Traverse City, Michigan

Holiday Park Campground

June 30th through July 7th, 2009

Tuesday, June 30th - 61/53°, Partly Cloudy

    Our vacation officially got underway at around 11:30am today… well, at least for some of us. Tara had to work today until 1:00pm, so she stayed behind. There isn’t enough room in Dad’s truck for us to all ride in it anyway, so Jayden stayed behind with Mom until Tara got off work and was able to pick her up. So actually Tyler, Samantha, Drew, myself and Dad (who was nice enough to drive up with us so that he would be able to take the truck home for his return trip the following day – thanks a million Dad, we truly appreciate all of the extra effort you put in to make these trips possible) got our trip underway. Aside from stopping at McDonalds for lunch and another stop at a rest area for a potty break we had an uneventful drive.

    We arrived at the campground around 4:00pm and checked in before driving to our site. Dad stayed long enough to help level out the fifth-wheel and get everything hooked up before he headed out for the ride home (I later found out that they actually had passed each while heading towards their respective destinations). The kids and I worked on getting everything else organized to the best of our abilities (and I’m not saying a whole lot about our abilities!). Our trip almost ended at this point; as I couldn’t stand to listen to them ask to get everything out all at once while running all over the campground as I attempted to put things away. We finally managed to get settled down a little bit, so our vacation was extended for at least a few more days.

    By now it was getting fairly late, so I started to make dinner. Tonight it was hamburger helper. Great camping meal, I know, but it wasn’t overly warm outside and I was just too tired from staying up till midnight packing the camper the previous night and getting up early to finish the job this morning to really put any effort into dinner. Besides, Tara and Jayden weren’t going to make it to the campground in time to join us so I wanted something relatively quick and easy to make tonight (not to mention the fact that it isn’t exactly Tara’s favorite meal).

    After dinner the kids and I went out for a bike ride. Drew had learned to ride a two-wheeler this spring, so he was peddling around like a crazy man today. It was during our ride around the campground that Tara and Jay arrived, sometime a little after 7:00pm. We quickly unloaded the extra items that they had brought with them, before heading out to Best Buy (new music CD’s!) and to Meijer to pick up some groceries (we decided that we weren’t hauling everything with us this time since the stores are so close here). On our way back from the store we stopped at Taco Bell so that Tara and Jay could eat (they had only snacked during their drive up), and of course the rest of us had to get a little something to snack on too.

    When we returned to the camper at around 10:00pm, we found water on the kitchen floor. Low and behold, we had sprung a leak under the sink. What a way to start a vacation, right? Turns out that one of the plastic fittings under the sink had worked loose through the years of driving with dishes bouncing off of it, and all that was really needed was to tighten it up. With that potential disaster averted, we moved on to eating. After we ate, we made the beds so we could call it a night. It was unfortunately too late at almost midnight, but what are you going to do? What a long day it was…

Wednesday, July 1st - 62/52°, Rainy

    I can’t see clearly now, the rain is here… at 5:30am or so I was awoken by the loud drops of rain on the camper roof. I did manage to sleep off and on for a couple more hours before I finally had enough and decided to get up. It was around 9:00am when everybody else had finally woken up. We settled for eating a hodge-podge breakfast today – cereal for some, pop-tarts for others, and donuts holes for almost all of us.

    Since it was still raining when we finished eating, we spent most of the morning being lazy and watching TV. The kids all got dressed while Tara and I took turns getting showered. We were planning on running errands before lunch while it was raining, but it got too late and we decided to eat first. We made hot dogs and mac-n-cheese, but it was a chore getting the awning out in the rain so that we could cook without getting soaked. The box of lights fell to the ground while I was trying to hang the hooks, but thankfully nothing broke. I managed to dig the grill out from the middle of one of the underneath storage areas, which is a major undertaking (we just have too much crap with us, I guess). I got everything hooked up on the side of the camper when it all came crashing back down. This, coupled with my lack of sleep and the kids’ constant fighting, caused me to reach my breaking point. I headed inside to cool down while Tara finished cooking lunch (and yes, she was able to get the grill hung up so that it stayed for the rest of our vacation without further incidence).

