September 14, 2017 Thursday

I woke up about 6am and laid there waiting to see when Scott and Philip would wake up. Philip got up and headed for the restroom a little after 7am and Mom texted me just after that. We decided to meet at Russ' for breakfast. Around 8am we took Philip to his car at the community center and he followed us over to Russ. We visited with Mom and Dad and Russ until about 9:30am when Phil left, we all headed back to the campground. Mom and I went for a bike ride down by the water. It was probably about two miles. When we got back Dad was rested so we headed to check out the pier. Dad and Scott stopped and talked to EVERYONE. Mom and I finally went ahead and walked down the beach a ways.

When we got back to the camper we decided to hop in their car and figure out how to get to the North Pier. We went over the draw bridge and exited 31 and Ferrysburg exit. We came upon Lakeshore Drive North and just started driving. We came upon some beautiful houses with an incredible view of Lake Michigan. We were looking for a specific house with four garage doors that had cement ramps right from the water. We found it! It was very exciting. Then we parked our cars and walked down the North Pier. It was gorgeous!! The water was crystal clear and we could see fish in the water. One of the locals told us that it is only clear like that two times a year. The next stop on the adventure was at North Beach Park that bordered the North Ottawa Dunes. There were about three hundred stairs so we decided to try that next time. We did however go down to the water on the BEAUTIFUL beach. There were like three other people there and the water and sand was incredible. 

Around 3pm we had dinner and Panera and then Mom and Dad dropped us off at the campground with plan to meet for the Bible conference. We met there around 6:30 and visited and goofed around on our phones until it started at 7:30pm. The lesson was incredible. It was from Proverbs 1:1-5. He called it the "scope of the basis of the Christian life." "They are fools who disdain wisdom and the discipline of instruction." We learn from taking in Bible doctrine or we learn from experience but we have to learn, understand, and apply to grow. Our friends Chris and Melanie were there so we talked to them quite awhile afterwards. Mom and Dad left and Chris and Melanie invited us to Kirby's for some food. There we met their friends from Bob Kreger's church, Lou and Wendy. They were a lot of fun and it was great talking to like-minded believers. We visited until about 11:30pm and then headed back to the campground. It was the first night that it wasn't really cloudy so the stars were pretty bright. Scott and I took a walk down the boardwalk and a little ways onto the beach and watched the stars for a little. It was hazy over the lake so we couldn't see the stars above there. But we saw the Big Dipper, Casseopeia, and Pegasus. The Milky Way was pretty clear, too. It was a perfect ending to a great day!