A day in the Sand and Sun

I did something out of the ordinary for me yesterday... well, kind of. I spend the day in the sand and the sun. For those of you that know me you know if you are looking for me you can usually find me under a shade tree. But this is something that I've wanted to do for a long time..... Visit Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. It's a national park after all and I'm a huge nature lover so it's only natural that I've been yearning to go there. And if I can't make it to Yellowstone or Yosemite right now then Sleeping Bear Dunes will have to do for the time being. It did not disappoint me and it was a great day!

We live close to Lake Michigan and I've been to the beach many times in my life so I wasn't really expecting it to be much different than what I had grown up with. It wasn't at all what I had imagined it would be. Much more spectacular and beautiful! Craig and I started off with a 7 mile scenic drive that had 12 scenic stops along the way. When we came to the stop that said Lake Michigan overlook I almost suggested that we not even get out and hike to that one. After all, you've seen one Lake Michigan beach, you've seen them all. As you walk up to the beach I thought we would be pretty flush to the lake. Wrong! It's the tallest steepest dune on Lake Michigan and what a view!

My handsome hubby. He's so wonderful to chauffeur me to all my desires.

Here's a sign at the top of the dune... notice the sign says return climb is "Extremely Exhausting".

At first glance you might think that I'm standing on the waters edge. I'm at the top of the dune and those little specks are people that decided to down the dune.

Craig was very close to going down and climbing back up... I NEVER considered it. I'd still be there if I had. Craig changed his mind when we watched people take an hour to return and went most of the way on their hands and knees.

And I did learn why they call it Sleeping Bear Dunes. Indian legend has it that a mother and two cubs tried to cross the lake. Along the way the two cubs drown. The mother bear lay down on the dune forever waiting for her cubs. The cubs rose from their watery grave to create the two Manitou Islands.