Roughing it, but not really

This post was actually started several days ago, but just finished today. It’s also only the first of several vacation-related entries. I thought I’d be blogging a lot more while we were here, but there’s just so much relaxing to do!

I’ll be honest, the first few hours of our vacation had me worried. Actually, I’d probably have to go back further than that. I’d been watching the forecast before we left, and without one of the seven days we’d be on vacation scheduled to be above seventy degrees and most of them accompanied by rain clouds, it wasn’t looking good.

Our destination: Palisades Park, somewhere outside of South Haven, Michigan. It’s a pretty even cross between a state park and that family resort place that Baby’s family stayed at in Dirty Dancing. In fact, it’s an exact cross between those two places. But, what it’s certainly not – Suburbia.

As we drove through the narrow sandy roads of the forest/campground that was to house our beach home, Jeff and I, being the antithesis of “campers,” were getting anxious. The cottages here range from humble cabins, like ours, to full-on multi-level lodges with luxury cars parked out front. Some are right on the beach, but most are nestled and hardly visible in the thick wooded landscape.

Our cabin had one major advantage – It was clearly decorated by someone with impeccable taste, because at least 90% of the interior came straight from IKEA. However, we quickly realized it wasn’t as modern as its décor. The first indicator was the temperature. It was chilly, and even though all of the rooms had wall heaters, none of them seemed to work. Surely, the nights won’t get that cold - Maybe that’s what the fireplace is for.

We went almost immediately to find the beach, which wasn’t as easy as we thought. Turns out most of the families in this community have been coming here for generations and there aren’t that many renters like us, so general information like maps are scarce. We did find a small beach that we thought was underwhelming, but Evan loved.

When we got back to the house, Evan was in dire need of a bath, which is when we found out the biggest drawback of the cottage – tepid water. It’s the kind of water that when you put your hand under it, it almost feels warm, but then you jump in and realize it’s actually freezing cold. Luckily the bathroom sink was huge and got hot water, so Evan was taken care of, but we were facing a week of cold showers – ugh!

But then things started to look up, we talked to the owners, who said they’d send someone to look at the shower, and they told us that the heaters did work - they just needed time to kick on. I was very relieved when the cottage got almost too toasty.

The next day we went out again in search of a better beach and found it. The beaches here are actually gorgeous. I’m not sure how many miles of beach the club actually owns, and some spots are better than others, but if you’re a resident, you have access to all of it. Sometimes, I almost forget we’re on a lake and not at the ocean. Some of the sand is black though, so Evan is always really dirty when we get home.

It has been chilly at times, and I definitely haven’t been sunbathing, but that hasn’t mattered so much. Evan could care less how cold it is, and it’s kind of nice to sit on the beach with a blanket and just enjoy the scenery and listen to the waves. Since it’s still early June, we’ve had the beach mostly to ourselves. Although, there’s usually a few other people out and they don’t seem to mind the temperature either. In fact, we’ve seen several of them wade out into the lake, Jeff did too – that’s crazy!

We’ve been loving vacation life and even though it’s a tad “rougher” than we’re used to, it’s been a perfect fit for us. I’ve only taken like a billion pictures, and there’s a lot more to tell. But, since I seem to only post once a week these days, it might take me all summer to finish blogging about it!