Empire Beach

Empire beach

Sunday July 20th 5:00 p.m. 74°

Rain keeps interfering with my beach plans so far this season! Between the June gloom and constant thunderstorms, I’ll be lucky to make it to 13 beaches before grad school starts on August 25. Especially with all of the painting, flooring, window trim fixing….you get the point!

My parents were in town to visit this weekend and I wanted to give them the full northern Michigan experience but the Mother Nature had other plans. Instead of heading out to a beach or 2 on Saturday, we spent the day going to antique stores in Traverse City and Elk Rapids to shop for ultra 70s items for a possible new home. We went to Blue Owl in Elk Rapids which had many items that we will be back to pick once we know things are more certain. After walking through the hot and sticky rain we decided to do dinner at Bubba’s in downtown Traverse City. Burgers and salads along with boozy shakes were just what we needed. Of course the day they left to go back down state, the weather was perfect. But as usual, God has other plans in mind.

As many of you know, we run a mortuary logistics business. What many of you may not know, is that I used to do calls for our business and haven’t been on one in a couple of years. Well, on this day I had my opportunity to do just that. We got 3 house calls in the span of an hour or two. I decided to go on a house call with my husband Eddie. House calls are usually planned deaths that are much less traumatizing for all involved than a medical examiner call. We drove out to the descendants house and everything went well. I was relieved to witness a peaceful parting scene for this person and their loved ones. Sad but heartwarming at the same time. I got through it, feeling always so grateful to the health of my loved ones and ready to enjoy the day. Finally. 

After this, it was about 4 o'clock or so and we were finally free to make it out to the big lake. I definitely don’t have the time I’d like to devote to exploring today but I’ve got a list to get through and only 1 day this upcoming week that I can make it to another beach. Tackling this list of beaches has been an exercise in forcing myself to do fun things even when I don’t feel like it. The truth is, I am so, so tired today. But doing these things should cheer me up! This is what I wanted to do with my family the day before. We drove out to Empire beach in Empire, Michigan which is right on Lake Michigan. It took us about 40 minutes. 

When we first got there, the parking lot was full and saw that the beach here was small and pretty busy. Luckily there is an overflow parking area not too far away. We parked and walked down to the beach. We came across a really fun playground and all the swings were occupied so we headed to the shore. There was a giant rock and Eddie took a picture of me propped up against like a senior portrait. The sand was really soft and that’s nice but in the reviews that other people have left online about this beach, it was said that this beach was a good one for rock hunting and I didn’t see any rocks except for what was maybe under the water. We walked down the shore to the adorable little lighthouse that is at the other end. Massive dunes are seen in the distance like many other beaches in this area. We are really close to sleeping bear dunes. 

We snapped a couple of photos of the cute little lighthouse and I’m afraid that this is the extent of this visit. However, the point is that I went to a new place and that’s all that matters! Also, we had more plans in the area. About 15 minutes away is the town of Glen Arbor and we decided a cute miniature golf date was a good plan to round out the evening. We went to the River Club of Glen Arbor and indulged in some Mexican food and frozen drinks. Then played 9 holes of miniature golf. It was busy there but the weather tonight was beautiful and they had a good live band playing. We will definitely come back at some point! Can’t wait to tell you guys all about my next beach! 5 down, 8 to go! See you next time!