Indiana Dunes

There is a state park called Indiana Dunes.

It's right on the southern tip of Lake Michigan.  We were invited to go there a few times during the summer but somehow we thought it was a) too far, b) too cold, c) not as good as the ocean.  We just had no desire to go there.  THEN someone in the Branch got talking about the frozen waves.  Well....... we decided that as long as we were going to the Stake Center for a baptism,  (about 60 miles north) we'd just head on up to the beach.  Come to find out, it's only another 10 minutes away.  Who knew?

First, let me say, it was waaaaaay cold - wind blowing off the Lake and all.  AND, I was thinking..........oh I don't know.............Sahara dunes kind of?  

There is a big sign that says "No sledding on any dunes EXCEPT the Devil's slide.

We saw one family coming down this hill, which we could only assume was the Devil's Slide.

And from what we could see, this was the only "dune" to be found.

Methinks it should be Indiana "Dune" State Park.

Anyway, there is another sign that says something about NOT walking onto the Lake shelf.  But as you can see above, where the sand ends and the lake starts is somewhat ambiguous.

When you look out toward the lake, you see this:

Frozen waves!  How cool is that???  Judging by the footprints in the snow, it looked safe to navigate the waves.  So we did.

We still weren't sure we were on the lake, but we were close to another group of people taking pictures.

I called to them and asked if we were on the lake?  They answered that indeed we were.

Looking out onto the lake, here is what we saw:

I'm so glad we went.  Speaking of Lake Michigan, it's really easy for kids to find themselves on a map of the United States.  They just find the lake and point to the bottom of it.  

Where we live in Indiana, we have a lot of "little" woods: areas where there are heavy trees.  My guess is that it helps break up the wind.  It is also home to deer.  EVERYONE who lives here has, at some point, hit a deer on the road.

This was taken right after the snow had stopped yesterday.  The woods really are beautiful.

A few final pictures:

1.  Elder Fuchigami is a pretty good cook.  The Elders came for dinner and I let them prepare everything.  It turned out delicious.

The Police cars here in Rensselaer are totally cool.  When they light up their cars, they look like Christmas trees:  lights everywhere!!

Craig has developed a special relationship with one of the local officers.  First, he was heading home after the football game and needed to reply to a text.  He pulled into the elementary school parking lot.  They immediately called the police because there was a suspicious character hanging around.  The police officer and Craig had a nice chat.

Then, last week, after visiting Brother Fisher in the hospital, the elders ran to their car shouting something about the last one home being a rotten egg.  Craig, wanting to teach those young un's a lesson, was speeding down the back street.  I asked him nicely, TWICE, to slow down.  But after he breezed through the SECOND stop sign, the same police officer came up behind him, ran his plates, and pulled him over.  To make matters worse, our license plate tags expired in December and the State of California won't forward any mail.

I told Craig he would be LUCKY to just get a ticket for running the stops, not to mention speeding and expired plates.  He totally deserved it!  When the police officer came back up to the window, gave him his license and asked him to please drive more carefully, I couldn't believe it!!!  Craig says that before he leaves, he wants to try and find that officer and thank him again.

Craig wanted to buy this train.  I said no.

Finally, here is a picture of John Luzer's tractor.  He and Craig lovingly polished and waxed every surface.

There was a mix up one Sunday morning in MCM.  A slip up over combine and concubine.  Needless to say, we were laughing so hard we could hardly continue the meeting.  Ah, good times.

We ran out of catsup yesterday.  Not going to buy more.  Going to try to use up all the food.  We've already spent about $200 on mail, sending things home ahead of us.  

Planning on staying busy right to the end.