    With the rain still falling after we had finished eating, we decided to head towards town and go to the mall to let the kids play in the play area. Tara also had to make a return from a purchase that she had made during her conference in the area last week at one of the stores there. Once we got there we were pretty disappointed to learn that only Jayden was technically short enough to play, but since Drew was only slightly too tall (and more than young enough) we let him play as well. Sam opted to sit with Tara and watch the younger two while Tyler and I went into the nearby FYE store to look at video games. Once we left and were on our way back to the camper, we stopped at Meijer to pick up a couple of more items that we had missed the night before (as well as some items, like milk, that we didn’t have room for until today).

    After our shopping excursion we returned to the campground to spend some time hanging out together. The kids were patiently waiting for Dad & Mom to arrive with their camper in addition to Erica, Donovan, and Marissa, who were following close behind. Once they arrived, all of the kids quickly took off to play basketball and ride their bikes. In the meantime, the adults worked on getting the fifth-wheel set up before cooking tacos for dinner.

    After dinner Tara & I took the kids for a bike ride around the park. Dad joined us part way through (if we knew he wanted to go we would have waited), but Mom and Erica stayed behind. We spent some time playing at the playground that was across from the campsite we camped on the last time we stayed here. By the time the kids finished playing it was after 9:00pm, so we decided to go back to the campers.

    The weather was just too chilly to feel like sitting outside around the campfire tonight, so we headed inside instead. Our kids all took turns getting showers before climbing in bed for the night. I sat down at the computer (since we finally got internet access) to check on my schoolwork – I quickly realized that maybe I shouldn’t be awarded a college degree. Not only did I miss my first assignment already, but I was about to miss the second as well. It was due tonight, and when I attempted to do it I realized that I had purchased the stupid study guide for the class instead of the actual book. As if I already haven’t been in a lousy mood, this is just what I needed to top it off. Since there wasn’t much I could do about it at this point of the day, I emailed my teacher an explanation before we all called it a night.

Thursday, July 2nd - 61/54°, Rainy

    We had another night of rain, which meant very little sleep for me once again. That was OK – I wouldn’t have slept well anyway, due to the school situation. Once we all were up and moving, sometime around 8:30am, we ate our breakfast, which was nothing fancy again today. We had more of the same, except for the addition of some cinnamon rolls that Mom had made.

    After we ate breakfast and got ourselves ready to go for the day, Tara & I loaded up some drinks, snacks, and sandwiches and made the long boring trek back to Flint to spend five lousy minutes in the school bookstore exchanging my book. Since we had already gone that far, we also stopped at Dwayne & Erica’s house to pick up some warmer clothes, at Dad & Mom’s to pick up their tri-pod for the fifth-wheel and their camera, and at our house to pick up Drew’s larger bike and the Playstation 2 for Tyler and Donovan to use. Once we had completed these tasks it was back on the road for the long ride back to Traverse City. I must say this was not how I wanted to spend one of my vacation days while camping… but, you do what you have to do I guess.

    While we were gone Dad, Mom, and Erica took the kids to the ‘Great Lakes Children’s Museum’ to play. I don’t really have much to tell about their time there, but I do know that the kids must have had fun because they asked to go back again. Erica said that she didn’t think that it was as good as the children’s museum in Flint, but here the kids all seem to be thoroughly entertained by the water table.

    Tara and I returned to the campsite at 6:30pm, after way too long on the road. Upon our arrival we were thrilled to see that everybody was just sitting down to tonight’s meal of hot dogs and mac-n-cheese (again). The kids were apparently asking to cook the hot dogs over the fire, so that is what they did.

    After dinner I headed inside to try to do the schoolwork that was already past due. This turned out to be quite a chore, as the reading is boooooring. I finally managed, but it took a long time. While I was inside working, everyone else was outside entertaining themselves with bike rides and making s’mores over the campfire. Once they decided that it was getting cold and that they had spent enough time outside, everybody decided to come inside to call it a night.

Friday, July 3rd - 68/53°, Mostly Sunny

    This morning we had planned to have a large breakfast, but the rain caused us to eat a little later than we usually would have. Today, instead of breakfast, we had brunch instead. The main course was French toast, but we had bacon and sausage as well. Since it was still wet outside from the rain that had passed through, we opted to eat inside of Dad & Mom’s camper. It was quite a site with 11 people eating inside of a camper – kids at the dining table, some of us at a card table set up in the middle of the living area, and others still sitting in the chairs and on the couch.

