This past weekend @mrsbozz and I took what could be our last camping trip of 2025. We actually have one more planned, but with a potential state government shut down due to having no budget possible, we might end up not being able to go on the last one. I've heard stories about last time they had a shut down like this they actually went to each campsite and told people they had to pack up and leave.
I just hope whatever happens we get enough warning. I'm actually a bit more concerned about how the lack of a budget will impact the public schools versus my camping schedule, but that's a topic for another post.
It's been quite a while since we have visited Port Crescent State Park just south of Port Austin, Michigan. The last time we camped here we had a similar site, but they hadn't built up the barrier between the beach and the sites, so the wind was pretty intense. I remember just to have a fire we had to sit out in our winter coats.
Thankfully, that wasn't the case this weekend.
Port Crescent State Park is actually home to a wide array of camping options. Probably more than I have seen at any other park so far in the state. Where most parks only have a couple of cabins for people who don't have a tent or camper, this park has at least ten or more different options. On top of that, they also have some hammock only sites for people who really want to rough it!
Friday night we just spent some time relaxing around the campfire and then we walked down to one of the paths to the beach. It was a cool but beautiful evening and while we were both in jeans and a hoodie, I didn't feel it was that cold. I took the photo above of some shells that someone had gathered and deposited in the sand.
We were able to catch the sun just before it ducked behind the clouds and left us for the evening. We didn't get a chance to visit it, but this park also has a dark sky park that would have been cool to check out. We were actually a bit surprised at how full the park was. For the end of September pretty much every site was filled.
Parks like this are usually pretty hard to get into over the summer months. Given the proximity to the water and all the area has to offer, it fills up quite quickly. In the fall you generally have a better chance of finding a site, but as I said, even this late into September I consider ourselves lucky to have gotten the site we did.
It might not seem like a big exciting trek, but the little trips like this even after the summer has unofficially ended are the things that help to keep us sane when the beginning of the school year hits.
After a bit of an excursion on Saturday that I will cover in a different post, I spent most of the afternoon just sitting at our campsite reading an actual book and listening to all the sounds from around the campfire. The waves were crashing on the beach just across the road and it was almost enough to make me slip off into a nice long nap.
As Saturday was coming to a close, I caught this shot of some geese flying South which is usually a pretty good indication that Fall is right around the corner.
I picked up these peanuts at an online vendor before we headed off on our trip and I highly recommend them! You should check out the Pear Snacks site sometime and give these a try. They aren't really that hot at all, but they have a nice combination of flavors. Sam's Club carried nuts like this for a very short time, but now three years later I still haven't seen them again in the store.
The price for these is a little higher than what we paid at Sam's Club, but the flavor is spot on. I'll definitely be buying more of these in the future.
Saturday night for dinner we roasted some hotdogs over the fire and then I used some of my homemade chili to turn them into chili dogs. The consistency of my chili wasn't really right for this sort of meal, but they still turned out pretty good. We ate them outside around the campfire as we watched college football on @mrsbozz's Chromebook.
As I said, weekends like this help to melt away all the stress and aggravations of the previous week. It might not seem like much, but even something as simple as a fire is a minor indulgence that kind of makes everything else worth while.
Both evenings I was able to catch Cassiopeia peaking through the trees once the sun had gone down. It's one of the few constellations that I can actually pick out along with the Big Dipper and Orion. I always get a sense of peace when I see those constellations. Probably because they are familiar and timeless. They have been there long before me and they will continue on long after I have gone. Well, except for Betelgeuse...
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All pictures/screenshots taken by myself or @mrsbozz unless otherwise sourced