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| Duck Lake at top of photo. Lake Michigan bottom right corner. Sand dunes in lower left corner. Image from HERE |
Belladonna wanted to make a "retro" trip to Lake Michigan. She wanted to make one last family trip before she heads off to Grand Valley State University.
There are many, many beaches along Lake Michigan. Our beach, the ERJ family beach, is Duck Lake State Park.
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| Base camp |
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| View to the west. Blue skies, very light haze. Winds out of the southwest blew the warm surface water to our beach. |
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| View looking North. More seagulls than people. This is not a beach in Rio de Janeiro |
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| View looking East. This is the outlet of Duck Lake and it is always much warmer than Lake Michigan. The youngest kids swim on the East side of the bridge where it is less windy and the water is even warmer. |
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| Looking South from our base camp. |
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| Bella inflating a beach toy |
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| Bella reading a "beach book". So far, she is enjoying this author. |
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| Somebody else looks pretty satisfied. I wonder why? |
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| Oh! It is probably because these young athletes are setting up camp right in front of us. |
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| Kubota studied the aerodynamics of low speed flight. Tossing a few potato chips up in the air is always good entertainment at the beach. |
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| My lovely bride. |
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| Yeah, we did a little swimming. |
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| The young lady standing on the surf board paddled from out-of-sight from the north to out-of-sight to the south. Kubota's head in lower right side of picture. |
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| One kid flying a kite and three grown-ups talking about how much better it was when they were kids. |
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| Do you remember when you thought you had to lean forward to run really, really fast? Dried seaweed on beach uprooted by 9 foot waves yesterday. It was much calmer today. |
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| Another little tyke. I have a feeling that "Mom" has used the grab handle on the back of this PFD more than once. |
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| I think Bella wanted to remember when happiness was as easy to find as a new Tinkerbell swim suit. |
Good Times!
ReplyDeleteSounds like a good time was had by all! :-)
ReplyDeleteI live here in Muskegon, born and raised in small Hesperia, and just love this side of the state. I am so glad you had a good day over here before school started.
ReplyDeleteTry and make it over here in a few weeks for the best time of year, fall. It doesn't get any more beautiful in all of the country than fall in west mi.
Take care and keep posting, I love reading about your family life.
Hello Honorable Pigpen51:
DeleteI hope I did not let the cat out of the bag with regard to Duck Lake.
We were camping at Pioneer County Park and asked the ranger where the local folks went swimming. She clued us into Duck Lake.
Best regards
-Joe
No, many locals know about Duck Lake. I have camped at Pioneer Park, when I had my motor home. The problem was, the only ones who liked camping were myself and my dog, my wife and my last daughter living at home were too much of the city life types.
DeleteThe Principal of Allendale schools is one of my best friends from high school. Also, my twin brother went to Grand Valley, back in the late 1970's. So MI is really a state where we all can share experiences.
On Aug.6, my oldest son took me to Detroit for a Tigers game for my 55th birthday. I had not been to the new stadium yet, had been to tiger stadium many, many times. Sad to see the many homeless people there, but the area is trying to make a comeback. I wish them well.
I keep an eye on your blog, wishing you and yours well in the coming months.
tim