TAKIN BETZ: MAGICAL MICHIGAN HOSTING DAZE CONTINUE

SATURDAY MORNING … COFFEE & CRAFTING

This hosting at Muskegon State Park is totally different from any of our other hosting jobs. Whereas the other hosting jobs have been more administrative, this one is less structured and all about the kids and the families! We have games and books and water floats that are available as well as crafting so the site has become a kid magnet!

Saturday morning coffee hour started at 8AM and this time we had hot chocolate for the kids. Temps this morning were in mid-50’s. Pulled out all my craft “treasure trove” supplies…foam paper, construction paper, glitter glue, foam sticks and wooden colored sticks, pipe cleaners, stencils, crayons, coloring books, lots of coloring markers and stickers and some pre—cut bookmarks made of multi-colored foam paper (thank goodness for the Dollar Tree!). The kids started sending “scouts” around 9:15 and although I scheduled crafts for 10 – 11 AM I told them to get their friends and come on up.

They arrived in droves. Had to grab all the picnic tables and line them up. My craft “hour” ran from 9:30AM to noon! Was running out of craft supplies! Had about five boys ranging from 13-4 all camping together and it was neat to watch the older ones work with their younger siblings.

Lots of small kids with moms and entire families dropped in to craft. My two “best crafters” are two girls about 13 who are cousins and have been here all week so have been up to our site. They said this was the “best camping trip they have ever had” and made me my own special thank you. They all wanted to know if I was going to do crafts again Sunday. What could I say … but .. of course … come’on up!

These are the nicest bunch of kids. Every single one was polite and thanked us for have these things for them to do.

Our other important duty is to walk around the campground to meet and greet. Our final walk around is about 7:30 PM when we check the bathrooms and circle the campground. The kids who have been here for a while know us because we do crafts! The parents know us because we do crafts …. and we’re from Florida! Everyone is very friendly and relaxed.

From what we understand, this campground was more flat and you could see the lake from the campsites. The dunes were planted with this grass and over the years, sand built up and now you have a high dune between the beach and the campground.

We can come and go as we please. We haven’t really taken any complete days off yet; will do so after Labor Day when things quiet down. Meanwhile all we need to do is be here, check the bathrooms, be a campground presence and do our thing!

I think this is one of the most beautiful parks we’ve been in. It is set up

on a high dune above Lake Michigan under a canopy of trees. Although the entire campground is under shade, there are no low hanging so it’s more a canopy effect especially when the wind blows through the trees. And then, you walk to the steps that go down to the beach, all 75 of them, and it is absolutely beautiful.

The Channel Campground, at the other end of the state park, is open, flat and sandy. Much more like beach camping and many of those sites are right on Lake Muskegon. It’s a different kind of camping experience than up here at Lake Michigan Campground.

Everyone enjoys their beach time!

We are really lucky that this park offered us jobs. It was a fluke that we’re even here since I had not applied anywhere due to the wedding happening in the middle of the summer. They offered us either Lake Michigan campground or what they called the “river” campground. We liked the sound of Lake Michigan so picked this one and when we accepted the hosting job, we had no idea what the park would look like. We are so blessed.

Off in the distance you can see the Ships Channel and lighthouses.

SATURDAY NIGHT……

Had a wild Saturday night here in the CG. Our Security Ranger goes off duty at 2AM and if there are any incidences we are to call 911. At around 2:30 AM we woke up to hooting and hollering of a like a bunch of drunk kids. Dave got up and walked over to the site where the noise was coming from but couldn’t find anyone at first then he talked to a guy about his size and a teenager who said they would “take care of it”. Well, it didn’t get taken care of, so Dave called the police and two squad cars came over to the campground. We fell asleep around 3:30AM.

Coffee hour this morning was quite interesting because campers were “staggering” in for coffee asking about all the noise last night. Some of the other campers also called it into the police.

At first we thought it was under-aged kids camping with an 18 year old and they were drunk. However, when we looked over at the campsites, there were small children sitting around the fire ring. These were kids camping with their parents. Although they had several more nights booked, the Ranger came over later and told us he asked them to leave. By 1PM they were all gone.

Dave spent most of the morning down at the Channel Campground with Dale assisting at the dump station. There were 63 check outs this morning so they needed to keep the traffic moving. I did crafts until about noon.

After lunch we took a drive just to get away for a while.

This couple were celebrating their 86th wedding anniversary!

We drove down to Whitehall located between Lake Michigan and White Lake.

Built in 1865

There is a boat channel connecting the two with the White River Light Station located on Lake Michigan.

Lake Michigan was kicking butt with the wind blowing in at about 20 kts. That didn’t keep the Michiganer’s from beach going. They are a hardy lot up here!