Leaving Cleveland we travelled West – our next major destination was Chicago but we decided to have a stop over in Michigan City. As we previously mentioned our plan was paddle in each of the Great Lakes – the beaches in Cleveland did not look to clean so drove towards our next destination in Indiana, and pulled off to find a more suitable beach along Lake Erie. We stopped at Vermillion, which had a disappointing beach (but nice name) and instead we carried on until we found a glorious public beach, called Nickel Plate beach. By this time the temperature had risen to 70o F and it felt like a June day rather than the end of October.
We decided to stay in our first bed and breakfast of the journey so far, Tryon Farm, an old red brick farm building. On arrival we were met by Claudia who owns the B&B, who was a retired school principal who had chosen to run a B&B as a career change. The farm is not really a working farm and some of the property has been converted to residential units that are based on entirely renewable materials. Claudia bought the farm when the previous owner who was a farmer died – at that time it was a working farm so the house had been neglected. She has spent a lot of time restoring the building and it is now a very quaint B&B with 5 bedrooms. We had the largest room that had a little annex room with 2 trundle beds, so the grown ups had their own space (which is a luxury). Tryon Farm has a chicken coup, and Claudia allowed Jack and Emily to go in with her to try and track down some eggs. There are also horses in the surrounding fields, which Jack and Emily loved to feed.Once settled in we took the drive into downtown Michigan City (which is not too exciting) along the banks of the Lake Erie – with its houses running down to a lovely, private beach. Our selected eatery was a burger shack called Swingbelly’s, based in a converted railway station, overlooking the lake and Michigan City’s quaint lighthouse. The food was okay – the highlight being a basket fried local perch.
Today we rose and was cooked a wonderful breakfast by Claudia, the children had waffles shaped like farm animals whilst the adults were provided omelettes, which were stuffed with tomatoes, mushrooms and wild rice. Delicious!! It was really nice to have adult conversations with the other residents – there were two other couples (one from Kansas City and the other from Orange County, CA) who had all been visiting Notre Dame (the famous college in South Bend). After packing up we set off for the Indiana Dunes, National Lakeshore Park. This was another destination we had not planned but found out about as we reached Indiana – it is great to get such surprise. I don’t think most people would expect to find sand dunes of such a size on the edge of a lake a thousand miles from the sea, but there they are. We diverted off the road to see one of the largest dunes, Mount Baldi, which climbs 120 feet and is encroaching onto the land behind it at a staggering rate of 5 feet per year (threatening the parking lot and the nearby Route 12). Our lungs (or at least Karen’s and Mark’s) were screaming by the time we had 
reached the top, but it was worthwhile as even on this grey day the views were stunning. The children ran down the side of the dune towards the lake, the parents ambled at a more leisurely pace down the slope. We of course had to do the obligatory paddle in Lake Michigan (only Lakes Superior and Huron to go 
now). By this stage the weather was closing in rapidly so picked ourselves up and went off to find the Indiana Dunes visitors centre. Here we met a wonderful Ranger called Jean Pierre (or JP) who helped Jack and Emily through their Junior Ranger programmes so they could get their badges. This being done we set off into the gloom for our final destination for the day Chicago.
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