Houghton Lake is not a State Park on my list, and therefore does not get the state park treatment, but it was our final stop on the UP Trip.
My mom found an amusement/fun park, and we definitely had fun!
First up were go-carts! Poor Grace was still too short for the figure eight track, but it seemed like everything was meant to be on the 'smaller' track, because there were three adult cars and five kid's cars!
They didn't announce winners, which was fine, I think I lapped everyone except for Billy and my mom.
Next up were the bumper boats! Since we were pretty much the only party there that early, we didn't have to wait in line or anything!
The boats had squirters so that you could squirt people, there were also waterfalls we could bump each other under. It was really fun, and we all got quite wet.
Our next event was putt-putt. Of course we had to split into two groups, but they had two courses, so we weren't waiting on eight people at each hole! Billy won in our group (Billy, Avia, William, me) and Emily won in her group (Alice, Emily, Grace, Juliet.) I have no pictures, because we were too busy having fun! We were all nice and dry by the end of 18 holes!
There is a haunted house at this park, but we didn't tour it. We did take some pictures with the outdoor props however.
The last thing we did was spend some time in the arcade.
Apparently, they couldn't get enough foosball!
Our final stope at Houghton Lake was for lunch. We found a lovely local place, which had a sand beach and yard games! The smoke dampened the view, but we managed to make the best of it.
Exceptionally low visibility.
My mom was the DD for the final couple of hours, so that Billy and I could each have a couple of fancy drinks at the restaurant. They were quite pretty!
I, for the second day in a row, did not get my food in time, despite ordering a sandwich and had to watch everyone else eat. = ( Alice was also missing her entree, but did get her side! Once I did get my food, it was good. I think everyone enjoyed what they got once it came.
William taking a picture of the twins.
The picture he took:
Overall, it was a really great trip. If I could have changed anything, it would have been more time at each of the fun parks! I enjoyed different aspects of each of our lodgings, and would stay in each one again.
All told, Alice earned 3 and Emily earned 10 of their 50 driver's training hours! The adults logged even more. ; )
Hopefully we can make our way back to the UP to knock off some of those missing parks, and visit some of the other highly recommended attractions too!
later days
