Summer Adventures: Houghton Lake

When Gary and I first started dating almost four years ago, we realized that his grandparents and my grandparents had houses right down the street from each other up at Houghton Lake. This was where we had both spend our summers as children, playing in the street and running to get ice cream from the Custard Cup. Somehow we never met up there as kids, although I have to imagine that we probably saw each other once or twice. Apparently he used to go running and he would always pass my grandparent's cabin, and he told me that he always wondered who lived there. Small world, right?

But as cool as this was to find out, the best part is that it has made our vacationing in the summers far more easy. We always try to make it up to Houghton Lake for at least one weekend every summer, and we both already have somewhere to stay! This summer, we went up for the fourth of July weekend!

I was so excited, because this was our first real adventure of the summer. We made our way up on the fourth and got there by the early afternoon (it's only a two hour drive from my apartment). I went to my grandpa and grandma's cabin, Gary went to his. I ended up spending my afternoon talking to my grandparents while we all ate ice pops (a tradition when up at the cabin), and we finally went to Gary's grandparents' house for dinner.

The turtles after we let them back into the canal!

We don't do a lot when we're at Houghton Lake, and that's perfectly okay. We spend a lot of time around bonfires, or in the paddleboat trying to catch turtles out of the canal that's next to my grandma's cabin. Gary's younger cousins came up north for the same weekend that we did, so we caught two turtles for them so that they could race them back into the canal.

I'm a horrible shot...

Gary is a lot better!

My attempt to aim...

The last day we were there, my grandparents took us shooting up at the local shooting range (where they are very active members) and we were able to shoot bow and arrow as well as some of my grandpa's guns. I enjoy archery more than shooting, but I think that's mostly because it makes for cooler pictures!

Until next time!

Hayley