We Rode the Dunes!

August 19, 2026

Day Four of our latest adventure started way too early. . .with a 7am alarm. And since we were in the Eastern time zone now, it felt like 6am to us. Ugh!

But we had a destination in mind that gets crowded quickly during the summer and we wanted to do it before it got too busy.

But first, breakfast! We stopped at Colbys Café in Whitehall where Terry enjoyed a huge cup of coffee (I forgot to take a photo, sorry!) and good ole biscuits and gravy. Breakfast of champions, right?

And then it was time to get a little sandy! We took a ride on the sand dunes with Mac Woods near Mears, a family attraction since 1930! They know how to do it right too. It was an amazing experience!

I admit I was a little bit hesitant, thinking it was going to be faster and wilder than it was. But we were buckled in tightly and held on (well, I did) and it was actually like a gentle roller coaster, zooming around curves and up and down the dunes.

Halfway through the ride, we stopped on the bank of the mighty Lake Michigan. Even though it was hazy/foggy that morning, it was still wild to look out and see nothing but water.

Then we ventured up the road and checked out another Michigan lighthouse, the Little Sable built in 1874. Since it had 130 steps and the same narrow staircase as the Cana Island Lighthouse, I decided to wait at the bottom and let Terry climb it. He got some fantastic photos!

For those of you who wish to check out Little Sable, note that it sits in Silver Lake State Park. And in Michigan to enter a state park, you need a sticker which we decided not to get for now. So, we parked a half mile down the road and walked in.

And after all that exercise, we treated ourselves to Whippy Dip, a seasonal family-owned ice cream, coffee, and burger spot next door to Mac Woods. I enjoyed a brownie sundae while Terry demolished a banana split. We called it lunch!

We finished the fabulous day by enjoying several games of Rummy.

We were certainly not prepared for what happened the next day. . . it was pretty crazy!