Dunes

With Luke's busy work schedule, and my schedule largely unknown after I begin work on July 13th, Luke and I decided to take advantage of my time off and spend a night last week camping.

In spite of the fact that Luke is an Eagle Scout, and my family camped a good amount when I was younger, we are novices at planning and preparing for camping on our own, which is to say that we were maybe not ready for an extended camping trip (largely due to lack of proper equipment), so one night was perfect for us.

Since I had never been to the Indiana Dunes, and it is just over an hour outside of the city, we thought we'd try that for our first trip.

The campground was not exactly what I had expected from a state park-quite open and crowded-but it at least made for some interesting eavesdropping around campfires that night.

Our little tent amongst all the RV's (notice the Airstream on the left)

Enjoying a Fluffernutter before heading to the beach

Cooking over the fire: Onion pork burgers, courtesy of Crystal, and asparagus

S'mores

Fun with slow shutter speed...

Having never been to the Indiana shore before this, I didn't know what to expect from the beach, although I did notice several steel mills on the map I checked out before we left, and also knew that it couldn't be too far from Gary.

This definitely showed along the shoreline. I've never seen a shoreline view quite like this one.

Steel mill to the left

Nuclear power plant to the right

It was definitely fun to see Chicago from the other side of the Lake though, and we still managed to enjoy the sun, sand, and even the water. It was hazy in the morning when I took this picture, so you might need to enlarge it (click on it) to see the city.

Cargo ship and Chicago

Playing some games after packing up

Thanks to the Bassets for lending us pretty much everything but the tent!