    After we ate the adults cleaned up the dishes while the kids went outside to ride bikes around the campground and play basketball at the nearby basketball hoop (by far Tyler’s favorite place to spend his time).

    Once we had finished our campground chores we took a drive out to the Old Mission Peninsula. Our first stop was at the Mission Point Lighthouse Park. We didn’t go inside the lighthouse, but we did walk along the beach and took lots of pictures. Today wasn’t my best day attitude-wise, so I went for a walk on some of the wooded trails that were around the lighthouse parking lot area. The others soon followed and we ended up crossed paths. After leaving the lighthouse we stopped at Chateau Grand Traverse to view the tasting room and to take a tour of the winery. After leaving the winery we headed back to the campground to unwind before we had to make dinner.

    Once we returned I headed inside for a much needed nap. While I slept the kids spent more time riding bikes, playing basketball, and playing at the kiddy playground that was located near our campsite. Dad, Mom, Tara, and Erica all worked on making fish and French fries for dinner in Dad and Mom’s new turkey fryer. Everyone seemed to agree that this was a good way of making the fish, and it was much faster than frying it in a pan. As always, it tasted great (to those of us who choose to eat it, anyway).

    By the time dinner was picked up and put away, it was getting fairly late. With the weather being so cold we haven’t been too excited about sitting outside near the campfire, and tonight was no exception. Being that nobody wanted to sit outside in the cold, we once again headed inside to relax before going to bed for the night.

Saturday, July 4th - 73/46°, Sunny

    Today was a late morning for us, which meant that we got some much needed extra sleep. Everybody in our camper woke up between 9:30-10:00am, and we went back to our old routine of cereal, bagels, and yogurt for breakfast.

    It was also another cold morning, so most of the adults didn’t venture too far from the inside of the campers this morning. The kids still headed out to ride bikes, but that was pretty much the extent of our morning activities. Lunchtime rolled around before we knew it, but nobody was feeling too motivated to cook. We settled for sandwiches– subs for some, PB&J for others – and chips instead.

    After eating, Tara and Erica took the oldest 5 kids to the beach. Mom stayed at the camper to lay Jayden down for a nap. Dad and I headed up the road to Menard’s to pick up some miscellaneous supplies (a 1 1/16” socket for the water heater in our camper and some screws to repair one of the side hatches) and to the Ace hardware store to pick up a ½” hose fitting for his water filter for his camper. When Dad & I got back to the campground I joined the girls and the kids at the beach for a few minutes. We couldn’t stay long because we had to rush back to the campsite so that we could move on to the next activity…

    Holiday Park has a tradition of holding trick-or-treating activities on the Fourth of July, and the kids all participated today. They even got to have their faces painted. Tyler chose to have a goatee painted on, Sam got a sparkly “U S A” written across her face, Jay got cherries on her cheeks, but Drew chose not to participate. They also got to go on a hayride around the park. The fun part for Erica, Tara, and I occurred when the hayride was taking place. It seems that the kids were to be dropped off at a different spot from where they got on the wagon. This caused a bit of a problem for us because they had all rode their bikes while going trick-or-treating. While Dad & Mom cooked dinner Tara, Erica, and I all took turns carrying one of the kids bikes while riding our own. Erica even rode one of them back to the campsite. I have to say that it is very difficult carrying an extra bike in one hand while riding your own bike at the same time!

    When the hayride was finally over a little after 6:00pm, we had to rush through our steak dinner (with cubed buttered potatoes cooked on the fire). The last time we were in Traverse City we watched the fireworks from the high school parking lot. This location provided a good view of the show without having to fight too much of a crowd. This time the parking lot was completely torn up so that option was unavailable to us. We opted instead to attend a Traverse City Beach Bums (a minor league baseball team) game and stay for their fireworks, which we had heard were as good as the ones put on by the town itself. We were running extremely late in trying to get there on time, however. We tore through dinner in record time, cleaning up the dishes and ourselves before heading out to the ballpark.

