The Houghs: Traverse Smitty, Pt. I

Well met, readers.

It was high-time for another Hough Family Vacation. It had been about a month since Eight Point Lake, and ever since that stint at the Cottage, we've more or less been in full-blown Back to School mode. I've been working full-time on setting up my classroom, planning lessons, collaborating with other teachers, and handling professional development crap for the upcoming school year. Kris has been scrambling to get all of the girls' school supplies, new clothes, schedules, and God knows what else ready. It's been pretty insane around these parts.

Well, it was high time to put the brakes on everything for a bit. Months ago, the Sausage Pad (remember those idiots?) had discussed a weekend camping trip up in Traverse City. Now, while we all enjoy getting together and causing PG-13 chaos whenever we can (we're too old for R-rated shenanigans, folks), the planning and execution of these adventures aren't necessarily our strong suit.

Enter Rita.

Our friend Rita, once again, stepped in and planned out most of our proposed camping trip for us (she's great at handling this kinda thing - Tennessee was all her), so she planned out a stay at the State Park campground for us all, right across from the beach. Her and her boyfriend (my good pal, Smitty), along with we Houghs, reserved our campsites right away, but the rest of the guys - wouldn't you know it - had to back out due to last-minute work crap.

So, in the end, it was just Team Hough and Team Smitty participating in this summer's great Sausage Pad outing, but we still had ourselves a jolly good time.

Check it out. . .

The van - loaded up with camping supplies, adventure gear, and a couple kids - ready to depart Midland for a three-ish hour drive north.

Okay, so three hours later. The kids were practically mutinying as we rolled into the campground, but the park rangers let us into the grounds and gave us access to our campsite a couple hours early. Very much appreciated.

We had selected two adjacent campsites for us and Team Smitty, conveniently located by one of the bathroom/shower houses. Each site had a fire pit and a picnic table, along with electric hook-ups.

We had a few hours before Smitty and Rita - along with Rita's niece, Abby - showed up, so we decided to start setting up camp in the meantime.

The Cannonball helps me with the tent stakes. This was the fourth time we set up the tent this year, so by now we definitely have the hang of things (though we did forget to put the tarp down underneath this time around - more on that later.)

Mom let us borrow this grassy stuff for the entrance to our tent. It was supposed to rain most of Saturday, so this would end up coming in quite handy.

Super excited for camping.

Wrapping up the campsite.

Lunch break at a local Wendy's. We still had some time before Smitty and Rita rolled in to Traverse City (what can I say, Smitty enjoys sleeping in), so we figured it'd be a good idea to check out some of the town.

We passed this badass souvenir store on the way into town initially, so after Wendy's we double-backed to check it out.

Both girls made a mad dash for this display, where they remained until we had to drag them away.

Both girls had around $20 of souvenir money that they had saved up for the trip, so we wanted to make sure they spent their money wisely. Alayna sat in this position, silently assessing the cuteness factor of each animal for nearly twenty minutes before finally leaving the store empty-handed, vowing to 'think about it.'

This may be the most disturbing picture of a little girl at a drinking fountain I've ever seen. . .

I would eventually demand a special trip back to this store two days later just to retrieve this coffee mug. Much to my wife's chagrin.

Following our outing to the souvenir store, we hit up the beach. . .

. . . conveniently located across the street from our campground, and accessible by this fenced bridge that spans across the traffic below.

I forget which bay this is - Grand Traverse Bay, maybe?

This picture isn't really about the girls, folks: it's about that group of ladies standing around in a circle in the background. They were obnoxiously drunk, cursing and cackling, at, like, 1pm. And most of them were in their 30s and 40s, by the looks of things. Way to keep it classy, ladies.

Busting out the telephoto lens

This kid isn't shy about chasing down seagulls. Who cares if we're in public, Abby. . .

Hitting up the playground by the beach.

A seagull. Contemplating its place in the cosmos of the universe.

Kris. Probably not doing the same.

To the bridge

(This thing gave me crazy vertigo.)

Some awesome weather. We'll take it while it lasts.

Once back at the campsite, we heard that Smitty and Rita were closing in on our location. We agreed to meet them up at Meijer so we could all plan out our purchasing of food, supplies, and, of course, beer.

After we got back to the campsite and loaded up the many totes and coolers, Smitty started to set up him and Rita's tent. . . only to realize he had neglected to bring tent poles. I'd make fun of him for this, but I did the exact same thing four months prior while camping out with a bunch of my high school buddies. We continued setting up shop while he drove back out to Meijer in order to buy new ones.

About an hour later, Smitty returned. With a brand new tent.

Abby brought along her digital camera to supplement our SLR and phone pics with. . . well. . . shit like this.

(We end up with a lot of selfies, folks.)

Time for some awesome portraits, courtesy of Abby. . .

We had initially tried to make it back out to the beach for the sunset, but Smitty took a little longer than anticipated setting up his tent, so by the time we got over there the bulk of the colorful sunset was long past. We did get its last death rattle, though.

(The mini cooler was essential to this undertaking. Smitty and I don't go anywhere without beer.)

That's Rita's niece, Abby, in the middle, there.

Trying to give Abby some pointers on taking pictures at night (her pics turned out slightly worse than these ones.)

Some sunset couples pics

Back across the bridge. . .

We wanted to start a campfire once we got back to the site, but the firewood we bought at the ranger station lacked kindling, which made keeping the fire lit a real pain in the ass. . .