It is a little hard to believe that we aren't even halfway through August and the days are already starting to get shorter. I noticed the sun wasn't quite as high as it has been on my ride into work this morning. Likewise, those twilight/dusk evenings around the campfire are starting to turn into nights around the campfire.
With one final summer camping trip ahead of us, I thought it might be a good idea to reflect on some of the places we visited this past summer. I will spare you all the photos from the Upper Peninsula on this one, if you want to see those you can go back and look at my past posts.
Also hard to believe we watched our oldest niece pitch some of her last travel league softball games this summer. I have been meaning to write a whole post dedicated to softball, but I just haven't gotten around to it yet.
By some stroke of luck even though her university is a state away from us, we found out her team will be playing a couple of schools in our area, so we should get to see her play at the college level quite a bit.
Her younger sister finally made the decision to leave her team and try out for a new one. The new team was more than happy to have someone with her talent on their roster. I am so proud of her for stepping outside her comfort zone to do what is best for her softball "career".
I know I promised camping photos, but I felt I needed to include these in this post. 
These photos were the result of one of those visits.
Although we made fewer trips than previous years this summer, we still did our fair share of camping. This wasn't our first trip to Hartwick Pines State Park, but we had a newfound appreciation for it after visiting this year.
One of the main things we liked about the trip is the fact that we got sites with full hookup capabilities. Being able to shower in our own trailer without needing to worry about how full (or empty) our tanks are is really nice.
On top of that, the sites were quite secluded. That is often rare for full hookup sites!
A short time after our trip to Hartwick Pines we made a visit to Harrisville State Park. As you can see our site here was also a bit secluded. We stayed in a part of the park that we don't normally visit. Usually, we try to get down as close to the water as possible, but as you can guess, those sites are premium and they book up quite fast.
It wasn't until we were already packed up and gone for the weekend that I realized I was supposed to keep my eye out for 
Despite the relative drought we have been having in Michigan this summer, these places were still quite verdant and bustling with life.
I even took the time to ride down to one of the local ice cream shops with our friend and her kids. The waffle cone with triple peanut butter ice cream was nothing short of amazing. Sorry, no pictures of that, I ate it too quickly!
My wife and I took our fair share of walks in the morning (along with Jovi). Enough walks that I feel I am more than justified to include this post as a #wednesdaywalk post created and sponsored by 
Fun fact, the area in the pictures above used to be campsites, but they had to close them down a year or two ago because the level of Lake Huron was so high that the sites were flooded. It appears the coast has receded a bit, but they still have these handful of sites blocked off.
And of course you can't take a morning walk without also including an afternoon nap...
We took a lot of those too!
Of course a good weekend of camping isn't complete without some good beverages to enjoy along the way. I picked this Pilsner up from Trader Joe's down in Columbus, OH. Land Grant is a local brewery that has gained some popularity in the area. They have a lot of "Buckeye" themed beers. This one was a bit hoppier than I was expecting for a Pils, but it was still pretty good.
Not sure if two pictures qualifies me for #beersaturday, but here it is anyway.
I often find myself looking up when we go camping. Whether it is just to admire how blue the sky is, take in the stars at night, or just admire the nature around me, it's amazing what you see when you tilt your head back.
Like this tree on our last camping trip. Something about it just really stuck with me.
Something about the way the branches crisscrossed was very intriguing to me. I can't really explain it, but I felt a little moved just looking at it. It was quite impressive.
It's pretty rare we find the perfect trees to set up my hammock, but every now and then we get lucky!
We even got to see another country this summer. Look at the horizon really hard and you can just see Canada across this part of Lake Superior. Everybody wave!
Of course no camping trip would be complete without some quality time spent around the campfire. We had plenty of that this summer.
No doubt it was a pretty epic summer filled with good times, great people, and amazing memories that will last a lifetime!
All pictures/screenshots taken by myself or
