Band Camp - Emily's Freshman Year

After a summer of two color guard practices a week, Emily finally got to march in the full band camp!



Sniff, sniff!



I dropped her off for band camp one morning, with the promise that Avia would pick her up, because Billy and I were off to Poland!  So, this is my final band camp picture, but she sure does look cute!


She loved band camp, and loves color guard, and loves marching band.  She's been doing 'freshman' things all summer, so she has very few first day jitters.  Now, if her schedule could reflect all of her chosen classes, she'd be ready to go!

Back to school in 3 days!

later days

edit 8-17-25: backdated for continuity.

78 Michigan Parks: Yankee Springs #Fail

We left Kal Haven, heading for Yankee Springs, as it was on my map!  The rain caught us up, and it was another downpour, thankfully this time, we were on backroads, not the interstate, and I was able to slow it down a little more.

The rain tapered off by the time we found a sign, but it wasn't the Yankee Springs sign. Emily, Grace, and I were all getting rained on for this picture!  The informational sign talked about Devils Soup Bowl, which sounded fun, so we headed that direction.



Avia and Emily hopped out, in the rain, to clear the dirt road, which was part stream, so that we could head up the hill.


Well, we could have walked it, as the rain had tapered off, but we were hours from home, and decided to head home.


We spotted the backside of a brown sign, but it turned out to be just a bulletin board, so we redeemed it with a picture.


The sunset sure was pretty!


And I worked a little bit on my homework from Haley.  Michigan's smaller roads don't include the state name like Indiana and Illinois do!  But I like the black diamond, so I'm okay with it.


On our drive home, the rain came and went, but darkness fell for the final hour of our trip.  We spotted deer, bunnies, squirrels, and even some frogs crossing the road in between rain clouds.

Avia and Aunt Janet were wonderful travel buddies, and the girls are always up for an adventure, especially when swimming was involved! = )

My mom tracked down a picture of the Yankee Springs sign online, so we will make a detour back to get a legitimate sign picture, and do a little more exploration, though I don't know whether or not we'll make the trip to the Devil's Soup Bowl or not.

later days

edit 8-17-25: backdated for continuity.

If you want to see all the state parks we've visited so far, here are the links to those posts:

Tahquamenon Falls #15
Keith J Charters #33
Algonac #60
Saugatuck Dunes State Park #68Warren Dunes State Park #75a
Warren Woods State Park #75b

78 Michigan Parks: Kal-Haven Trail State Park #Bonus 2

 Each year, when we would go to South Haven Jellystone for our camping trip, we would pass signs indicating various points of this 33.5 mile trail!  However, my mom was able to track down the State Park sign, giving us our second bonus state park of the summer!

Because the land was bought from the railroad companies, the park has a train car front and center.  We decided that E. J. & E. could stand for Emily, Juliet, & Emily. lol.



The trail was shaded and paved, so Aunt Janet was able to enjoy it with us for a little while!



Compared to the other parks, I didn't feel that we did more that stretch our legs, but it was an awfully pretty place to do it!


They had a public bike repair station!

And a tire pump, which the girls totally used as intended.

A few timelines for those interested in the history of the trail.



I don't remember this park being wet, but we were losing daylight, and the storm was catching up to us again!  Maybe one day we can set out to walk it in its entirety!

later days

edit 8-17-25: backdated for continuity.

If you want to see all the state parks we've visited so far, here are the links to those posts:

Tahquamenon Falls #15
Keith J Charters #33
Algonac #60
Saugatuck Dunes State Park #68Warren Dunes State Park #75a
Warren Woods State Park #75b

78 Michigan Parks: Warren Woods State Park #75b

After the hot, sunny beach, the cooler, humid woods were really pleasant!  Poor Aunt Janet stayed in the car again, and Juliet joined her after the trailhead picture.





The fallen tree in the path required going over or under. The bark was pretty rough, so I opted for under, but my girls were happy to go over!


Another very pretty trail, but this one wasn't heading to the beach!


Land Before Time vibes!




We made it to the bridge, which was our end goal!  The trail kept going, but was clearly less traveled, and we were happy to head back to the car. 




