I'm frequently asked why we choose Michigan as a vacation destination and when I respond with, "I have family there," the follow up question usually has the work "lake" it in. No, there are no family cottages on the UP. My grandmother, uncle, aunt and cousin live outside of Detroit. With the girls older, we've been trying to explore the area/state more. Last year, Rich, the girls and I planned a side trip to Mackinac Island. This year, we stayed local, outside of an afternoon trip to Port Huron, mainly because our trip was on the short side.
So what did we do?
One afternoon, we traveled up to Port Huron to visit Fort Gratiot.
The big draw here is the lighthouse you are able to climb with a tour, which also included some of the buildings. The tour was about 45 minutes long - just the right length for kids and Mamaws - and consisted of just us. They can only take small groups at a time in the lighthouse because the climb up, especially at the top, is somewhat dangerous.
See that railing around the top of the lighthouse? We walked around up there. Here's what our view of Lake Huron looked like from above.
We spent an afternoon at the Armada Fair, which all the kids thoroughly enjoyed. We saw bunnies and chickens and pigs and cows and goats. The kids rode all the rides (except for the ones I deemed too dangerous, of course) and we tried fried Oreos for the first time. I'm not a fan of Oreos but I actually liked the fried version. The kids were mad that I only let them have one each. All in moderation.
And there was swimming.
I've learned that in order to keep the kids happy, staying at a hotel with an indoor pool is necessary. Lucky for us, that was an easy task.
We FaceTimed with Rich every night, except for the night I lost my phone.
(I love this picture because it's just so true life and in my favorite documentary style.)
On our last night there, we were able to take some family photos after dinner. Unfortunately, while my brother and I wanted to do this, we hadn't planned for it and some of my kids were wearing whatever they had left that was clean. Whatever. I know in the grand scheme of life, it doesn't matter what they're wearing. (I am planning a photography post on how and why the photos are set up the way they are (backlighting, non-backlighting, etc.)
Mamaw with six of her great grandchildren. And, yes, my nephew wanted nothing to do with it.
The Michigan Mitten
Until next year . . .
3 comments:
Well, and speaking of clothes, do you have any advice or thoughts on what clothes to wear (matchy matchy, mixy-matchy, color pop, etc) for family photos? We're getting ours done soon and we've got 8 kids to wrangle into (or talk into) carefully chosen duds - I HATE that part of prepping for photos!
Hi Sarah - I would avoid white and bright colors. White saturates the light and if not photographed properly will be all blown out. Bright colors can leave a color cast on skin. Personally, I wouldn't go for exact matching outfits. For summer photos, maybe light greens, blues, browns and pinks.
Thank you! I'm on the right track then - I automatically gravitate toward blues. Light green looks wonderful with it too. By the way, I enjoy reading your blog!
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