Honeymooning in Michigan: Out and About

One of the first days we went driving around to see what all was in the area.  We stumbled across Mt. Baldy National Park, just over the state line in Michigan City, Indiana.  We definitely wanted to check out the sand dunes and see if you can climb them like the ones in Colorado.

Do I look freakishly pale or what?  Hopefully Texas is changing that.

The sign basically explains how all of the visitors climbing this particularly area has destroyed the natural grasses that keep the sand dune in place.   With no grasses the dune is eroding and will cover the parking lot (where I am standing) in a few years time.

They did have a designated climb area though, so we trekked to the top.  It was pretty awesome.  Minus the nuclear plant like smoke stack in the distance.  That was just eerie, and was cropped out of the picture.  I wanted to climb down the other side of the dune and check out the beach, but Cody didn't think I would like the steep climb back up.

So we climbed down the dune the way we came, and I convinced him to take the path to the beach.  After all, it didn't have the strenuous warning sign the dune peak path had.  The main difference though was it was hot! More trees and at a lower altitude I guess. Still, the beach was pretty cool.  Literally. That water was freezing! Pretty much killed any idea of swimming while we were there. We were a month too early for good swimming water!  

We also spent a morning checking out all the little shops in town.  They didn't have a whole lot, but some were really neat, while others were your typical beach town touristy shops.

We also walked down to the little beach front not far from our hotel.  It was pretty nice, and definitely would have been handy location wise if it was nice enough to swim.  

Holding the drinks, while Cody snapped pictures.

We also walked around checking out all the vacation condos and ignoring signs saying things like "Owners only, no trespassing" so Cody could take pictures.

There was another sand dune National Park not far from the hotel in Michigan.  This one had more dunes and were larger than the first one we stopped at.  Unfortunately this day was quite chilly and rainy so we snapped some pictures, chased some seagulls (ya know to snap some more pictures) and called it a day.  Needless to say, our car was quite sandy on the way home!