Campin'

I went camping 'up north' last weekend and as I promised, I am going to tell you all about it. Plus, with the aid of the Internet I will include photographs with descriptions about what is going on in the photographs!! Get ready! gasetgo! 

 

So yes, Alex and I went to Fishermen's island state park along the lake shore of the lower peninsula. (at the tip of the ring finger on the mitten.) 

We did all of the things you are supposed to do when you go camping. (hiking, swimming, campfires, cooking over the fire in a cast iron skillet, carving sticks, walking through spiderwebs, using the woods as a toilet, sunburn, burning your trash, eating fruit snacks, roasting marshmallows, judging the other campers for not knowing how to appreciate nature the right way, and so on) 

I think having campfires may have been the best part for me for a few reasons. 1) I feel like a man when I find dead trees in the woods and drag them back to camp to break up and burn. 2) we cooked all of our meals over the fire. 3) When I found Phalangium opilio and promptly threw them into the flames. With a vengeance. 4) And because Alex happens to be a pro at roasting marshmallows and then she would give them to me. (We bought a whole bag of 'mallows' but because we are old we only ate like 5 between us.) (side note: has anyone ever noticed how strange the word 'marshmallow' is?) 5) And lastly, because I always love the chance to have a campfire out in the woods. Always have, and always will. 

This is a picture of Alex making pancakes for breakfast! 

This is a tree that was next to our tent!

This is the road we walked down to get to the beach! 

This is our neighbor peeing in/on the woods in the morning! 

So we got the to park Friday night and all day Saturday we spent on the beach.

  I won't take the time to describe it but basically it was a very cool beach.  The water was crystal clear and you could walk out like two hundred feet before it got deep.  

We slept on the beach for a few hours and as a result I now have an awkward sun burn on my chest where I had my shirt over my face. After the beach we walked back to our campsite and saw a dead snake on the road. Then we saw a dead chipmunk. Then we saw a dead frog. We hung around, made another fire and then went back to the beach for the sunset. Be prepared to be jealous now. 

Well, obviously the sunset was amazing. There was also this guy on the beach who was drunk and he kept yelling to this other young man who was taking pictures of the sunset to 'email me some!' of the pictures because he liked it so much. Apparently its totally cool to drink in state parks in Michigan. Go figure.

 Anyways, we left on Sunday and ate lunch at this little place called Shirley's cafe. 

Surprisingly, Shirley's had veggie black bean burgers which were very tasty.  

Whilst we were eating Shirley's cherry pie we asked the waitress where there was a good place to buy cherries?  If you don't know, Michigan is known for their cherries, especially 'up north.' The waitress told us to go to a place fifteen minutes up the road. We did, and we bought some delicious cherries and a glass bottle of tasty root beer. I love drinking soda from glass bottles in the summer. (Hey David, remember that time we did that in Flemington? Good times.) About three hours later we pulled back into the city and it turns out Spain won after all.