Saying Goodbye, for Now - No Swimming, and Rules

(Chesterton, IN) – This is our last day at Indiana Dunes State Park.  It’s great here, especially if you can control how much water you use. We’ve done well, so we're learning holding tank management and how to conserve fresh water.


We had a goodbye cookout this afternoon with Rick's family and our friends Andrea and Rich.  It was  fabulous weather and it was nice to have our awning out, along with our outdoor carpet and chairs.  It was perfect.

Dee, Rick with Jack, Andrea, Rich.  Laura and Ellice have their backs to the camera.

Joey, Playing with his Nintendo DSI inside the storage compartment.

Ellice and Laura

We had a great lunch, then after some good conversation and fellowship we had to say goodbye to everyone except Rick and Jack.  The four of us went to the beach. The beautiful weather brought out the crowds, so we had to search to find a parking spot.  After finally getting parked we walked down to the beach only to find out there was NO SWIMMING.  It was quite windy with rolling surf and dangerous rip tides.  The lake looked more like the Atlantic Ocean.  It's hard to believe it's smooth as glass one day and big waves another. Since this is a State Park there are lots of rules:  no swimming if e-coli levels are high, no floating devices (rafts, noodles), no swimming over chest deep, no “playing or tossing in the air.”  Sheesh... makes you wonder how kids can have any fun!  But we're old enough that the rules don't really bother us.

The beach was FULL of people.  The funny thing is just a few yards down, there were a lot swimmers.  When a life guard went past us, we asked why we couldn’t go in the water but they could.  The answer, Porter Beach is just down the from us and is outside the park, and there’s no life guards and no rules.  BUT, if something does happen, the life guards from the State Park have to help.  Go figure.

Rick went up the dune that I climbed a few days ago.  He didn’t do it once, but twice, and Jack did it three times.  Now I really feel old and out of shape!

Rick is on the left near the bushes.

When Rick went up the second time he took my picture from the top.  I’m in the middle in white.

More views of the crowded beach from the top of the dune.  This is the view I had the other day but didn't have my camera with me.


Jack going up the third time.

Before Rick left we went geocaching. There’s a couple caches inside the park, and we found one of them.  There were three at the visitors center and we found two of those.  It was a great ending to a fabulous time here with our son and family.  Thank you family and friends!

Tomorrow we leave for Goshen.