Weekend in Indiana

Every couple of years, we like to go visit Hammond, Indiana. Hubby's grandparents are buried there and it's nice to go visit when we can. Plus, as it turns out, it's close to some fun things! Last time, we visited a cool children's museum. This time, we explored the Indiana Dunes National Park.

We headed out on Friday night, so that we'd be ready to do all the fun on Saturday. We were staying pretty close to the park, so we headed over right after breakfast.

First, we hit the visitors center. They had an art walk outside, and a cool displays inside. The boys were particularly fond of this canoe.

After reading up and watching a short movie to learn all about them, we decided it was time to check out the dunes in person. There are three big ones at the park along a hiking trail loop. Our little ones aren't exactly enthusiastic hikers, so we decided to take the route that had an early shortcut out, if they decided they'd had enough.

We made it up the tallest mound, 192ft incline.. lots of stairs, lots of slippy, sandy trails.. and, as I had suspected, the boys had had enough. So, we took the shortcut out. At the car, as we emptied the sand from our shoes, I noticed that Moon's toes were amazing!

Happily, the dunes are near Lake Michigan, so our next stop was the beach. Turns out that Saturdays afternoon is a popular time to visit the beach! It was super crowded. However, the water was warm and the waves were inviting and so, we tucked ourselves and our stuff in a small, clear space and got to splashing.

It's always fun to see how differently the boys go at things. Moon was in and out of the water, gathering buckets of water and sand, running back and forth, dumping them near our towels. Rolling in the waves as they broke against the shore..

Townshend took a little more time to go out into the waves. But, once he decided to go, he went in up to his shoulders and stayed out there, jumping with the waves as they rolled by. Occasionally, he'd come out and lay on the towels to warm up, then back in he'd go.

Eventually, it was time to go back to the hotel and take baths (so much sand everywhere!!). On Sunday, we took flowers to the cemetery. We walked around a little and talked about forever families. Then, back home we went. As long as the traffic cooperates, it's only about an hour to drive over there, and it's always a nice weekend. I'm glad we go.