Big Shoal

We are home. We drove straight through from Drummond Island to Pittsburgh. We were in the car for almost 12 hours! We only stopped 2 times on the way back!

The kids did great! They were basically exhausted from our rigorous vacation schedule and were happy to sit in the car and relax for a while.

John and I realized after Grandma and Grandpa left that we were on our first non-extended family-vacation since we had kids. Even though we missed Grandma and Grandpa we really enjoyed being together with just the 6 of us.

We let the kids take super late afternoon naps and then kept them up every night doing activities until at least 9 pm. They slept like rocks. And John and I were able to enjoy the sun setting so late (about 10 pm!) instead of being trapped in the cabin waiting for the boys to fall asleep at 7 pm.

One of our favorite activities was taking the kids to the beach at Big Shoal Bay. I think that we went there 3 times! It is a sandy beach in a cove on the south east side of the island in lake Huron. In addition to the sand on the beach there are tons of huge rock boulders sticking up which were fun for the kids to climb. The bay was really shallow and you could walk out into the water for a long ways until it got too deep. In a few years if we teach the kids to snorkel we can all check out the ship wrecks at the opening of the bay from the turn of the century when the island was used to transport lumber.Fun!


The beach also had a fresh water stream that emptied into the lake here. The water coming from the stream was about 40 degrees! It felt like melted snow! But the water in the lake was 80 degrees so there were pockets and pools of water that were really hot and some that were really cold. It didn't take the kids long to figure out where they wanted to play!


Even though Shane was born in Pittsburgh, he has Michigan in his blood! That boy couldn't get enough beach time! He crawled everywhere! At one point Shane crawled into the freezing cold spring water briefly before he decided that the lake was a lot nicer place to play. He had SO much fun on the beach. My baby even screamed and cried when we had to go home!


The best thing about the beach was how low maintenance the kids were! John and I sat on a picnic table and talked and enjoyed the sun while the kids played. They played SO well together! We didn't have to break up any fights or put anyone in time out! It was so relaxing! We can't wait to go back next year!