As the kids' schedules get busier, the long week-ends away that we get to take as a family have become less and less. With Columbus Day sneaking up on us the beginning of October, I realized that we might be able to take advantage of a day off school to go somewhere fun as a family. Staley had a cross country meet on Saturday morning and Zach wanted to be back for work on Monday as he had just started working in a new department, so we shoehorned a quick trip away into the 24 hours or so that we had available.
And it was great!!
After getting home from Staley's cross country meet, we all packed super quickly, loaded in the car, ate cold leftover pizza and snacks for lunch as we drove, and made it to our destination by later afternoon. We went straight to our first destination...the 3 Dune Challenge.
Although one of our purposes for this destination was to mark another National Park off our list, the 3 Dune Challenge was actually in the State Park. According to the gate attendant charging us the State Park entrance fee, the State Park was established first and is separate from the National Park surrounding it. So the State Park is surrounded by National Park land but is not actually part of the National Park. I think it's just a hustle to charge people with a National Park Pass an extra $12.
The 3 Dune Challenge is a 1.5 mile hike that takes you up the three tallest sand dunes of the Indiana Dunes.
The scenery was really pretty, the sand was plentiful, and we had to stop regularly to dump out our shoes, but we made it to the top of Mt. Jackson (176 feet above Lake Michigan)...
Mt Holden (184 feet above Lake Michigan)...
and Mt Tom (192 feet above Lake Michigan).
We also added on a little extra distance since I can't be that close to a Lake Michigan beach around sunset and not visit it.
It was also cool as we could look across Lake Michigan and see the Chicago skyline in the distance.
After enjoying a little beach time and finishing our hike, we headed to Octave Grill in Chesterton for dinner. It was a cute little restaurant. We were all famished (I guess our car snacky lunch didn't satisfy), but the 20 minute wait for a table was worth it as the food was really good. The taco tots as an appetizer were a surprising highlight, and the homemade brownie/ice cream dessert was an unsurprising highlight. After dinner, we checked into our hotel. The girls and I settled in, showered, and read for a bit while Zach took Briggs down to the hotel pool. Briggs was the only member of the family interested in a little night time swim before bed, but he enjoyed getting the pool all to himself.
After sleeping in a bit, we enjoyed our hotel breakfast and then started our day at the Washington Park Zoo in Michigan City. It was a great little zoo!
They had lots of our favorite animals-big cats, monkeys, reptiles, bears, otters, zebras...
but they also had some more novel animals like emus, kookaburras, capybaras, and the Patagonian mara (which we decided is like a cross between a rabbit and a capybara).
The zoo was built on a hillside, so we got our hilly leg work out in as we made our way around the zoo. At the top, there was an observation tower that you could climb to the top of. From there, it was a beautiful view of Lake Michigan.
It was a really nice little zoo, and we enjoyed the few hours we spent there. We are a zoo family, so it was fun to add another one to our list of zoos we have visited.
We then headed into the National Park (not the State Park this time) and hiked the 4.7 mile Cowles Bog Trail.
Hiking at Indiana Dunes added another National Park hiking experience. We were primarily hiking on sandy trails, but still in wooded areas...
until you reach the beach.
We spent some time enjoying the beach. Adelie and Briggs got a little wet (of course) and very sandy (of course), but enjoyed drawing and digging in the sand.
The day was sunny and beautiful...just enough sun to take the edge off the crispness of the fall weather.
Staley needed to get her mile streak-keeper in, so all 3 kids ran part of the way back on the trail to help Staley keep her streak alive.
After we finished our hike, we loaded back into the car and headed for home with a quick Culver's stop for dinner and dessert. We enjoyed our short little get-away. Although Indiana Dunes National Park won't make any top 10 National Park's lists, it was perfect for the short amount of time we had. We enjoyed the fall colors and the fall weather. We appreciated the beach and the sunset. The little zoo and our dinner restaurant were both winners. And having some family time away from the busy-ness of our fall and the to-do lists at home was a nice little reprieve.
Our little Columbus Day adventure was just what we needed.
