13 Jul The Dunes: A Surprise
One day, there was a mom who didn’t know where they were going.
This didn’t seem to bother the son,
since he had been given a rare car snack.
And the daughter tended to not worry about anything anyway.
And the baby just wanted milk in her
belly at all times, no matter their location.
But the sneaky dad knew all about it.
He had planned the whole thing.
Eventually, the family ran out of road and
parked their van at a beautiful pile of sand.
They had arrived at The Dunes!
The dad and son threw off their sandals
and started racing up the nearest dune.
The daughter thought she was going to join them,
but then she realized the sand was very feel-y.
So she spent a while picking it up and throwing it.
Meanwhile, the dad and son were on a great adventure.
The son started getting tired, but the dad didn’t mind. He threw
his son on his shoulders and marched the rest of the way up.
On their way back down, the son’s knees gave out to the great
discovery that this sand doesn’t hurt at all when you fall! (He’s used
to gravel sand, you see, and didn’t know such soft sand existed.)
He started digging and finding all sorts of buried treasure.
Then the mom said, “Son, stand right there; I must take
your picture!” The son really thought playing in the sand
was a much better idea, but he stood still and let him mom
take his picture like a good little son.
Then the mom said, “Daughter, stand right here; I must take
your picture!” The daughter gave a nice big Cheese!,
so she could get back to the sand as quickly as possible. 
Then, she and the dad ran so fast…
…and jumped down a little sand hill.
The girl and the boy just laughed and laughed.
They loved being with their daddy.
Then they tried to roll down the hill.
And swim in the sand.
And feel its soft heat against their faces.
Finally, they walked down to the beach.
It was such a beautiful, cool day.
They didn’t even care that they were
surrounded by smokestacks…
…on both sides.
(That little river was to become
their favorite adventure zone, but
that comes after this story ends.)
Suddenly, the dad spotted the perfect skipping rock!
“Watch this, kids!” he exclaimed.
And he sent the rock skipping across Lake Michigan.
The kids were obviously very impressed.
(In fact, it might still be skipping this very day.)
The little girl saw something in the water
and ran back to tell her mom. “Mom, Mom!”
she shouted, out of breath.
And there it was. Already way back in the chilly lake.
The green beach ball they had brought to play with.
The whole family waved goodbye as it went further
and further out into the lake and hoped it would find
a new family who would love it as much as they had.
The baby finally woke up from her nap
and grabbed her fingers. She let out a peep
that the family was sure meant,
“I want these fingers in my mouth!”
The dad smiled (as was his custom).
The mom smiled (as was her custom).
Even the seagull smiled (the family
guessed it was his custom too).
The baby just bubbled and drooled
(that was definitely her custom).
Then the family gathered around to make a sand castle.
After a few minutes, they decided making a sand turtle
would be much easier. The daughter gave so many aww‘s
and kissed the turtle before they went back home.
The seagull had become so fond of the family
that he marched back and forth in front of them,
making sure all other seagulls knew not to bother them.
The family spent the rest of the morning playing
by that little river you saw up there, splashing and
jumping and digging and running, and eating chips from
the only other family on their section of the beach that day.
They didn’t want to leave, but their tummies finally
complained loudly enough that they had to wave goodbye
and pile back in the van for a yummy lunch.
They hoped they would return to the dunes very soon.
What a wonderful surprise day!
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