Rejuvenated

We're back from vacation! We're relaxed! We had a great time!

My parents rented a house for a week in South Haven, Michigan. They were there for a couple days, then my youngest sister and her husband arrived, I showed up with my girls, middle sis drove down with her girls, Paul flew up, and my last brother-in-law checked in. Then we started the reverse process in a different order, finally checking out (almost) by 9:00 yesterday morning. Despite constant comings and goings, it was a remarkably stress-free vacation.

South Haven is a wonderful place with a quaint little downtown. Our house was only a couple of blocks from the smooth, powdery, clean beach. We were also within easy walking distance of the river, piers, shops, and a great park. We played at the beach every day, enjoyed a historic tug boat tour out on Lake Michigan, took my dad out for a Father's Day brunch, ate delicious ice cream cones, let the girls run wild at the park, and sat around an outdoor firepit drinking beer and making each other laugh as the little ones slept.

We divvied up the meals with each family taking one or two and bringing along all the necessary ingredients so that we didn't have to eat out and one person wasn't stuck doing all the cooking.

St. Louis was deadly hot last week, and I was glad to escape. It was 15-20 degrees cooler up in Michigan, but that's still pretty warm. It's no fun to walk around in 85-degree sunshine, but there's a big difference between there and here. In 100 degree weather, it's hot everywhere you go. In 85-degree heat with a slight breeze off the lake, sitting in the shade with a cool drink is just lovely.

My girls are fabulous travelers, and we made the 6+ hour drive from St. Louis with only 2 stops and no potty accidents! Woo hoo! It was the first time I'd driven quite that far with them by myself. (Paul had a meeting he couldn't skip, so he joined us mid-week.)

I'm left with the feeling that we did everything I wanted to do (swim, build sand castles, read, sleep, visit, take the girls out in a boat) but there was still so much more we could have done (horseback riding, shopping, inland nature walks, playing board games). That's a wonderful way to end a vacation: feeling good, feeling like it might be fun to go back someday.