The Windy City

Happy Father's Day!

After leaving our day in Starbucks, we were happy to find a state park to run loose in. We arrived in Punderson State Park in Ohio and got set up in a great site just before the rains came. It was right next to some woods that started to glow with lightning bugs as the sun went down and I got to show the boys something I remember of visiting the East every summer to see my cousins. It took them all of two minutes to catch their first one and held it glowing in their cupped hands. This has become a favorite activity as we are still in the midwest and we all love to see those little bugs come out at night!

Punderson State Park is next to Chagrin Falls, which is where one of Chris' colleagues live. They took us out to a great restaurant in this cute town and our kids all had fun playing soccer, eating ice cream and becoming friends. After our little stop, we headed on to Michigan City, IN, which is just outside of Chicago! A stop in Elkhart, IN to take in some Amish country proved not to be the peaceful farm setting I had envisioned and instead treated us to some gunshots as we drove by. We did find a great place to eat that welcomed the dogs on their patio though.


Michigan City, IN provided a sweet little campground that had summer in full swing. Their were families vacationing and kids running everywhere. People had their grills out, music on, and bikes and scooters zipped everywhere. The boys joined right in and I was forced to make the decision to either rein them in as I haven't let them play outside of my eyesight yet, or let them go. I chose to let them go and they were off! They played basketball, tag, rode bikes, skateboards, scooters and fished non stop whenever we were at the home base. There was a pool we would all head over to and more friendships were made. The kids discovered there were quarter candies in the little store and their wallets were raided for allowance money. If you ask the boys what they remember of Chicago, it will most likely be this campground, but I'm here to tell them we made plenty of other memories as well!

We landed at the Indiana National Lakeshore located on Lake Michigan (Third Great Lake!) and took in the sunset. We walked through the woods with pink and purple skies and lighting bugs glowing all around us.

City Kids

We went to the city and played Clue in a coffee shop, strolled through the zoo, and watched beach goers party on the lake.

Getting in the pics

A day was spent at Shedd Aquarium falling in love with beluga whales, penguins, and otters.

It was as cool as I imagined it to be

We took a day and headed to Notre Dame to walk their paths and look at the basilica and the next we went on a couple of RV factory tours at Keystone.

Fancy seeing you in Chicago!

And, we welcomed Mike! My dad happened to be working about a 50 min. flight away from us, so he hopped on a plane and flew to see us for a weekend. We thought Mike would enjoy staying in a state park on the shores of Lake Michigan a bit more than our party campground, so we packed up and headed North to Illinois Beach State Park. It's always nice to get back into a state park with large spaces, lots of trees, and a bit more of a calm environment. We spent the weekend in the city again playing around awesome playgrounds, climbing rock walls, taking in the Museum of Science and Industry, and of course eating Chicago Dogs!

Scaling the City

A little baseball, a little sun, a lot of fun!