Celebrating Our One-Year Honeymoon at the Indiana Dunes
As time passes by, my memory fades. I write this because we celebrated our one-year anniversary October 8-10, 2022, and I am writing this blog post January 7, 2023.
Did I procrastinate? I think we all know the answer to that, but give me a break, I edit content for a living and at the end of the day, sometimes I just don’t have the energy to write or read anymore words.
Back to the main story.
Kyle and I decided earlier in 2022 that we wanted to celebrate our wedding anniversary every year; maybe we won’t have the time or money to go on vacation every year, but we still want to do something special.
On our first wedding anniversary, we decided to visit the Indiana Dunes National Park. I had never been to the dunes, and Kyle really wanted to fly our kites on the beach.
Day 1: Saturday, Oct. 8
On the first day of our three-day trip, we drove directly from Ohio to the New Buffalo Beach. I do remember that it was extremely windy that day, and honestly a little too chilly, but Kyle was determined to fly his kites. We were on the beach for around an hour and a half. Kyle successfully flew one of his kites, but his prized possession, the new octopus kite, couldn’t handle the haphazard wind and kept dramatically descending from the sky. The poor octopus kite eventually couldn’t even stay up in the air due to being weighed down by all the sand in its tentacles (I can’t believe this is a sentence I just wrote). To say Kyle was disappointed is an understatement.
We eventually gave up and decided to just walk around the beach. As an Ohioan, feeling sand between my toes is still such a unique experience for me (shut up, I know there are beaches in Ohio). At one point, I thought for sure I would step on a broken glass bottle, but thankfully that did not happen. We saw a lot of bizarre beach houses during this walk, which made me think a lot about how being rich doesn’t necessarily mean that you have any taste whatsoever.
Anyway, we honestly spent a little too much time on the beach, and I ended up leaving tired, irritated, and queasy from windburn.
We tried to go out to eat that night, but I just didn’t feel great at all.
When we got back to the hotel, I was determined to make next day a better day (and it was).
Day 2: Sunday, Oct. 9
Our day started with a big breakfast buffet at the Holiday Inn. It’s not like it was a five-star meal, but I certainly do appreciate free food.
We made our way to the Indiana Dunes National Park. Most of the photos you’ll see in this blog are from day 2.
After getting a map, we chose to hike on the Cowles Bog Trail, the park’s longest (and most difficult) trail. I made the mistake of thinking “This isn’t so bad at all,” but then we had to climb up two very steep dunes, and my glutes had a lot to say about it.
Much like the beach, dunes are also foreign to me. There weren’t any sandworms, but there was one really creepy (and photogenic) spider, which you’ll see in the photo album (oh, and I guess trigger warning if you really hate spiders).
The last six pictures in the album are also from that hike. Kyle took so many *iconic* pictures from that hike, but we don’t want to spam everyone with them.
I wish I could recount some memories from that hike, but alas…it was several months ago. I remember seeing some sort of weird berry??? but that doesn’t seem like an interesting or notable fact. Oh well.
We ate at this small pub afterwards. I remember we got there RIGHT when they opened, which made me feel a little strange. I imagined the employees thinking we were just obsessively standing outside of the door with crazed expressions, just waiting to come inside. I am not sure why I remember very little from the hike, but I do remember that I ordered fried pickles and steak tacos from this pub. My memory is fuzzy here now; after the restaurant, we either went to Mount Tom or we headed back to New Buffalo. I do remember stopping by an ice cream shop (with two dairy-free options!!!) that proudly advertised that Joe Biden “had been there.” Cool, I guess. Their ice cream was pretty great. Again, I remember that Kyle ordered a blood orange sorbet and I ordered a birthday cake ice cream. (What is with me remembering food? And why do I think people care about what we ordered??)
We made the last-minute decision to visit the same New Buffalo Beach to watch the sunset. The lighthouse photo from the album is from that day. Honestly, until that day, I don’t think I had actually…watched the sun set).
Editor’s note: I have just remembered that after the restaurant, we walked on a boardwalk near the state park. We scared a bunch of seagulls and saw a couple boldly makeout).
Day 3: Monday, Oct. 10
This was our (unfortunately) last day of the trip. We ate another absolutely ~delicious~ and free breakfast buffet before we headed to Mount Tom. After hiking short trails around Mount Tom, we thought visiting a conservatory would be nice. We found a few, but then forgot that it was Christopher Columbus and Indigenous Peoples’ Day, and most conservatories were closed. Side note: Businesses, please update your websites. I know social media is easier to work with, but please think of your dear non-social media users.
Even though the first day of our trip was a rough (for me), I’m looking forward to many more anniversary celebrations with Kyle!
Where should we go next?