Once we made it back to the car, Avia offered to treat everyone to dinner!  We found a travel plaza that had Burger King, Popeyes, Taco Bell, and Pizza Hut!  My disappointment was vast, when I saw that the Burger King was closed. = (  My disappointment was compounded when I tried to order nachos at Taco Bell, and they informed me that they hadn't gotten any chips in their most recent delivery, so no nachos. = (  I ended up sharing a personal pepperoni pizza with anyone who wanted some, as it was not at all what I wanted.  

The storm Alice had warned us about earlier in the day was quickly moving in, so we hurried to the car to see if we could outrun it.

We did finally break clear of the storm, though it was a downpour on the interstate for several slow miles. En route to our next stop, my mom was able to track down an easy off/easy on Burger King on the map, so I finally got my Whopper!

later days

edit 8-17-25: backdated for continuity.

If you want to see all the state parks we've visited so far, here are the links to those posts:

Tahquamenon Falls #15
Keith J Charters #33
Algonac #60
Saugatuck Dunes State Park #68

78 Michigan Parks: Warren Dunes State Park #75a

All of the parks in this area seemed to be pretty close together, and it felt like we were there and back out in the sun in no time!

This was the final park that promised swimming, so we made sure that the girls had time to swim!


I dopped off my crew at the snow cone stand, and when I went to find a shady spot, drove over to photograph the magnificence of the dunes.  I failed, but they are truly incredible!


Even the small ones are huge!


This state park clearly welcomes thousands of people each summer, and boasts a massive parking lot!


Back at the snow cone stand, we all got standard fare, but Juliet got a blue raspberry with popping pearls. It was quite fancy.


As I ventured over to get a sky filled vantage point of the gulls perched along the railing, I could feel the sand burning my feet!


We were able to get Aunt Janet a chair setup in the shade, closer to the parking lot than the beach.  Avia and I used umbrellas as parasols, and wore socks with our sandals to keep our feet from burning as the sand worked its way in under our feet!  The water was not cool and refreshing, it was quite warm.


The birds got close looking for snacks!


The girls got as long as Avia and I could tolerate.  Sweat was literally rolling down my back, even with the umbrella for shade and my feet in the water!

We had two more parks on the schedule, and while the girls were sad to move, they did get enough water play to make it worth the trip.


Despite all of our water, when we stopped at a farmer's market, where all the adults happily bought fresh fruits and vegetables, everyone got a cold water from the refrigerated display case!  We ate the punnet of raspberries that Avia bought us before we even made it to the next park!


I would totally recommend this beach, but not in the heat of the day!  

later days

edit 8-17-25: backdated for continuity

If you want to see all the state parks we've visited so far, here are the links to the posts:

Tahquamenon Falls #15
Keith J Charters #33
Algonac #60
Saugatuck Dunes State Park #68

78 Michigan Parks: Grand Mere State Park #74

This park took a few wrong turns to find, but we did finally arrive, and managed a parking spot in the shade.



Look at this impressive bug!


The map indicated that the path was at least another half mile trek, so Aunt Janet and Avia opted for the car.  We ran into a gentleman that informed us that the water was 80F, the warmest he'd ever known it to be in the forty years he'd been coming to this park! = 0


The path was pretty!


Until we got into the open sun and sand.  The sand was burning our feet as it slid into our sandals, the bugs were attacking, and the path branched off at an unexpected point, so we voted to turn around. = (


Possible turtle nest? Maybe snake.



When we went back to the map, that I took a picture of the second time, it turns out we made it just over halfway there.  Noone seemed too terribly upset that we didn't make it to the beach. 


We tried at another point, but it led to a private beach, so we didn't go in there either.  Luckily, it was a shorter and pleasanter fail.


Maybe on a cooler or overcast day we can try again at Grand Mere should the opportunity ever arise.  In the meantime, we can say: "been there, done that." 

later days

edit 8-17-25: backdated for continuity.

If you want to see all the state parks we've visited so far, here are the links to the posts:

Tahquamenon Falls #15
Keith J Charters #33
Algonac #60
Saugatuck Dunes State Park #68