We were living the troll life in Indiana! If you don't know what I mean, read Nathan's post about our unique little troll house. I appreciate that the owners started with an odd little space, doubled down on the oddness, and made it into something truly interesting and unique. And, it wasn't just the house. The whole neighborhood was a trip. The troll house was situated in a little enclave of vacation homes just a short walk from Lake Michigan, arranged into a sort of vacation village that included a main street, a couple of beachy snack shops, and a whole slew of pastel colored houses of all shapes and sizes.
It looked like something straight out of Disney World. In fact, it reminded me of one of the resorts at Disney World! As charming as it was, there was just a little bit of cognitive dissonance, since were experiencing a summer world in the dead of winter. The trees were bare, the streets were quiet, and we had the whole place nearly to ourselves.
This was also a great home base to visit Indiana Dunes National Park. The Park itself was also a pretty interesting and unique place. Unlike the grand western parks we'd been visiting the past couple of months, Indiana Dunes had only recently been promoted to National Park status (it was previously Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore). And, with all due respect to the National Park System, I have to conclude that this place got the nod as Donald Trump's favor to former Indiana governor Mike Pence. Unlike most other Park System units, Indiana Dunes is an urban park made up of a patchwork of federal, state, and local recreational spaces. The downside is that you can be in a National Park with views like this ...
It even had a friendly neighborhood nuclear power plant!
On the plus side, it's another National Park in an area that starved for National Parks! It can't be bad to have an economic engine like this in a depressed community like Gary, Indiana (of which Michigan City is a suburb). And, even without the panoramic vistas of Utah or California, we had a great time exploring.
The huge dunes were amazing, and the Lake Michigan waterfront was beautiful, even under a gray winter sky. Nathan had a great time careening down the dunes like a crazy man!
Our second day at the park was a bit of a letdown because of the weather. We got a late start because we headed a couple of towns over to get a pre-New York Covid test, and by the time we got done it was drizzling. And, by the time we got to the Park, the full-on rain had begun to fall. Even with the lousy weather, we had fun doing a driving tour of the Park.
At one point, we pulled over at a seawall - the only thing between a stormy lakefront and the houses across the street. When I rolled down my window to take a picture, a wave crashed over the wall and drenched me!
This was destined to be a short stay. We needed a quick stop on the way to New York, and Michigan City happened to be in the right place and had a National Park. So, after two days of exploring, we hopped in the car before dawn on Tuesday and kept driving east.
No comments:
Post a Comment