Grand Haven - what a beautiful place.

Zoe here: So, here we are after just an hour on the road. It was hard to leave Holland, but Grand Haven is centered on the harbor that leads directly to Lake Michigan and it has great sand beaches to wrestle on with Phaedra. She's so funny. She'll dig her whole head down into the sand, come up covered from nose to neck with sand, then shake her head back and forth so that sand goes flying everywhere! We don't get lost here, either, because this is where Mom and Dad lived 40 years ago when they first got married! They moved here in 1969 right after they were married. We passed their first apartment building when we entered GH from Holland. They couldn’t believe how much the area has grown and changed. They used to be at the edge of town and now it’s practically in the middle.

Our campground is right on the beach and the channel where boats enter the harbor. There is a great dog walk along the channel that goes from the Grand Haven Lighthouse to the village of Grand Haven. The only trouble is that there are too many people on it. We have lots of fun every morning when Dad walks way out to the end of the pier where the light station is. I almost jumped into the channel the other morning, though, when the loud groan happened. Dad assured me that it is only the fog horn. Mom keeps on saying how much she loves hearing the fog horn in the middle of the night. I wonder why she's awake then, but I don't care really. I'm under the covers between them and not worried about anything!

Mom and Dad have really great friends here in GH, too. They are Mary and Barry. I guess they all traveled together when they were first living in GH. I heard something about Mom seeing the Northern Lights on their trip around Lake Superior together. They were sharing a tent that was 7 feet wide and 14 feet long. They used to hang a sheet down the middle so each couple had a side to themselves. The night Mom saw the Northern Lights. She was so excited that she woke everyone up. They all laughed so hard at her that she almost slept in the car. You see, she was looking at the ceiling of the tent and saw the flicker of a campfire on the inside of the tent. Maybe there had been some wine or something else that helped her see the Northern Lights. Who knows! Anyway, we got to hear all about that when the four of them got together. It is like they started the conversation that began in 1973 without any gap in between. I don’t think Mom and Mary have stopped talking yet!

So far, they played golf, rode bikes, had a picnic with friends from long ago and got to meet Maggie's granddaughter, went to a floral art show called Nature’s Creative Edge, played bridge (whatever that is…) and, of course, went to Panera! All of this is while we stay back in the camper with nothing to do!

The best day we had was the day that Mom and Dad took us for a seven-hour car ride. They drove to a place called Ludington to visit the State Park. We were able to get out and walk around. We saw a beautiful bird that a man there said was a juvenile eagle. It was really a hawk. We hiked by a dam on Hamlin Lake. That was fun. We went from the park south toward Grand Haven. We made many stops along the way. We saw a lighthouse in Ludington, had a picnic in Pentwater, saw another lighthouse on the Lake Michigan beach near Silver Lake and visited one more with a museum in Whitehall. Then we returned to North Muskegon to see their first house. We were all glad to get back to our Grand Haven Beach.

We go to Traverse City on Thursday where Dad will conduct Erin and Jason’s wedding. I think he is nervous. Maybe I’ll volunteer to do the wedding. Phaedra can help.

I wonder what tomorrow will bring.