It's been a couple of weeks now that I got back from my second big vacation of the Summer. With memories of Marquette still dancing around in our heads, 
Just about every year her parents and siblings (along with their families) all get together and rent a location somewhere to hang out for a week or so. Last year it was Hocking Hills down in Ohio. This year our family trip took us to Grindstone City.
Given the fact that there are 16 of us, it can be hard to find places in prime locations that have adequate accommodations for the entire group.
With eleven adults and five children, I am sure you can understand that there are a lot of things that need to be considered. Having that many people with just one or even two bathrooms could spell disaster for the whole week. After kicking around several options, we finally decided on this house in Grindstone City right on the shores of Lake Huron.
As you can see, it is in a beautiful location with a great view of the harbor across the street. The road that runs between the house and the harbor is a public road that leads out to a park at the point. It received a fair amount of traffic during our stay, but it wasn't too disturbing.
We found this house via VRBO and all of the details were handled by my mother in law.
The loft area upstairs had a total of four bedrooms. One of the beds was out in the middle of the common area which was a little confusing. No one ended up sleeping in that bed. It would have been hard anyway with the sun streaming in the large windows each morning that looked out over Lake Huron.
There was also one large bathroom upstairs and a washer and dryer for laundry.
The loft looked down over the common area which in my opinion could have been a little larger. Besides the dining table, there was very little space for everyone to actually sit down and easily communicate with each other. Very often we found ourselves shouting across the room to carry on a conversation.
This is the bed I mentioned that was just sitting out in the middle of the upstairs space. You can see the laundry and bathroom in the background.
This was the view of the house from the back. On the main floor was the living area as well as a large kitchen and a single bedroom with an attached bathroom that we allowed my mother and father in law to have since they were paying for the trip after all. It was the only room in the house with a king bed.
Down in the basement was three more bedrooms, a bathroom, and another kitchen area.
While the upstairs kitchen was reserved for the meal prep, the downstairs kitchen is where we kept all of our snacks and beverages. I know it looks like a lot of junk food, but those kids can put that stuff away like you wouldn't believe. There wasn't too much left by the time we left.
Of course when you are dealing with a big loud Catholic family, alcohol is a must!
No, really. It looks like a college frat house fridge am I right?!
We actually had to make a couple trips to the local grocery store to restock on some of the beverages in the refrigerator believe it or not! To be fair though,
The house also included a "game room" that was available for our use. Really, it was just a Quonset building that smelled and got much too hot in the middle of the day for us to really spend any time out there. I think when we booked the place, we thought we would use it a lot more than we actually did.
I went out there exactly once and it was to take the pictures for this post that you see above. It wasn't as cool of a space as I thought it would be and the kids only spent limited time out there. The adults spent pretty much zero time in the "game room".
Of course, the big draw for this place was the fact that it sat on the shores of Lake Huron. Unfortunately, we didn't have the best of weather while we were there. The wildfires in Canada continued to dump a haze across the sky. When it wasn't hazy, it was far to hot and humid to enjoy the outdoors.
Additionally, there was a gaggle of geese who had decided to take up residence on the beach area. The entire yard both front and back was covered with goose poop. Even the beach was in a pretty sorry state. The water was quite mucky and the one time I went out far enough to get past the muck it was too rocky to get a good footing without destroying your feet.
Despite all of that, we did spend a bit of time down at the Tiki Bar they had installed on the edge of the property. As you will see in the next set of pictures it afforded some beautiful views when the clouds finally cleared.
There was a fire pit right near the Tiki Bar that the kids roasted marshmallows over for smores one night.
As much as the adults decided to steer clear of the water, the kids of course didn't seem to mind. They played in the water pretty much every day we were there. There was one day that the ladies decided to find some beach rakes and they cleared up the sand as much as they could from the goose poop.
I spent the morning fishing, but the rest of the family had a nice time laying out in the sun while the kids played in the water.
One thing we have found interesting after staying at a couple of places like this is the fact that they are never quite what they seem in the photos. The photos are always going to show the best side and the best qualities of a place.
Once you get there, you start to notice the flaws and the cracks that they glossed over. The geese on the beach is one such example. Dust and cobwebs here and there, other areas they didn't clean quite as well as you might have thought, cracked paint, etc.
I'm not saying a place should be perfect, but when you spend a couple thousand dollars to stay at a place, you kind of hope it will be a little higher quality.
In the end though, all that really matters is the fact that we got to spend some time together with our family. That's ultimately what is most important. We laughed, ate, drank, played games, talked, got on each others nerves, and spent time together.
Sounds like a pretty great trip to me right?!
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All pictures/screenshots taken by myself or