trip #5

Good morning.
It was a beautiful Independence Day weekend! Upper 80's, sunshine, and good friends. We were joined at the campground by Tom and Dean, our camping friends from Wisconsin.
Since they arrived a day earlier then us, Tom made us a welcome dinner of tater tot casserole on Friday after we arrived. We spent the rest of the afternoon catching up on each others lives. With the distance between us, we only see each other once or twice a year.

Our campsite with Tom and Dean across the way.

After catching up, it was down to the beach, where local communities teamed up with the DNR to do fireworks. They had a barge out in the lake they shot the fireworks from. It was a good show with thousands of people there to watch. But being by the lake as it got dark, the temps quickly dropped. We weren't dressed for that and it was a cold long walk back to the campground as the beach trail is still closed. On Saturday, Dean fixed a delicious breakfast of omelets, toast and sausage links. After hanging out and enjoying the weather, we decided to go up to the Four Winds casino 20 some miles north of the campground just across the Michigan border. It's a much nicer casino than the Blue Chip and Tom and Dean hadn't been there yet. Well, as our apparent tradition continued, they lost money, and we walked out $7 ahead. So we took them to the Texas Corral for steak dinners. Then back to the campground for movie night. Sunday had us repeating breakfast since it was so good the day before, and Dean loves to cook. Then it was down to the beach for sun, sand, and scenery. Here's a pic I took of my early Sunday morning bike ride while everyone was still sleeping. The beach was deserted. Not even the clean-up crews were out yet.

And here's a couple of pics of the beach as we were leaving around 1pm.

For those of you who don't live near the great lakes. They look just like oceans. And fortunately, we have no oil wells.

Then back to the campground to shower to remove the suntan lotion and sweat. It was a hot weekend with temps around 90.

For dinner, I cooked some pork cutlets, Dean grilled corn, and we added some store bought potato salad and macaroni salad.

Then another movie night since it was way to hot for a campfire.

Monday morning, we broke down the camp, said our goodbyes, since they were staying one more day, and made it back home safely without any 'incidences'.

It was a good trip