Indiana Dunes State Park, IN – Flashback to Warmth

As a lover of warm weather, I can’t help but think about warmer days.

It’s now the end of January and I am so ready for the summer even though it will still be a while before it’s here. But, I do have to say that I am thankful that winter here in Chicago has been relatively mild this season compared to previous years.

This post is a flashback to my first summer in Chicago (last year) and I guess I couldn’t stay away from a beach post for long.

My four year old niece, much like me, adores the beach. So I had to make sure I gave her that experience here as well.

I know there are beaches in Chicago by Lake Michigan but I wanted to get away from the city which is why we ended up at the Indiana Dunes State Park. It’s about an hour and a half from where I live and is also located at the southern tip of Lake Michigan. And is in a whole other state!

My friends were also visiting from California at the time so I thought it would be nice to show them a Midwest beach. Their eyes have been spoiled by Cali beaches so this was a slightly different experience for them. A lake instead of an ocean, occasional cloudy days instead of clear sunny ones and green bushes/trees instead of scattered palm trees.

It was a little cloudy at the time but that didn’t prevent us from having fun! We enjoyed the heck out of the day as we spent most of it there.

We sat, relaxed, ran in and out of the water and also tried flying a kite. Key word here is TRIED. Flying a kite looks so simple, you just unwind the string slowly and run, right?

Nope. We spent a good two hours running around with the kite but we accomplished nothing except looking ridiculous. It was a complete failed attempt. I guess we need to watch YouTube tutorials on how to fly kites because apparently there is an art to it.