Huge Sand Dunes, Cherry Festival, and Beer (Day 4)

After two very long days on their first days of vacation, my family was tired and needed a more laid-back vacation day. We decided to take a leisurely 45-minute ride west of Traverse City to Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. I heard great things about this National Park before heading to Michigan, so I really wanted to go.  

I was told by someone staying at the hotel that it gets pretty how on the sand at Sleeping Bear Dunes, so to head there early in the morning or when it is cloudy.  So we did that, getting there at around 11:30am EDT.  The sand at that point was not too hot and there was some clouds in the sky.

The first thing we noticed as we drove into the parking lot was hot massive the dunes were.  We had no frigging clue how massive.  Standing 450 feet above Lake Michigan, all I can say is that we were in for a heck of a hike up the dunes.  It was like every two steps forward is a step back in the sand.  Your calves burned from all the walking in the sand, but overall the view was amazing and worth it.  

We climbed up the first section of the dunes which is outlined in the picture of my wife.  

Avery was fast to run up the first section and she took a nice rest at the top.

The view from the first section was nice, but it got nicer as we went higher.  

The second and third sections to hike up were much steeper.  The girls were having fun and went up the really steep section.  Manina and I went up the less steep section, meeting the girls on a bench at the top, 450 feet above Lake Michigan.  

The views from up there were outstanding and so beautiful.  It was well worth the grueling hike in the hot sand.  We rested up there for about 20 minutes before heading back to the car.  This was where the fun began as the girls wanted to run down the dunes.  They are pretty steep so they got running pretty fast and wildly.  Norah even belly flopped on her way down.  

Here's the aftermath of Norah's belly flop on the sand.  She had sand all over her face, in her nose, hair and mouth.  

I was happy as I was able to get a really beautiful picture of the girls up there (even though they were squinting from the sun).

Once we made it to the bottom, we decided to drive the Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive.  By the time we got there (1:00pm EDT) there was quite the line to get in there.  

One past the payment station, we were able to drive around and take a few beautiful pictures.  The drive was fun, but it wasn't close to as fun as the dune climb.  

It was around 2:00pm by the time we got out of the scenic drive, so we went to eat lunch at a place called the Shipwreck Cafe.  They had subs and ice cream for the win!

After lunch, we hopped over to the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore Visitors Center in Empire, Michigan.  There the girls did their Junior Ranger activities and were sworn in as Junior Rangers, getting yet another set of badges.  

On our way back to Traverse City, we stopped downtown to go to the National Cherry Festival.  For those who know me, you know I love all things cherry.  So it was so much fun that we were in town for this festival.  When we made the plans to go to Traverse City, we had no idea the festival would be going on, so this was a great bonus.  For some reason, I never took may pictures of the festival.  Probably cause I was having such a good time and running around feeding my face with cherries.  But before we got to the actual festival, the girls found a place to swim in Lake Michigan at the Clinch Park Beach.  The beach was adjacent to the Cherry Festival and they also had a playground, splash pad, changing rooms, bathrooms, and activities like ladder ball and cornhole to play.  The park was right downtown, absolutely beautiful and the girls had a blast!

After a brief swim, we went to walk around the National Cherry Festival.  My favorite part was that I could buy a pint of cherries and walk around eating them while checking out all the activities.  That is the reason you won't find many pictures of the festival, other than in the butterfly tent (pre-cherry purchase).  I was feeding my face the whole time with cherries and never stopped to take pictures.  Take it from me though, they had all sorts of activities for the kids, a butterfly tent, a beer garden, concerts, pie eating competitions, and vendors selling anything you can imagine would be cherry related.  

The family did get some cherry related swag.  Norah got a really cool black and red National Cherry Festival tie dye t-shirt (I was jealous they didn't have one in my size) and a cherry hair clip.  Manina got some cherry earrings.  Avery got some cherry related key chains and stickers.  I got a National Cherry Festival foam koozie.  

At some point we got hungry and went looking for food.  Manina was told by a friend to go to the Cherry Republic.  They had tastings for all things cherry.  This place was awesome.  Norah and I must have eaten a ton of cherry chocolate covered pretzels and other cherry spreads that they had while Manina did the wine tasting.  It was all so good and really spoiled my dinner.  

For dinner we went to a brewery next to where we parked the car.  It was called MiddleCoast Brewing Company.  We sat out on the patio (the weather there was amazing) and Norah was excited to grab a drink with me inside a trailer they had which people could eat in.  

After dinner, the girls played some Twister before we headed back to the hotel.  They had so much fun on their "laid back" day of vacation.  

Back at the hotel, the girls wanted to go to the pool and get some swimming done while the wife went out back to sit by Lake Michigan and read a book.  Considering it was a laid back day, we all got to do a lot of things and had so much fun.  We all really loved everything Traverse City had to offer.