We woke up feeling ready to get moving. After multiple travel days it would be nice to arrive at another fun destination. We were on the road at 9am. After a 259 mile drive we arrived at one of the prettiest campgrounds of the whole trip, South Haven Sunnybrook RV Resort.
This felt like the Wisteria Lane (as from the Desperate Housewives series) of campgrounds. The grounds were very well manicured and there were lots of beautiful flowers all about. Each site consisted of a concrete pad and most of them had little personal touches on the surrounding grass.
While this was very serene it was quite stressful to back into the site without disturbing those surrounding us. I got out and was trying to guide Adam in but it felt like there were obstacles at each angle we attempted. Thankfully a worker ended up driving by on his golf cart and saw us struggling. He was one of the nicest people we had ever met. He graciously took over my job and in no time at all we were in the spot. I truly don’t think we would have ever been able to do that without him.
As has become our tradition for this trip, while Adam was setting up camp I took the girls over to check out the playground. Unfortunately while the girls were on the tire swing Ella accidentally hit her mouth on the metal chain and her mouth started bleeding. We went over to the bathroom so she could rinse her mouth out. I gave her a paper towel to help with the blood. In true Ella fashion she did not let this stop her from having fun. We went right back to the playground and she continued to play with Lily while she kept the towel in her mouth.
Adam soon finished unhitching and setting up camp.
When we were driving to the campground I noticed an old fashioned ice cream parlor and I mentioned it to Adam. When the worker was helping us he was also talking about things to do in this area. One of the first things he said was we must stop at Sherman’s (the name of the ice cream parlor). We heeded his advice and went straight there.
While we were looking at the many options Adam noticed an item on the menu called “the pigs dinner”. The pigs dinner was 4 scoops of ice cream (perfect since we could each pick one) sliced banana, 4 toppings, whipped cream, and cherries all served in a trough. This was one of those creations that we would normally never even consider ordering but we were in vacation mode and feeling the end was near so we decided to go for it. We each picked our flavor of ice cream and the topping we wanted on it. All of their ice cream was homemade on site and they had so many flavors available.
Once we saw our pigs dinner I think Adam and I felt a little buyers remorse for getting such a huge treat but the girls looked as happy as pigs in mud about to eat dinner. There were a few picnic tables outside so we went there to have our indulgence.
This was beyond delicious and we finished every last drop. After we were stuffed to the gills we drove into the center of town. The parking lot was across from a building with a very cool and lifelike mural of a zebra elephant.
As we strolled we spotted a young couple walking their two adorable puppies. We stopped them so we could give their cuties some love.
There were tons of great little shops and restaurants but we were most excited to get down to the beach on Lake Michigan. The girls could not wait to try out the playground on the beach. They had seen a picture of this while Adam was planning the trip and did not forget it. Who would expect a playground on the beach to be such an anticipated destination.
So we skipped the shops and restaurants for now and started the walk to the beach. South Haven has two main beaches, North Beach and South Beach, which are split by the Black River that empties into Lake Michigan. We walked along the river walk towards South Beach.
On the way we stopped to watch the ducks in the river.
The girls noticed a tree with a very interesting branch structure and they couldn’t resist climbing right up.
While they were climbing a very nice local man walked by with his beautiful dog. The dog came over to us and I started petting her. We ended up striking a nice conversation with him and he gave us some recommendations for where to eat and what to do while we were here. This area is known for blueberries and one of the things he told us about was a little farm that was pretty close to our RV Resort. We added this to our list to check out tomorrow. Once we finished talking with him we got the girls and continued to the beach. When we arrived the girls ran right over to the playground and started playing.
It was perfect timing because we got there just at the beginning of sunset. It was absolutely spectacular to watch the girls having a blast with such a breathtaking backdrop.
After the sun set we were all feeling a bit hungry so we went over to Clementine’s to get a bite to eat. Adam and I shared a sandwich. Ella got a burger and Lily got a bowl of French onion soup. When we were finished we leisurely walked back to the truck and headed to the campground to relax for a bit before bed.
