For the last nine months we’ve been fortunate enough to live just off Lake Michigan, a few hundred feet from a pier and a gorgeous beach. The deck off my bedroom faces a channel into the lake, and I watch boats go in and out constantly. Several times a day (and sometimes, spookily and almost silently, in the middle of the night) I’m treated to the sight of a cargo ship heading in or out of port, so close it seems like I could almost jump right on deck. This photo was taken about 100 feet down the channel, right before the start of the pier.
We won’t be in this house much longer–it was a temporary home while we got our bearings in a new town, and when the summer season starts, the rent goes up-up-up. And up. We were lucky enough to get a full month of beach weather back in September. It’s been a little too chilly to really get in the water this spring, but we’ve still had plenty of opportunity to enjoy the sand and dunes:
Isaac enjoys jumping off a little cliff at the tallest point of the dune, then tumbling down the rest of the hill. It only makes me a little nervous.
Notice the three cool kids squinting in the afternoon sun…and their littlest brother’s big, cheesy grin. There were about a dozen other photos that looked pretty much just like this.
Cue “Chariots of Fire” theme song…of course, William beat his littler and slower brother as he always does, but Owen insists he’s “winner number two”. Fair enough.
“I’m the numba two winna!”
This reminds me of a scene from Karate Kid.
Owen appears to be casting a spell on the sand drawings his brothers are making.
A walk in taller-than-your-head beach grass…which I’ve just learned is a popular habitat for ticks, little creatures who have been feeding on our family with gusto recently (we found six on us in a matter of a week). Suddenly, looking at this picture makes me want to strip the entire family down to skivvies while I give them a careful inspection. Maybe we could all check each other, tallest to shortest. Wouldn’t that be a great photo op?
As much as I dislike the ticks, I know I’ll be missing this view in a few weeks.
What’s the view like from your back (or front) door? What would you change if you could? What would you never want to give up?
What a great view! I bet you’ll miss it when you have to leave. We can see the Smoky Mountains out here and would hate to wake up to something plainer in our backyard.
What a wonderful place. Beaches in winter and spring are even better than in summer for me. I bet you had a great time living there.
I agree with Brenda. I love beaches, and the water, outside of high season. Your family is lucky to have had this. They look like they really enjoy it.
These are great pictures! I don’t have enough windows in my house. My favorite view is out the back sliding window where I can watch the kids play from the comfort of my living room. We have to drive for some scenery (and I was just driving by the Dunes last night!)
Funny, those dunes remind me a little bit of the beach I grew up near on Long Island, though we had different foliage growing on them. I hope you get to stay in the area - I find that I can never be too far from an expanse of water, and having that view out my windows would be amazing!
So cute! How would it be to have a water view (says the land-locked Iowan)?
Wow, what an amazing view!
I live in an apartment in Brooklyn, so I don’t have a backdoor. But I can see plenty of sky and trees out of my first-floor windows. After living in Manhattan for 9 years, where all I could see was the back of another building and I had to stick my head out the window and crane my neck up to actually see the sky, this feels like heaven.
i would love to live by the water…although the thought of the ticks is a big deterrent. my aunt’s cottage also has problems with biting flies. not so fun…
The mental image of you all checking each other for ticks “tallest to shortest” made me laugh out loud. And who among us doesn’t have the squinty-eyed kid photo collection. Priceless memories. Thanks for sharing.
Pwner may be the numba 2 winner, but I think we can all agree that he’s the numba one stunna!
Seriously — great pics. And I LOLed at your chariots of fire reference.
Miss you guys.