Trip: Saugutuck, Michigan

Sunday, July 15th 2012

We cruised out of Chicago with no problems on a late Sunday morning after dropping Jack off at the bus station.  An easy 2 1/2 hour drive.  We have never been to Saugutuck before, we were looking for somewhere to stay for a few days in south western Michigan after Chicago.  We stayed at the Ship and Shore Motel – right out of the 1960s.  We had a pretty small no frills room to share between the five of us, but we dealt with it especially after having such nice digs in Chicago.  We walked around the town in the afternoon, lots of nice shops, places to eat, galleries and of course ice cream stores.  The motel was right on the river with a balcony looking out over the pool and the river so it was nice to just hang out.  The weather was hot hot hot the whole time we were there, getting close to 100 degrees in the late afternoon.  We went to dinner at a bar called Wally’s that was nice and casual, went to the corner ice cream place for ice cream and fudge after and then strolled back to our motel and hung outside until it go dark…not until 10:00 or even later.

Monday July 16th, 2012

After breakfast chez motel we took off for the beach.  We went to Oval Beach which was just on the other side of the river from our motel, but you had to go a round about way to get there.  Oval Beach is one of the best fresh water beaches according to many.  Beautiful sand, large sand dunes, fresh, clear water and no buildings at all.  Really quite amazing.  It was great to sit and relax after such a busy wedding weekend. Courtney and I went on a long walk to the end where the river went in and then went swimming where we were the only ones.  It was wonderful. We ended up getting lunch at the beach as they had a really nice concession stand with lots of different things.   We stayed all morning and went up around 2:00 or so.  We took a drive to Crain’s Pie’s that we read about that was about a half hour away.  We each got a piece of pie and hung out for awhile.  We stopped at a winery on the way back that we passed and had a tasting and bought a couple of bottles.  Went back to the motel, hung out, went to dinner late at an Italian place across the street, had more ice cream of course and then hung outside in the heat until bed.

Tuesday, July 17th, 2012

Off to the beach again in the morning.  This time we went to Saugutuck Dunes, which was just a mile or so north.  This beach was interesting in that you had to hike a half mile to get to the beach through the woods and sand dunes.  It was worth the hike.  While not as big as Oval beach it was still very nice.  We stayed at the beach all morning again and then hung out at the pool, went shopping and relaxed.  We went to the Butler for dinner which reminded me of a 1960’s version of the Cabin back here.  We had a nice last vacation dinner.

Wednesday, July 18th, 2012

We headed home around 9:00 or so.  We stopped at Ikea in Ann Arbor on the way home for just a quick stroll through and stocked up on our usual Ikea purchases.  We had lunch there too – the first time we have ate at an Ikea after going to them for so many years.  The lunch was good and cheap.  The swedish meatballs were the best of course.  Made it home with no probs and happy to be home after a nice time away.