June 30th, Indiana Dunes State Park

  


Friday, June 30, 2006
Day 5
Indiana Dunes State Park

This morning I slept in! First time in a long time. I let Brownie out at Nina’s, since she can run free, and I went back to bed. It was kind of nice to be able to do that. I ended up getting up around 8 am. Very late for me.

The kids got to ride Nina’s horse Hobbs today. They enjoyed that very much. After that we left pretty quickly and drove the short distance (about 87 miles) to the dunes. It seemed to take forever on some of the gravel roads in the area of Indiana where Nina lives. We finally got here though. It was nice to see the rooftop of the Chapel of the Resurrection at Valpo from the road. We didn’t stop at Valpo, but it was nice to just see the roof! It’s been a long time since I’ve been out here.

The State Park is beautiful and has all new facilities and very nice hiking trails. The lakeshore beach is beautiful, as it always was. Although I’ve been to the dunes many times before, it is the first time for Rod and the kids. They seem to be enjoying it as well. For those of you who don’t have a clue what I am talking about right now, the Indiana Dunes is on the shores of Lake Michigan in Northwest Indiana, just a few miles from the school I went to college at, Valparaiso University.

Today we hiked a “moderate” trail while we waited for Tina and her family and Karen and her family to arrive. They were stuck in traffic in Chicago, and it took them around 3 hours to get here. That is about three times longer than it should have taken! Once they arrived we met their adorable new babies. Theo is 10 months old already, and Hannah is about to turn 1 year old. They were wonderful and sweet children, and I was glad to have met them. Karen’s oldest daughter, Lauren, was here too and she was sweet and wonderful too. She is 5 years old and was able to play with Brianna and Sheldon. They enjoyed playing with her.

We all went out to eat at Around the Clock restaurant in Chesterton. The food was OK, but mainly it was so great to be together with old friends. After dinner, Tina and Kevin had to leave to return to Chicago. Karen and Jim hung out a bit longer after dinner and we all made S’Mores around the campfire that Jim helped us get going. It was nice to have a professional Oregon camper here with us to help out. Thanks Jim!

Nina and Julie decided to get a room at a local motel for the night, and they stayed at camp the longest with us. They will return tomorrow and Julie will also be going up to Valpo to meet up with her aunt for lunch. We’ll “babysit” Nina here at camp.

Well, it’s been a long and tiring day. Now I’m off to take a shower in the very nice shower house and then off to dreamland.