Our annual camping trip with the Green family was this past week and weekend! This year we chose to go to Port Crescent State Park, which is in Port Austin in the thumb on Lake Huron. We left Wednesday late morning and stopped at The Thumb Brewery in downtown Caseville for a late lunch before getting to check-in to our campsite. The brewery had good burgers and I liked their gose beer they had on tap.
We had site 116 and the Green's had the site two down from us. I really liked our location. We were up at the top of the hill, we had great trees on our lot for the hammock and some privacy, and we were close to the bathroom, the playground, and the steps to lead down to the beach access. I would have loved one of the sites right on the beach, but I made a note of which sites to try for next time. We set up in 1.5 hours while the kids went exploring on their bikes. Then, it was time to head to the beach!
I prepared a late dinner for everyone with my usual taco salad. This year I also brought shredded taco chicken and we made some tacos warmed up on the camping stove. We made a fire and had some s'mores and walked down to see the sunset on the beach. It was a fun first night!
Thursday morning was a slow, lazy morning at the campsite. I went for a run around the campsite to get better acquainted with the lay-out. Scott cooked up some bacon, hashbrown patties, and eggs for our family. The kids played at the campsite after getting a little bit of tablet time. Then we packed up a bag lunch and headed down to the beach.
We decided to head into Port Austin to grab some ice cream at Grindstone late afternoon. We drove by the damage from the tornado that touched down a month ago, which was fascinating and sad. These ice cream cones were huge at Grindstone! Evan got strawberry, Sean had Moose Tracks, I had a homemade flavor of chocolate reese's peanut butter, and Scott got strawberry cheesecake. We walked around Veterans Waterfront Park where the seawall is and let the kids run around and explore. It was a nice way to spend the late afternoon!
Back at the campsite, Ashley bought a grate to go over the grill and she made personal pizzas on Naan bread. With the Lil' Weber lid over the pizzas they turned out fantastic! Another campfire and sunset in the evening.
Friday morning Ashley and I left early to head back into Port Austin for our kayak adventure. We booked a 4-hour block to take out kayaks to Turnip Rock. We took the first time slot at 9am and it was awesome! It took us about an hour to get to Turnip Rock and the sea caves and about an hour and a half to get back as it got a little more windy. I loved it!
While we were gone, the boys went putt-putting and had fun! Back at the campsite we made lunch (grilled cheese on the stove for the kids and sandwiches for the adults) and then went down to the beach for the rest of the afternoon.
For dinner we grilled hamburgers and hotdogs on the charcoal grill and kept it simple with chips, fruit, coleslaw, and raw veggies. We relaxed by the fire and played a fun game the Green's brought that were mysteries/riddles to solve on cards. Some of them were hard, but others the kids were able to figure out. It kept everyone entertained for over an hour!
Saturday morning brought thunderstorms that we were prepared for. We had moved several items to the truck the night before in preparation and I'm happy to report that we had no water in our tent! And it downpoured at one point. The storms were from 7-9am that we listened to in our tent. After the storm passed, we were able to make bacon and pancakes for breakfast and clean up a bit. We decided to go into Caseville late morning to browse and walk around. We brought snacks and lunch stuff for the kids.
There was a cute used book store the kids got lost in for a while, some gift shops that they found a huge selection of candy and toy cars, we ran into Scott's cousin Carrie and her husband and said hello for a few minutes, and grabbed milkshakes and ice cream before going back to the campsite. It was drizzling when we got back so the kids enjoyed some downtime on ipads in the tent while I read under the canopy at the picnic table. Suddenly our phones went off with a tornado warning alert so we grabbed the kids and sat in the truck to see if we needed to go to the bathroom to take shelter. Luckily we didn't need to and the alert passed 45 minutes later. We did hear that a tornado touched down in Port Austin! Crazy weather!
When the weather cleared, it actually became nice out! We let the kids go play down at the beach with Scott after dinner. Ashley warmed up some pulled BBQ chicken to make sandwiches and we had corn and chips. The kids had a blast swimming and it made for some cool pictures with the storm moving out over the lake. I heard there was an amazing rainbow, but I missed it when I went back up to shower. The rain was done for the evening so we enjoyed our last campfire. Scott and I went down to the beach after it got dark to star gaze and it was beautiful!
Sunday morning we packed up the campsite and packed some food to take down to the beach before we left at the 1pm check-out. We enjoyed a little bit more of the sun and sand before driving home. We had a great camping trip and I absolutely loved this campground and our site. I'd go back for sure! But, knowing Scott, we'll be picking somewhere new for next year. Where should we go next?!
