just prayed that God would provide a way for me to get out (even though I been driving around a lot this summer, I've wanted to go somewhere on a little get-away).  Even going up north for a weekend and staying in a cabin or camping would have been good - I just wanted to get out and do something different.  I knew that if anything would happen, it would have to be God doing it because I didn't see any possible time - I'd be jumping right from support raising to meeting as a staff team to plan how we are going to reach the students on campus.

Well, a week ago, my Mom, sister, and I went a little trip to Lake Michigan.  It was TOTALLY an answer to a prayer.  I can't even believe how much so.  God is so good and wants to bless us.

On Sunday, my mom told me that when Sarah had a few days off from work, they were going to go somewhere - probably Lake Michigan.  I said that I wanted to go!  On Monday, my mom told me that Sarah had Wednesday to Saturday off from work, so they were going to go then.  Unfortunately, I was scheduled to work each of those days at my part-time job.  But, I just trusted God and if I could find people to cover each of my shifts, I'd go.  And, I found people to work each of my shifts (besides the Saturday night one, so we just got back in time for me to work).

Mom found a place for us to stay at on Monday, which seemed like God just providing a place.  We didn't do too much planning for the trip - we decided we'd just get there to see what it was like.  Mom had read a little bit about the area from blogs and a chef at my work ended up telling me a little about the area.  Sometimes it just seems to be easier to just go for it, rather than planning every little detail.

On Tuesday night, my mom and sister came down to my apartment to stay the night.  Then, we got up early Wednesday morning to head to Michigan.  Michigan is really just a straight shot drive from central Iowa.

We stopped at Lighthouse Place Premium Outlets in Michigan City, Indiana.  We walked around and looked, but didn't get anything.  Then we finished driving to Sawyer, Michigan.  It's in the southwest corner of Michigan, so it wasn't too far.  We got some ice cream at the market and then went to our cottage.

^^Peeping in an old building that was being redone - cute!^^

We stayed in this cottage/cabin at Tower Hill Camp.  It was perfect!  I got my cabin fulfillment in, and we were in walking distance of the beach (Sarah was really excited about the beach)!  Isn't the place cute?!?

Shortly, we went out to find the lake.  We knew we could walk there from the camp, but we weren't quite sure how to get there.  We found this path.  It lead to a little inlet of the lake.  We found a little off trail of the path that lead us to a road, which lead us to the lake.

The beach was actually in Warren Dunes State Park.  We would just walk right on in (driving in required payment).  The beach was so pretty!  We pretended it was the ocean.  We explored the beach for a little while and then went back into town for dinner.

We ate the Brewery.  It looked really good, but it was not as good as it looked.  We, or at least I was, were a little disappointed in it.  (Though the kettle chips and blue cheese dip appetizer, which I thought would be gross, was actually really good!  The pulled pork sandwich was disappointing.)

We went this Swedish bakery for breakfast on Thursday morning.  It was cute and super good!  They had a bakery side and a cafe side.  We didn't get anything from the cafe, but it looked really good.

Everything looked really good!  I got a Danish for breakfast and it was SO good!  Sometimes bakery disappoint me, but this one didn't.

We spent the day at the beach.  It was a beautiful day!

They had some food trucks by the beach/in the state park, so that is where we got lunch.  Mom and I split this quesadilla - it was okay.

^^Mom made a wreath out to roots!^^

In the park, there are these sand dunes (hence the name "Warren Dunes State Park").  You can hike up them, so we did that.  We did it in the afternoon... I would suggest hiking up them in the morning or evening.  The sand gets really hot and burned our feet.  Also, walking in the sand is kind of hard - going barefoot is almost easiest - but, it was too hot to walk up the dunes barefoot when we went.
I thought going back down the dunes was a ton of fun!  Kind of like moon walking, maybe!

After going up the dunes (which it really didn't spend too much time up there), we got ice cream from one of the food trucks!