    We arrived at Wuerfel Park just as the national anthem was being sung. We got to our seats along the first base line in time to see the first pitch being thrown. The weird thing about this stadium is that the entire field was artificial turf, even though it was an outdoor stadium. At least the game was good – the Traverse City Beach Bums lost 3-2 to the Midwest Sliders. A couple of errors early in the game proved too costly for the Beach Bums to overcome. While we were there everybody shared popcorn and our kids had little $1.00 ice cream cups. I picked up a nice team hat for myself, and Tyler and Sam each bought a souvenir with their own money (Tyler got a baseball; Sam bought a ‘Go Bums Go’ sign). Once the game was over we stayed in our seats to watch the fireworks. Everybody enjoyed the show except Jayden, who started out covering her head but ended up falling asleep. Even Marissa, who is usually scared of fireworks, watched the whole thing with her ears uncovered.

    By the time the fireworks show was over and we made our way out of the parking lot (which seemed to take forever, by the way) it was getting late. On our way out, we drove down a very bumpy dirt road (we almost lost the front of the van at the transition from asphalt to dirt!) that took us out to US-31 near Glen’s Market, which is fairly close to the campground. By the time we made it back it was after 11:00pm, so we decided to call it a night and headed for bed.

Sunday, July 5th - 80/51°, Sunny

    Everybody was up by 9:00am this morning in our camper, and once again we ate breakfast on our own. This meant that we ate whatever we had on hand that was a breakfast food – in my case a bagel. We didn’t get moving too quickly this morning either, taking our own sweet time getting showered and dressed. As usual the kids passed the time outside while the adults got prepared to go into the downtown area for a couple of Cherry Festival activities.

    We got a later start going to town than I would have liked, but we eventually made it there eventually. The car show that Dad and I wanted to attend started at 10:00am and the air show that was going on began at 1:00pm. Needless to say we drove to where the car show was the last time we were here for the Cherry Festival only to find out that it had moved since then and that we had already passed it on a side street several blocks back. After a quick u-turn we managed to find it, and we were dropped off at about the time the air show started. The girls took the kids to the beach to watch the planes, but they had to go clear out near the foot of the peninsula to find a spot to park. The kids played in the water and sand while the air show went on, and Dad and I wandered around looking at some nice cars. After we finished we called Mom, who picked us up in the truck as we walked along the beach. Aside from one couple in a car who thought it was too much trouble to move over a lane on an otherwise empty four-lane road, this was a relatively pain free process.

    We went back to the beach where the others were waiting so that Dad and I could eat the sandwiches that were packed for lunch, even though it was now after 3:00pm. We spent a little more time at the beach before packing up and going back to the campground once more.

    We got out the turkey fryer once again today, but this time to actually cook a turkey in. We also made some sliced fried potatoes to go with it. The fried turkey has a better taste than the trash-can turkey we have done in the past, which has a smoky taste that most of us don’t seem to care for too much, but it still isn’t the same as an old-fashioned oven-roasted turkey.

    Once dinner was done it was back inside the camper for me to work on another homework assignment. I swear this class may be the death of me yet… While I was inside trying to keep my eyelids open while reading one of the many boring chapters, everyone else was outside enjoying themselves. This was our warmest night of our trip so far, so bike rides and outdoor activities were in order. Tara also broke out the sparklers that we had left over from last year. Tyler and Donovan decided to have a sword fight with them. The other kids had fun and were pretty disappointed that we didn’t have more, even though Jay didn’t use hers, leaving more for them. As the sun set and the time got late, it was back inside to turn in for the night.

Monday, July 6th - 73/50°, Sunny

    Today, after a late start to our morning, we grabbed a quick breakfast while packing lunches and snacks for our trip to the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore today. I had actually woken up around 8:00am, but I rolled back over thinking that I would be up again in a half-hour or so when the kids started making noise. When I actually woke up at 9:40am, everyone else was still asleep! Eating these boring breakfasts also makes me realize that I really miss having big breakfasts while we are camping.

    We left the campground around 11:30am and, following the directions on the GPS, took the 30 mile drive to Empire. Little did we know that the GPS had no qualms about sending us down dirt roads to get there, but we did eventually make it. Since it was after noon when we arrived, we decided to eat our lunch first. We found an open picnic table near the dune climb, and sat down to enjoy our sandwiches.

