Traverse City and Sleeping Bear Dunes

Back in September, we decided to brave a three hour flight in the Cessna to check out Traverse City and Sleeping Bear Dunes.

I can’t believe they’re letting me fly this plane.

We decided upon Traverse City mainly because Caleb wanted to see how the kids would fair in our airplane on a long flight.  Luckily, we timed our journey correctly and both kids slept for part of the flight.  Needless to say, we haven’t tried another flight that long since.  However, we do have another long flight is in the works for April or May now that the kids are a bit older (and Zoe’s graduated to a spot in the backseat of the plane) and the weather isn’t as much of a concern.

So after we arrived in Traverse City on a beautiful sunny afternoon, we checked in at the Great Wolf Lodge, headed to the grocery store to pick up some food, and then headed off to the beach.

It was around dinner time when we arrived at Clinch Beach so we had a picnic dinner and played on the beach for just a bit before heading back to the lodge to swim inside.  Unfortunately, it was a bit too cold to swim in the lake (at least for the adults).

Friday morning we decided to drive over to Sleeping Bear Dunes.  Back in 2011, Good Morning America named Sleeping Bear Dunes the Most Beautiful Place in America so we thought we should check it out.

Caleb and Isaac enjoying the view from inside the park

First things first we had to play on the beach.  The weather was overcast and soon to be rainy.  We lucked out and had the beach to ourselves for the morning.

 

Although, Isaac would have happily stayed on the beach we decided to head over to the Dune Climb.

I made it farther than Caleb but only because Isaac wasn’t cooperating. Here’s my view from the “top.”

Before heading out of the park we decided to complet the Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive.  One of the stops on the drive is the Lake Michigan Overlook Platform.

 By this time, we weren’t having as much luck with the weather.  But we still wandered out to the outlook.

In the picture to the left, you can see a man trying to climb up the “cliffs.”

Just as we were getting in the car, it started to rain much harder.  Luckily we were done with our must dos at the dunes and headed back to lodge for a nap and more swimming.

 

 

Unfortunately for our adventures in Traverse City, it was rainy the  rest of the day of the day and the rest of our trip.  Luckily, we were staying at the lodge and we had plenty of indoor water park fun to keep us busy.  We did spend about 45 minutes in downtown Traverse City right before we boarded the plane.