Michigan Vacation Day 5: Asher's 1st National Park Stamp!

Today, after a rough night of sleep for all of us (Asher seemed to not be feeling well), we woke up at the cottage, packed up all of our things, loaded up the van and then headed Northwest to Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore.  This was an exciting thing for our family, as we planned to purchase Asher his very own Passport book so that he could get his first (of many) National Park stamps!  For those of you that have no idea what I am talking about, here is a little background:

When Eric was a kid, his family went on family vacations every year.  Most of those vacations included visiting at least one National Park.  At some point in the mid 1980's the National Park Service came out with passport books where you could collect National Park Passport Cancellation Stations.  Eric received one of these books and began to collect, building quite a collection and become a lover of the National Parks themselves.  When we got married, Eric and I agreed that we would do our best to continue the tradition and try to visit at least one National Park a year.  He could not wait for me to get my Passport so that I could begin my own collection of stamps.  On our honeymoon, I received my passport and first stamp at Haleakala National Park on Maui, and over the past 11 years, we have continued to collect as many as we can from our vacations such as Acadia National Park, Everglades National Park, Canaveral National Seashore, Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, San Juan National Historic Site, Virgin Islands National Park and others.  Due to life getting in the way, we have not always been able to visit a park EVERY year, but we've done the best we could.  Last year was one of the years we missed.  We had originally planned to visit Grand Canyon National Park in the summer of 2012.  Then, we found out that we were expecting and those plans went out the window.  When this summer approached, we decided that we needed to get back on track and visit at least one National Park this year.  At first, we talked about going West to the Badlands and Mount Rushmore, but after realizing that Asher is not always the most patient traveler, we decided it best to stay a little closer to home.  Thus, we agreed on a vacation to Michigan and found it suiting that Asher's first Passport Cancelation Stamp be from the state we both grew up in and love.

So back to today's adventure...  As I said we got up, said goodbye to Eric's parents and left.  Asher slept for the first couple of hours, but after lunch he was awake and ready to be out of his carseat.  Unfortunately, we still had a few hours before we reached our destination.  He protested the sitation to us and since we couldn't just let him get out of his carseat we did the best we could to deal with the situation.  Which means, that I went into the backseat and did whatever I could think of to make him happy (ie treats, funny faces, songs, my ipad, etc).  I was able to calm him for a little while, but eventually I became unintersting to our little man and he was screaming again.  It started to rain, and we stopped at a rest stop for a little break.  Eric and Asher got out of the car and ran around in the rain for a bit, while I had a few (much-needed) quiet moments to myself in the van.  When the boys returned, everyone was a bit happier and soon after Asher fell back asleep (thankfully!).

When we were all back in the car and it had become quiet in the back, I wanted to know if Asher had fallen asleep, but I was afraid to do anything that would wake him.  I have said many times on our travels that I wish I had a baby periscope to look up and over my seat to check on him.  This time Eric figured it out.  He told me to get out my ipad and flip the camera around, so I could look up at what it was seeing.  It worked beautifully.  As you can see, Asher is quiet, but still awake...

...(moments later)...he is now quiet and asleep...yay!

The remainder of the drive, went pretty smoothly.  We got close to Sleeping Bear Dunes and then took a little detour around a beautiful inland lake.  When we arrived at the park entrance, we stopped to take a few family pictures.

Afterwards, we headed another 10 miles or so North to the park headquarters to get our park maps, check out the information about the park and then get our Cancellation stamps.

My hair is unfortunately covering him up a bit, but this is Asher getting his first Passport Cancelation Stamp.

My Stamp.

Eric's Stamp.

After our Passports were stamped, we went on a little hike in the woods to a bluff on the Lakeshore.  It was a beautiful hike, but we were a bit bummed because it was so foggy out that when we got to the bluff we could not see anything.  We could hear the seagulls and the waves crashing on the shore, but there was no lake in sight.

Emma, Asher & I walking the trail.

Our family with the "view" from the bluff.

After the bluff, we headed to the Dune Climb, which is approximately 150 feet tall.  There is another Dune that is 450 tall, but we never made it that way and wouldn't have been allowed to climb it even if we did.  This one was enough work on its own though, especially when carrying a baby.

Eric and Asher starting the climb.  You'd think that the top is where you don't see more sand...you're wrong.  Once you get to that point, you just see more sand...

Asher was hungry while at the Dune Climb.  I gave him some goldfish crackers to tide him over until dinner.  He thought they tasted best dipped in sand. 

Eric starting a new tradition with Asher?

Eric keeping our own tradition alive.

Asher LOVED to play in the sand here.  It was so fine...I'd love to return and make a gigantic sandcastle with him some day!

See the goldfish/sand mouth?

Playing in the sand with Daddy

Where'd your foot go Asher?

I've said it before, I will say it [countless times] again... I love my family!

Our little boy...all alone?

The view from as far up as we made it...we were told it was another mile or so to the lake, and with tired legs and a tired/hungry baby, we decided it wasn't worth it.

Video: Eric & Asher making their way down the dune

After the Dune Climb, we went out to find a place to eat...which turned out to be a difficult task.  Asher was very hungry and grumpy and I was pretty much ready to go to bed.  There were no towns around the park area that were big enough to have fast food, so we had to find some place local.  Since this is a tourist destination, there were quite a few places to eat, but all of them were packed and were either too pricey or had too long of a wait.  We finally found this little restaurant called Art's Tavern.  The inside area had a bigger menu, but also a wait.  The outside area had chicken sandwiches and hamburgers.  We got one of each, pulled Asher's high chair from the van and ate.  It was pretty good and mostly I was just happy to make my little guy happy again.  Once we were all fed, we had hoped to find a place to stay for the night in the area so that we could see the park without the fog.  Every place we checked was either full, very costly, or didn't allow pets (we did still have Emma with us).  Instead, we continued our drive for another 1.5 hours and headed to Eric's grandmother's cottage in Gaylord, which would be our home until the end of the week.