Summer has quickly come to an end as school and college season has picked up. This summer was one of our busiest with August being jammed packed full of traveling, birthday’s, and back to school preparations. Ever since last year with our road trip to Vermont, Andrew and I have decided to have one family vacation per summer. This way we get to experience brand new places and have adventures together as a family.
While this year Andrew and I decided to travel away without the kiddos to celebrate our 10th anniversary, we still wanted to do something as a family to commemorate the summer. Last year when we were traveling to and from Vermont, my aunt and her family were taking their summer family trip to the Indiana Dunes National Park. When we all got back, we started making plans to travel and spend a few days there together as a family.
And that’s precisely what we did this summer! One the very first weekend of August, we packed up our cars and took the three-hour drive to Portage, Indiana. We ended up staying at a hotel near the state park and once we arrived, we couldn’t check into our hotel quite yet. So, we decided to take a little detour to Michigan City, Indiana to visit the Washington Park Zoo to kill a few hours before our room was ready.
During our first night at the hotel, we had dinner at Quaker Steak & Lube and spent some time hanging out by the indoor pool at the hotel. The very next morning is when the beach festivities began. We started our morning with breakfast in the hotel and then packed our cars and drove to the Indiana Dunes National Park. We ended up getting there so early that there were hardly any cars or people around.
We set up camp on the beach, right near the water. It was the perfect location where the kids could play in the sand and make castles right in front of us while we the adults hung out under the canopy tent, drinking frozen lemonade and sweet tea vodka drinks. While we were still in the planning stages for this trip, I ended up buying zipper drink bags and inflatable flamingo drink holders so that we could enjoy a frozen drink in style on the beach.
One of my favorite parts during our day at the beach was being able to get some good use out of my Fujifilm Quicksnap Waterproof Disposable Camera. I ended up swimming out into the lake and using the camera to capture the family playing in the water as well as the beautiful views of the beach from the perspective of the being out in the lake. I’d had this camera sitting in my office for over a year and I was so excited that it was finally able to get some use!
And once we had spent an amazing day at the beach building sandcastles, swimming in the lake, and lounging in the sun, we packed up our belongings and headed out back to our hotel. The night was filled with card games as the adults hung out in one hotel room and the kids in the other. The next morning we repeated the entire process as we spent our final day at the beach before packing up our things and heading home the next day.
It was such a memorable trip filled with early morning hotel breakfasts, late-night card games in the hotel room, hours hanging out in the sun, frozen vodka and sweet tea lemonade drinks, and splashing in the hotel pool. Taking this trip over the summer makes me excited for all the adventures that we’ll take in the future as a family!
