After working Sunday and Monday, I will be off work (pardon me while I count) – for the next seven days after that!

We’ll be heading to a state park in northern, MI and staying in a replica tipi shelter for three nights. It looks like this:

Inside there are two sets of bunk beds and pretty much…nothing else. We’ll be able to snake in an extension cord/power strip for charging our mobile devices (I don’t think the laptop will be coming along with us on this trip). After doing a few tent camping trips this summer, it will be nice to not have to sleep on the ground. Also nice to not have to pack the tent!

What’s even nicer is the weather forecast is supposed to be very nice! Low chance of rain and high temperatures no higher than the lower ’70s. If that means we’re not likely to be going to the beach to swim, well…that’s just fine! Though I’m sure that’s not going to keep my husband from trying to get into the water anyway! I’m pretty fussy, and won’t get in if the water’s too warm, too murky, too rocky of a surface, too full of people, too shallow too far out (the list goes on), but him? Not so much! It’s all good, as long as I have a nice spot to plop a chair – and maybe even an umbrella – while he frolics in the water.

We haven’t made any real “plans” for this trip other than taking some decent walks – and maybe seeing our friend Janet (if she manages to come to the campground), and visit Cheboygan Brewing Co. I’m a big fan of their beer (their blood orange honey wheat beer is one of my absolute favorites) – and their outdoor beer patio! I also want to check off a state park from my list of parks I haven’t yet visited (I’m looking at you, Aloha State Park)! I would also like to see at least a couple of Great Lakes beaches – maybe one on Lake Michigan – and one on Lake Huron. When you’re around the northern tip of Michigan’s “mitten,” things get a bit narrow, and it’s not that far to drive from coast to coast.

I’m just looking forward to a camping experience where higher temperatures and humidity don’t crash the party! Fall weather can’t come soon enough…