Enjoying a few more days of summer

With our 2 weeks up at Haas Lake, we packed up the RV and headed west again . . . just not too far west!

Our destination for the next few days was the Benton Harbor/St. Joseph area – in the SW corner of Michigan.  We stayed at Eden Springs Park – a nice little campground with friendly people, and I can’t believe I forgot to take a picture of our campsite!

We had a few goals for the weekend – fresh blueberries, fresh peaches, and the beach!  This area of MI (South Haven, Coloma) is well-known for fruit, especially peaches and blueberries . . . and we were just a few short miles from a beautiful county beach on Lake Michigan.

 

First, we needed to find a U-pick farm that still had blueberries (we’re getting close to the end of the season for them), so we decided to try DeGrandchamps Farms, up in South Haven.  It’s a pretty big commercial farm, but they also have a nice U-pick area for folks like us.

Their website said the U-pick would be open until august 31st, so we made it in time!

 

 

The bushes were still really full, and although the berries were on the small side, they were still really sweet!

 

Nicolas loves blueberries!

We each took a bucket, and some of us did a better job picking than others  , but we ended up with 7-1/2 pounds of fresh, delicious blueberries!  . . . which are now taking up precious space in my freezer!!  I had to take the shelf out to fit the box, but one the berries are completely frozen, I should be able to transfer them to smaller containers that won’t take up so much room.

 

On the way home, we stopped at a farm market and bought a basket of fresh red haven peaches – YUM!!  They taste really good with blueberries!

2 down, one to go . . .

After lunch, we drove into St. Joe to the county beach.  It’s a beautiful beach on Lake Michigan, and there were lots of people out enjoying this gorgeous day!

There was a chance of thunderstorms developing in the afternoon, but the sky was clear and blue when we arrived.  We settled in to soak up some sun!

 

After awhile, we started hearing some rumbling out over the lake, and it sounded a little bit like thunder.  We could see some clouds moving towards shore.

 

 

Nick and Bryce decided to get in the water before the storm arrived . . . and the water wasn’t even too cold! 

Eventually, we started seeing flashes of lightning, too, so it was time to pack up and get back to the car . . . everybody had the same idea and there was a mass exodus from the beach!

It’s amazing how quickly these storms can develop over the lake!  By the time we reached our car, the sky had turned completely black, and the wind was whipping so much sand around the people still trying to get back to their cars were getting sand-blasted!

We managed to get out of there and back to the campground without getting caught in any rain . . . and I don’t know what happened at the beach, but we never did get any rain at the campground!

We were going to go back to the beach after dinner to get some sunset pictures, but decided not to . . . we should have – the sky was an amazing mixture of orange and purple that night!

It was a great couple of days back on the coast!

Arriving at Sunnybrook RV Resort

We went to early mass on Sunday, and back to the house to load the last-minute items into the camper, then we were hitched up and ready to hit the road by 11:00am.  We had an easy drive west on I-94 and M-43, and arrived at Sunnybrook RV Resort shortly before 2pm.  Tom did a good job getting us parked, and we were all set up and settled on site 62 in record time!

Nicolas wanted blueberries, so we drove over to the little U-pick farm where we picked berries last summer.  The U-pick was technically closed, but they were still letting people go in and pick whatever they could find.  We grabbed a few buckets and headed into the blueberry fields.  There were quite a few bushes that had been overlooked by earlier pickers, and we had no trouble filling our buckets -- 7.8 lbs.!  The lady in the store asked if I was going to freeze some of them (which I am), and showed me how they freeze the berries so they don't stick together at all.  Dump them right into a cardboard box and put them straight into the freezer -- the key is to NOT put them in the refrigerator first, because that creates moisture which makes them stick together when they freeze.  She showed us a box of frozen berries that they had for sale, and sure enough, it was like a box of blue marbles!  So, she dumped all but a pound or so into a cardboard box, and I put them right into the freezer when we got back to the RV.

Our friends from home were staying in South Haven last night, so we met up with them for dinner.  Several of us were craving pasta, so we tried an italian restaurant downtown, called "The Vineyard".  We had to wait a little bit, but the food was good.  We walked around town awhile, until it started to rain, and then we headed back to the RV Park.

Labor Day started out looking pretty threatening -- dark skies with some thunder and lightening in the distance.  The storm stayed north of us, though, and we only got a little bit of drizzle for a short time.  By 1pm, the skies had cleared, and it warmed up nicely.  Bryce did some fishing, and we spent a couple hours in the pool in the afternoon.  Tonight's dinner was brats and hot dogs on the fire -- YUM!  Once the fire died down (which was early -- $5 bundles of wood here are practically kindling!!), we went inside to watch TV and check email.

Tomorrow it's "back to school", but fortunately we can do that right here at the campground!  In the afternoon we might have to head down to Lake Michigan to check it out -- they're calling for 50 mph winds and 8 - 12 ft. waves in the afternoon!  Believe me, we won't get anywhere near the water or the pier -- just watch from a safe distance!