We had two plans to close out the end of summer. #1: camping. #2: visiting a lighthouse and basking in the sun on a sandy shore.
Michigan City is the only point where Indiana touches Michigan Lake and contains real beaches that were, in my opinion, better than Florida beaches. So on Sunday morning we packed our car, stopped by Jack’s Donuts to get some dough for the road (and two coffee because what’s a road trip without coffee?), and by 9:30 am we started off on our grand adventure north.
The drive really wasn’t that bad and felt way faster than three hours. Most of the drive was through cornfields with wide-open skies. At 12:00 pm, we made it. I couldn’t wait to get to the dunes and see the expanse of lake that seems for a split second like ocean. We only stayed at the beach for about two hours, but I could’ve sunbathed the entire day. As soon as you crossed over the sand hills and saw the lake, wind brushed up against my skin like a nice hug. Although it wasn’t too crowded, we definitely walked aways down the shoreline to get a good spot of the beach to claim as ours — laying down a turquoise blanket on the beige sand. Before we went to the beach, we stopped in town to get chicken wraps for lunch and more coffee-to-go. We ate on the blanket with seagulls inching close to see if we’d drop any chips (we did).
The Chicago skyline could be seen from the shore, a gorgeous silhouette of the skyscrapers which held a bustling city in its grasp. We joked that we did what we called “The Full Chicagy.” This summer, we traveled to both the southern and northern edges of Indiana. In August, we visited a little riverfront town, Madison, Indiana, where the Ohio River is the border between our state and Kentucky. Then this past weekend we traveled as north as we could while staying in Indiana’s borders. Hence, “The Full Chicagy” being when you travel to both edges of the state in the same season. We’re very clever. 😉
Another wonderful thing about Michigan city is the historic lighthouse on the pier. I’ve never seen a lighthouse in person before this trip, and even though it’s no longer a working lighthouse, only there for historic integrity, it lit inspiration inside me. When we walked out on the pier, waves lapping up onto the concrete, splashing us slightly. I couldn’t help but think that it was like a set for a rom-com movie. One where two lovers would be next to each other, walking hand-in-hand towards the lighthouse, sun setting in the distances. I mean that is basically what we did. And it was wonderful. This might seriously inspire me to write something along those lines… but we’ll see where that takes me.
Nonetheless, I think we had a fairly good end-of-summer, hello-fall trip. Caleb told me that as we were walking away from the lighthouse, he felt that summer was wrapped up right then and there. An outro to what was probably the best summer we’ve lived through. A prelude to the rest of what this year has up its long sleeves, which are many more adventures and warm pumpkin spice lattes. That counts as a pretty good trip in our book.
Megan Elaine 