Sleeping Bear

Not sure sure if the bears were sleeping while the we were in town! We spent a gorgeous day at the Sleeping Bear Dunes while on our trek up north. It's amazing such a beautiful place is in the state of Michigan. We made a wise decision and took the car tour through the park first and got out several different look outs to enjoy the scenery. A few of the look outs were several hundred feet tumbles of sand to the beautiful aqua waters of Lake Michigan. While it was incredibly beautiful my usually relaxed demeanor quickly went in to Momma Bear mode as my children were "enjoying the scenery." Yikes! The signs and pamphlets all say to stay on the paths and not to go down the steep hills of sand for the risk of a slide and warns against a very difficult climb back up. I give my kids the rules. We get out of the car. And, nevertheless, there are the majority of the other visitors breaking the rules. So, Nate decides it would be fun to run and slide in the sand. Aahhh. I was a nervous wreck. Had I not been busy death clutching the both of them I for surely would have eaten my fingers off. I breathed a sigh of relief when we got in the car and admitted that I had a hard time enjoying that little jaunt.

Glen Lake

Dunes. You are told not to go off the beaten path as it may take years for the vegetation to regrow.

Clutching my babies at one of the look outs.

Troy wrangled Tessa on to his shoulders and made it a little easier to breathe.

This is Michigan people!

Hiking up to one of the look outs.

Nate. Off the beaten path. Sorry mother earth.

After the car tour we went to the dune climb. Good lord. The sand was HOT and luckily for us we had already seen the final "view" so we didn't feel inclined to trek the whole 2.5 miles.

It's so deceiving as once you think you are almost to the top you find there is just more and more sand!

Family self photo.

My munchkins about 1/2 mile up the climb.