Today, Liz and decided we’d split off to do our own thing. Given the area, we were wanting to go wander some antique malls. She picked one that seemed to have good reviews, and we drove over to nearby Saugatuck.
We didn’t have much planned, in terms of group activities… and were really playing things by ear. Stacey found out about South Haven Light, and it was quite close by… so we headed out there together.
With all the house work we’ve got planned between now and the end of the year… I wasn’t sure we could fit in any vacations. But I’m glad Liz and my sister pushed through on working something out, and we ended up getting a family weekend away this weekend.
I realized I took way fewer pictures than normal this weekend, which I guess is a good sign that I was enjoying hanging out more than I was documenting. We had a fun late-night excursion to Oink’s Ice Cream and Yogurt on Saturday night, which I’ll try to get photos of next time we’re there. Given how often we’ve hit up Michigan this year… I see it fast being our favorite family vacation spot.
It was a bit of an impromptu idea, but my family decided that we were going to do a quick weekend vacation out to Michigan this weekend. We enjoyed ourselves a lot last year, when we hung out in Sawyer, and Liz and I have come back several times since. With SW Michigan only being maybe an hour or so from the city, it’s a surprising and remarkably fast drive (barring any serious traffic).
A fantastic touch was that one of the radios was playing an old episode of Flash Gordon. I’m guessing it was actually a recording, but the effect was great – the show coming through one of the older machines, along with all the old time advertisements (the one I heard was for children’s nose drops).
From time to time, I’ll encounter objects at flea markets or antique stores – objects from my childhood. And when I see them, it’s a weird trigger: a brief sliver of my life/past has suddenly manifested, and is for sale. Whenever this happens, it’s a mixed feeling. Part of me feels old to have owned something that now appears in an antique store.
Before we trekked to Sawyer, I did a bit of searching around for nearby places of interest. I happened to come across a place called “Apparel from the Past”. This line in particular caught my eye:
“We have over 1,000 vintage and antique garments, hats, purses, gloves & shoes from the mid-1800’s through the mid-1900s, with an emphasis on the 1940s and 1950s.”
Knowing my wife, this was definitely a spot we were going to visit.
This photo probably gives the best view of the sheer size of the dune. Every other photo I took makes it seem like an easy hill. It was super steep, and I had to stop several times to catch my breath.
I should say this at the start: my family never, ever goes on vacation. We did a bit in the past, but our vacations always seemed to include a trip out to visit relatives. Or a wedding. Early “vacations” to me were always events that pulled us out of town. I think of my family as one that rarely travelled just to travel together, for the sheer sake of taking a trip.
Which is why it was great that my sister, on a whim, decided to rent a house for a few days in Sawyer, MI and invited my parents, me and Liz up for a few days. No agenda, no relatives to visit, no events to attend… just show up, relax, and hang out.