We went back to our cottage.  Mom and I went into Sawyer to look in a couple shops.  We got back to our cottage and then it started raining.  So, we made some coffee!  We hung out in our cottage for a little bit and then made dinner when the rained stopped.  We had brought some stuff along for doing art - Sarah and I attempted doing some art and Mom read some.

We made hobo dinners and corn-on-the-cob for dinner.  I've had hobo dinners before and thought they were really good.  Mom never remembered them being good.  But, we made them.  Yeah, they didn't turn out super great.  But they were fun to make and the corn tasted great!  There must be a trick to making a flavorful hobo dinner?  At least ketchup helps!

After dinner, we walked back down to the lake to watch the sunset!  It was so pretty!

The shore of Lake Michigan is like the best-of-both worlds.  There is the woodsy, outdoorsy, cabiny feel on one side, and then the oceany, beachy feel on the other side.

Thursday night, we made a bonfire in our grill (we didn't have a fire pit).  We roasted s'mores and Sarah tired to make brown bears.

On Friday morning, we went for a little walk on a path through the woods of our campground.  Then we went to South Haven for the day.  We didn't like it as well as Sawyer - it was bit too touristy and the beach wasn't as good (we didn't really go to it, but we saw it).  We all agreed that if we were to come back, we probably go back to the Sawyer area (it's in Harbor Country) and just spend our time there.

^^Walking down the pier in South Haven.^^

We ate lunch at Black River Tavern.  I got the Perch tacos.  Perch is the fish that is caught around there.  We walked around a little and looked in some shops on their main street.  But, we were kind of ready to get back to Sawyer.

When we got back to Sawyer, we stopped at the Swedish bakery - I really wanted one of the cookies I saw.  We stopped at the market (grocery store) and the fresh produce market.  One of the things the chef from my work told me about this area, was that at this time of year there are blueberries everywhere.  You can go blueberry picking and pick up blueberries all over.  We definitely saw signs for blueberry picking, and thought about going, but just picked some up from a corner market.  I got some Michigan blueberries, peaches, and honey to bring home!

Sarah was anxious to get back to the beach, but I really wanted to get some work done.  Some support raising.  I know it seems weird to WANT to do work while on vacation, but I did.  I have really enjoyed it and was just about done, and wanted to check in to see where I was at.  We went back to our cottage quickly and then I took the van back into town (with my cookie!) to a coffee shop.  I worked for a little bit and then went to find Mom and Sarah at the beach.

This cookie was SO good!  I saw them at the bakery, then wanted one, got one, and then wasn't sure if it would be good.  Sometimes cookies from bakeries look really good, but just aren't that great.  But, this one did not disappoint!  I got a chocolate chunk sea salt one - I think it had chocolate chunks, white chocolate chips, and crushed up pretzels in it.

At the market we had gotten a frozen pizza to have for dinner.  We ate pizza and watched a movie.  Each night we tried to watch a movie.  The first two nights, we all crashed and fell asleep.  We decided to start to the movie earlier.  Sarah crashed right away, but Mom and I made it through the whole movie.

On Saturday, we got up early to head home.  Since I had to be home by a certain time, we wanted to get an early start.  We left our cottage so that we would be at the Swedish bakery right when they opened at 7am.  We were their first customers of the day!  It was an early morning.  We woke up in eastern time zone, one hour ahead of us, so really it was like leaving at 6:00 in the morning.

I got an elephant ear for breakfast.  I remember my piano teacher making these (and tons of other cookies) for piano recitals years ago.  Out of all the things I tired from the bakery, this was probably my least favorite.

We got back Saturday afternoon and I jumped right back into the swing of life.  I've had a little bit of support raising to finish up, a few last shifts to work at my part-time job, starting to meet as a staff team to plan the ministry we'll be doing.  And, now on Friday, I am leaving to Virginia to help a relative move over the weekend.  It was something that came up while we were in Michigan.  I am super excited to go out there!