GRAND HAVEN

We began our Lake Michigan Beach Tour with Grand Haven State Park this week.  But on our way there we stopped off in Baldwin, Michigan for a birthday party.

Kevin’s sister Barbara and her husband Mitch hosted a birthday party at their cottage on Big Star Lake for Kevin’s brother Otto.   

HAPPY BIRTHDAY OTTO!

The party was great fun with 7 of the 9 siblings in attendance, a pot luck of wonderful food, perfect weather and a wonderful venue!

Grand Haven

Kevin and I spent four nights/days at Grand Haven State Park.  It is located right on Lake Michigan.

During our time there we had maybe 3 hours of sunshine, the rest of the time was rain, fog, clouds and wind.  Not the greatest weather but we are seeing that the weather is supposed to improve and we are hopeful.

During that brief glimpse of sun, we grabbed our beach chairs and headed for the beach and it was wonderful to feel the warmth of the sun on our faces.  However Kevin and I had totally different experiences.  He happened to see fish swimming close to the shore and jumped up to take their picture and share his experience with strangers sitting a little ways from us and I somehow missed the whole thing.  I’m not positive how it happened but I think I may have fallen asleep 🙂

There’s nothing better than an afternoon nap by the water!

The next day it rained all day and our friends Tim and Trisha joined us camping for a night.  We couldn’t do anything with all the rain but we did make it out to the Tap-A-Few Tavern for a couple of drinks and dinner.  After dinner we went back to their camper (which seemed to be three times the size of ours, super nice!) and they taught us a new card game called Up and Down the River (I think).

I can’t remember much about the card game, but I do remember we had a really fun time with them! On the way back to the campground, we caught this freighter coming into the slip.

The next day was super foggy.  We kept waiting for the fog to burn off but it didn’t.  Kevin is enjoying what he calls “running the rocks” so he doesn’t much care what the weather is for that and I am happy reading my James Patterson books.  So despite the weather, we are content.

That evening, we met up with Kevin’s sisters Andrea and Nancy, Andrea’s husband Willy, Nancy’s daughter Kristy and her friend Patrick for a nice dinner at Snug Harbor just down the street from our campground.  It was so nice for them to meet up with us for an evening and we really enjoyed catching up.

Beach Tour

So our goal with this Lake Michigan Beach Tour is to compare some of the state parks on Lake Michigan and see how they fare against each other. 

What we liked about Grand Haven:

Being on the lake and having a really nice beach;

Volleyball nets set up on the beach;

Kevin enjoyed “running the rocks”;

The pier was nice to walk out on and check up on how good the fishermen were doing;

Fishing off the pier;

The sailboats and lake freighters coming in at that point;

The bathrooms/showers were large and clean;

Grand Haven has over 100 bike paths

What we didn’t like:

The campground was an asphalt parking lot;

No water hookups for the campers;

No alcohol allowed;

Each site was fairly small and we were all crammed in together;

The sites had no individual fire pits; there were community grills, like maybe 3 for all, but very awkward to use;

No alcohol allowed;

There was green algae at the water’s edge

Oh, and did I mention there was no alcohol allowed 🙂

Rating

So, I think on a scale of 1 to 10, we are going to give Grand Haven State Park a rating of 6.

Now, since we have no other state parks to compare to yet, that rating could easily change.  And I have to admit, when I am analyzing these parks, I think about my grandchildren and if the campground/state park provides any entertainment for them.  Aside from the beach, there is a little playground area but I don’t think that would entertain them for long.

And one of my biggest concerns is the danger that comes with swimming in Lake Michigan.  I knew there were drownings here but there is a lot of them.  So I would bring my grandkids here and we could play in the water, at the water’s edge but I wouldn’t want to see them swimming in it.  But I can’t really count that against Grand Haven because that is a Lake Michigan thing.  We did hear that Grand Haven is more dangerous because of the piers.  The angle of the wind and direction of the water creates strong riptide/undertoes.

Scary stuff!!