    After eating we started our hike up the hill. Everybody walked up themselves this year, even Jay (who only needed to hold on to Dad’s hand to climb up herself). We made it to the top and took a moment to rest before deciding to try to walk out to see Lake Michigan. Drew was the first one to poop out, asking to be carried. I couldn’t really carry him on my hip across the sand for any distance like I would a smaller child; he is just too heavy for that. I attempted to put him on my shoulders, but he just freaked out. He was in full panic mode once I got all the way on my shoulders. That promptly ended his desire to walk any further. Mom had pretty much seen enough at this point as well, so we left them behind to chill-ax (at some point they attempted to catch up, but didn’t make it very far and headed back down the hill). The rest of us plodded along to a hill with a view of the lake. We decided we could make it all the way to the lake if we just went a little further, so we kept moving. I didn’t do a good job of keeping track of the time we were actually walking, but it did seem like it took us quite a long time. We finally climbed a hill where it looked like we still had close to a mile to go to get to the actual shore. We decided at that time that we had gone far as we were going to go. As some of us sat to rest for a moment, the kids decided to take a little trek down another hill before climbing back up to us (although Erica did have to make a couple of partial trips down the hill to bring back up a couple of the kids). Tyler managed to step on something along the way, so Tara and Dad attempted to get it out without any tools (like tweezers) while we were stopped. Tyler had taken his shoes off because they were full of sand from climbing (and falling) down a steep section of the trail a little earlier. Once they figured that they had done their best trying to get it out, we turned around for our walk back.

    When we finally reached the bottom of the hill we were greeted by Mom, Drew, and nice cold bottled waters, which certainly hit the spot. After a few minutes spent resting ,we decided it was time to pack up the vehicles and go on the Stocking Scenic Drive, as we had done during our last visit. Uh oh! Wait a minute. What’s that? Tara can’t find her camera? After I made a quick trip back to the van to make sure it wasn’t in there (of course it wasn’t) Tara tells me she thinks she knows right where it is… at the spot she sat down to rest and look at Tyler’s foot. Up the hill I go (about a third to half the way up the hill Mom called my cell to say Dad was on his way too). It took us about 20 minutes of steady walking, but we finally arrived at our previous stopping point. Sure enough, in the sand near the grass was Tara’s camera, nestled in its case. I took a couple of pictures just to prove that we made the walk there and back twice and then, mostly relieved but somewhat frustrated, we started our walk back. We were met by Erica at the top of the main hill with a bottle of water (which of course we had neglected to take with us. It certainly would have prevented plenty of cotton-mouth on my part). She said that she would have joined us if she would have known we were going back, but when I left I wasn’t really looking to bother anybody else just to get my stuff – I was planning on walking alone. After 40 minutes (total) we made it back to a relieved Tara, waiting patiently and hoping to hear some good news.

    By this time Dad and I just wanted to be in the air conditioned cars, so we headed back to the vehicles to finally go on the Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive. Here we saw the covered bridge, more dunes (including the dunes that inspired the famous legend of Sleeping Bear), and of course the steep 450’ bluff down to Lake Michigan. I still can’t believe that people climb down and back up just to swim here. Tyler says he would have done it if we hadn’t done the dune climb earlier, but I fear that weeks later we would still be trying to get him back up the hill.

    After we completed our scenic drive we were headed back to the campground to make hamburgers for dinner. After all of the exercise we had gotten today nobody was in the mood to cook, though. We decided to eat dinner at the La Senorita’s in Traverse City instead, thanks to the $5.00 off coupons we got when we checked in at the campground. It was nice to be able to unwind in an air conditioned restaurant (even though it had cooled off quite a bit outside) where someone else did the cooking for us. This was the most important part for most of us!

    When dinner was complete we headed back to the campers for our last night in Traverse City. Once again I had homework to do, so I headed inside for some relative peace and quiet. Tara stayed outside, working on packing up non-essential items for the ride home tomorrow. Of course the kids rode their bikes around for the last time as well. When it got dark outside, everyone else joined me inside before turning in for the night.

