Muskegon

Another fun place we visited in Michigan was Muskegon. All of the towns mentioned in my last few posts are along the west side of the state along the shores of Lake Michigan. Muskegon had some other things to visit as well, such as the LST393, one of two remaining from WWII as well as a submarine. The tour of the LST was educational and I couldn't help but think of my dad when I saw one of the jeeps parked on it. For some reason I remember him talking about the jeeps when they were stationed in Japan toward the end of WWII. And of course you can't help but stop and give thanks for the men and women who have served our country when you read a sign such as this 'All gave some ... some gave all'. What a poignant reminder of the freedom we are able to enjoy.

On a more 'Hunter-fied' note though, the ship is still in the water and a WWII Landing Ship Tank wasn't necessarily built with child safety in mind so I didn't quite get to read everything I would have liked to. Emma is a climber and a nosey little dumpling and kept hanging over the rails to look down at the water. Ree-bex is a tad bit on the uncoordinated side so all I could think of was children overboard and therefore spent a lot of time trying to keep them out of the vicinity of the rails. Not an easy job! One of the things all of the kids couldn't get over were the sleeping bunks, not much room to spread out on those.


Ryan and Brian wanted to tour the submarine, and I ... well, hmm ... how do I put it. I was just a little worried that the girls would get into to much and I wanted Brian and Ryan to have some quality time together and I was totally thinking about the entire family ... so I 'took one for the team' and took the girls to the park while they enjoyed the submarine. Sounds good doesn't it? Truth be told, I just didn't think I could take the confined space and knew the girls needed to run off some energy. Ryan didn't have his camera and I had only taken the telephoto lense so subsequently we have pictures of the dumplings playing in the park but none of the submarine. Oh well, it was a win - win situation.



Watching Emma climb a pole in a sundress and no shoes is much more enjoyable than hyperventilating on a submarine any day o' the week.

We rounded out the day with a trip to the beach. I'm pretty sure it was Pere Marquette Park, but there were several beaches in the area so I may have the wrong name.