Young State Park 2011

Once again, we borrowed Matt's pick-up and Uncle Ed's RV and headed north to Young State Park.  This has truly become our end-of-the-summer home away from home.  We are able to relax and kick back there and other than Zack getting a little bored now and then, we all seem to enjoy the routine.   We have been going there long enough, we kinda have our favorite things to do...such as our traditional first meal of steak and corn-on-the-cob, our numerous trips into Kilwin's (or Dairy Queen)...along with once-a-day wifi trips into town also.   We will almost always make a trip up to Charlevoix or Petosky...and sometimes both, and every other year we will probably rent a jet ski for a day.  This year Zack and I made history by making a long jet ski trip up to Charlevoix  and going under the draw bridge on the jet ski while it was up...and then going on out into Lake Michigan...just far enough to say we were there.  It was a fun trip.
We also hang at the beach...and by the way, Young State Park has an awesome beach on Lake Charlevoix.  We can walk from our camper down to the beach in just a couple minutes.   We always take our bikes and they get plenty of use, and we will usually make a bike trip into town...although this year we did not.

Many years we will take a family hike on the hiking trails and this year I had a specific goal in mind.  I wanted to try and "recapture" a picture we had taken years ago during our family hike of the kids and I.  And, the goal was also to try and find the same place...or at least someplace that looked about the same with the tree we were sitting on and the trees behind us.  We didn't exactly succeed in duplicating the picture...but it was fun trying and the updated picture of the kids and I was a memory maker in itself.
We eat out a lot and have some favorite places, but this year  BC Pizza was the place for us.  One day I think we had donuts for breakfast and just bread sticks and cheese bread for supper.  We were quite the junk food junkies...and lovin every minute!

I buy our firewood by the truck full.  We kinda like to keep the fire going...most of the time.   It's the kind of fire that you only have to throw a little more kindling on in the morning and the hot coals, and a little fanning or blowing will get it going.    And, personally, the coffee maker is a huge part of my vacation needs, along with my little transistor radio...which this year I discovered I could also get working on battery power, so I was able to take it to the beach with us.  There is a great radio station out of Petosky that plays a great mix of oldies and pop rock. (Lite 96.3 WLXT) that I usually keep tuned in.

That's the quick re-cap of our camping trip.   I recommend Young State Park as a great place to go...but being in the campground business...I have to really watch promoting "other" campgrounds too much.