sleeping bear sand dunes

on our last day off, we drove 2 hours north to the Sleeping Bear Sand Dunes.  this was a "first" for the majority of the Georges- it was a great sunny day but also VERY hot, which makes climbing and walking in sand rather uncomfortable.  Karah actually did not seem to mind the heat and definitely wanted her shoes off the whole time.  Jason kept his shoes on and STILL did not want to walk much in the sand.  so... Matt carried him up the HUGE climb:

after the dune climb, we went on a "scenic drive" where Matt was determined to take a picture at each of the 12 spots...  I won't post all of those pics- but here are a few of the scenic views:

We also took advantage of our time "up north" to get ice cream in a cute, touristy area called Glen Arbor... and stopped at the obligatory McDonald's and Meijer on the way back to camp.

oh-- and we visited a very neat little store which sells artwork by Gwen Frostic.  my mom used to take us to this place when we were little-- it was a bit smaller than I had remembered, but fun to visit again.
all in all, another great day in Michigan!