I should mention that, during the week-long hiatus of this blog, earlier this month, we had the pleasure of having my father-in-law Wendell and his wife Judy come up from California for a visit. I guess we could have joked about saying “hot enough for you?” to them when they came up, as temperatures throughout the visit consistently went into the 30s (Celsius), however, they’d left a Fresno where temperatures had been in the triple digits (Fahrenheit), so this was a bit of a cool respite for them.
We took the opportunity to rent a van and head west into Michigan to visit Wendell’s brother Stan, and also to spend a couple of days in Benton Harbor, enjoying the beach. The first day was excruciatingly hot (bare feet burned on the sand), but at least the water was cool, if placid as a sheet of glass. The kids weren’t enthused about going back a second time, however, but this time the skies were cloudy, the sand cooler and, most importantly, there were waves. The kids love to body-surf.
Although we’ve made the long run west before, heading to Des Moines instead of Benton Harbor, it was a bit of a long trip in the rented van this time around. Fortunately, we had a day to recover back home once we’d returned, and another day for the kids to spend more quality time with their California grandparents.
More photos of our beach run can be found here