We were scheduled to go the week before but Henry came down with ear infections which turned out not to be ear infections, but strep throat. After 6 days on antibiotics, we found out that he is allergic to all Penicillin drugs. We discovered this allergy an hour before we left (thank goodness for Urgent Care -- we were in and out in 15 minutes.) Henry was covered from head to toe in a rash, but he was feeling fine otherwise.
These dunes were left over by a glacier and then covered by trees, soil, etc. Right after the great Chicago fire in 1871 the area of Silver Lake was set aside by the President to be forested for the rebuilding of the city. (Silver Lake is across Lake Michigan and a bit north from Chicago.) After all the trees were cut down, the soil was blown away by the lake winds and uncovered a 1.5x3 mile area of sand dunes. The sand is now extremely troublesome for the residents of the area. Since the sand is constantly moving and growing, many houses have been taken over by sand. Silver Lake is also being filled in by the sand. There are many sandbars throughout the lake that prohibit people from boating and other water sports.
The first day we went on a Mac Woods Dune Ride Tour. This was our first glimpse of the dunes. I highly recommend taking a tour from these guys. Our driver was awesome and we learned so much.
The water in the picture below is Silver Lake; this is the lake our hotel sat on.
Part of the Mac Woods tour was a stop by Lake Michigan. Henry wanted no part of the water. We had the brilliant idea to give him a pacifier when we were on the dunes. It kept his mouth closed so he didn't get a bunch of blowing sand in his mouth.
This is the kind of car we rode in for the tour.
Afterwards, we drove to the Little Sable Point Lighthouse. We were all going to walk up, but Henry wasn't big enough, so I stayed with him. Here was Dustin's view from the lighthouse.
Where we stayed.
The boys looking out the balcony of our hotel room.
Sunset our first night.
The next day we went back to a beach near the lighthouse and played in the (cold) water and made sandcastles. Henry loved digging in the sand.
He did not like being buried in the sand. We sure enjoyed it though!
After the beach we rented a pedal boat and went out onto Silver Lake. Henry was fine if he was 100% in control of the steering wheel.
Otherwise, he hated his life preserver and was furious.
So we took it off of him and let him stand on the edge of the boat. We are awesome parents.
After this picture it all went downhill. He was ticked off and didn't want to be on the boat anymore. We rented the boat for an hour, but ended up going back just shy of 30 minutes.
The next day we went to a local farmer's market. We just missed the asparagus festival in town, but Henry still enjoyed being turned into a daddy asparagus.
Henry got a Fuji apple from the market and then we stuck him in some apple crates across the street.
I don't have any pictures, but we went to a little town north of Silver Lake in order to search out some better food and a pharmacy (for some new antibiotics for Henry). We were joking the whole time that this was the vacation of terrible food. There are NO good places to eat around this area. Most of what we has was gross. The upside? It kept us from overeating on vacation.
Playing at the lake with Dad. (P.S. this might look dangerous, but the water here was about 3 inches deep.)
This next part was the highlight of our trip. We went on Razor J's Adventure Tour. We rented a 4-seat dune car and hooked up Henry's car seat. It was a tight squeeze. Henry had to keep his legs bent the whole ride, but he didn't seem to mind at all.
We had the owner as our guide. He was in a separate dune car and led the way. The tour lasted an hour.
Once we got on the dunes we realized something: IT WAS SCARY. Dustin was driving (and trying not to roll the car), I was taking pictures (and freaking out) and Henry was sitting in the back like this:
Totally calm. Just relaxing with his hip shades and his no-sand-in-the-mouth-pacifier.
We got stuck a couple of times, but Dustin successfully backed down and tried again and got us over the hills. It's hard to drive on sand.
We made one stop on the trip down by Lake Michigan. Henry was a little happier about this stop. We played in the sand and in the water before heading back to finish our tour. We got to choose what we wanted to do for the last 20 minutes and we chose going up and down the biggest hills. It was a great time.
We let Henry 'drive' when we got back to the parking lot.
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