Tuesday, July 7th - High/Low°, Sunny

    I woke up around 8:45am this morning, and took my shower first thing. I then worked on picking up as much as I could so that we could get the camper home. Tara took care of most of the inside things while I took care of the outside items, like the bikes, awning, and miscellaneous other stuff. We grabbed whatever it was we had left over for breakfast.

    Erica loaded up her kids and headed for home first. Dad & Mom left the campground a little before noon with the truck and camper, and we weren’t too far behind them. We had to stop at Menard’s to make an exchange, and then we stopped for gas, and finally lunch at Wendy’s. It was smooth sailing from there on out. We did stop once at the Welcome Center near Clare for a bathroom break, but otherwise we kept on trucking (or, as Tara has termed it for our case, “van-ing”).

    We finally returned home around 5:00pm. Dad, Mom, and Drew were there with the camper waiting for us (I thought they would have left already, but I had forgotten that they let Drew ride with them on the way back). After we arrived Dad & Mom went home to get Grandma, Steve, and Dana for an extended stay in Traverse City and possible other areas (which turned out to be Mackinac City for a drive in the UP and the Deckerville area for what used to be our family’s Fourth of July picnic).

    Safely back at home, we unpacked a few things from the van before I headed inside to work on yet another homework assignment (I told you – the death of me!). Tara worked on getting stuff out of the trailer while the kids alternated between helping her and playing (some did more of the former, others more of the latter). We ate hamburgers and fries for dinner and attempted to get to bed early tonight, although that didn’t work out so well for us.

Trip Summary

    Overall this was a decent trip. I can’t say a great trip because of the weather – rainy for the first few days and colder than normal for most of the entire trip. Plus, my mood wasn’t the greatest at the start of this trip either. I don’t know what changed, but the second half of the trip was much better than the first.

    Because of the weather being so poor we didn’t get to participate in as many of the Cherry Festival activities as we would have liked. The last time we were in Traverse City we took the farm tour, but we couldn’t squeeze it in this time. Our trip to the sand dunes should have taken place before the weekend, but we didn’t want to go when it had rained every morning. Since the festival didn’t even get started until Saturday we had a lot of conflicting plans and something had to get bumped from our agenda, which happened to be festival activities this time. Aside from our trek into town for the car and air shows, we didn’t do anything else festival related. We also didn’t spend much time in Traverse City itself, aside from a few trips to Meijer’s. One of these days I just want to be able to walk the downtown area and browse (I can’t afford to shop!).

    Speaking of the sand dunes, I have to say how proud I am of Samantha for her sand walking. She was constantly out in front of the rest of us, and was ready to go for more. Marissa wasn’t too far behind her, either. Tyler and Donovan didn’t do too bad themselves, but they tended to whine a little more than the girls. I also thought Tara did a great job. She refused to quit walking, even though she could have stayed behind with Mom and Drew.

    Like last time, the campground was certainly nice. I would have preferred to stay in the area of the park that we did last time, but those sites are kind of hit or miss due to the campground members coming and going. With us needing two sites close by it can be a challenge making reservations. Although physically our campsites were fine, they were a little too close to US-31, and the privacy fence nearby did little to block the noise, not to mention that it made it difficult to back into the campsites. Our campfire rings were located behind our campers, sort of in a common grassy area (each site had their own fire pit, they were just in plain view of everybody else’s), but we hardly used ours. That leads to one of my complaints that isn’t directly related to this campground but a general complaint about camping in Michigan: the late sunsets tend to lead to late campfires, which means that we get to bed late at night and then we end up getting late starts on the next day’s activities. It is a vicious never ending circle.

    One more thing that I learned on this camping trip: we are outgrowing our camper. We are rapidly running out of room to put stuff! Mainly I am talking about clothes, but it applies to just about everything else too. Bike storage during travel is getting difficult, outside chair storage is getting jam-packed, beach toys are overwhelming their allotted space. I don’t see any camper changes being made any time soon, but if we are to continue camping as a family for much longer it is certainly something we will have to think about.

    As I have already said, this was a good enjoyable trip. I am 100% certain, given Tara’s love for the Traverse City area, that we will indeed be back at some point in the future (maybe even in the winter-time some day!).