Why You Should Visit Ludington, Michigan

I recently took my children to Ludington to go camping.It was over the 4th of July week and weekend. I researched and researched nice places to camp and here seemed to be the best. The drive up there was just gorgeous.

Usually when I am somewhere new I am a little nervous of the people. Not here though. The first day on the campground my children and I spoke with just about every camper and the owners. Very nice people. Swimming and fishing were just two of our favorite things to do .

Our second day there we went to explore the city. It was so nice. I found an herbal store ran by a Native American Indian woman. Just outside there was a street band. We had to stop to see this for a while as in our small town this never happens. We then visited an ice cream shop named House of Flavors. The ice creams were huge! The kids and I had a blast trying to see if we could eat them. Then it was back to the campground. We cooked dinner (foil wrapped ham and potatoes and cheese) and talked and told stories and it was off to bed.

The next day we started off getting cleaned up and then heading back into the city. We had no set destination, just whatever we decided to stop at to do. We drove around and looked at all of the marinas there. Ludington is full of them. We then found the beach area for Lake Michigan and the lighthouse. Of course the kids and I had to walk the long dock out to the lighthouse just to see it up close. In the water there were tons of broken up cement and a little ways out there were families of swans and ducks. We never did get to swim in Lake Michigan, I think the kids and I were both scared of the huge waves and a lot of the time it was having a light rain. We found a huge park for the kids to play at right near one of the many marinas. After all of the days exercise and excitement we decided to stop in the city and eat dinner. We ate at a restaurant called Kuntry Kubbard. Wonderful food for wonderful prices.

Then it was back to camp and off to sleep.

The next day we decided to stay at the campground. We fished and went swimming the entire day. That night roasted marshmallows over the fire after we had dinner.

Next day we went back to the city. I needed some more things from the store and there were plenty of areas that we had not seen yet. To our surprise there was a parade that day downtown also. We got our ice-creams (again at House of Flavors) and stood on the sidewalk with hundreds of other people just to watch. It was a pretty huge parade. After that we visited some of the little stores on the main street. There are tons of souvenir shops. All have the cutest things in them. We needed to stay near the city all day for the fireworks display that evening, so we took the kids to AJ's Family Fun Center. There we rode go-karts, played a round of mini golf , rode in the bumper boats (kids loved these) and hit a few balls in the batting cages. It was starting to get dark by this time and still needed to eat. So, dragging the children away from AJ's we set out to find where we would have dinner. We chose Ponderosa that night so that the kids could eat from the buffet without having to argue with to eat food. After dinner it was almost fireworks time. We drove as close as we could get to the beach area and parked the car. Tons of other people were here for the same reason. The fireworks display was just gorgeous. It lit up the entire night sky with every color of the rainbow. I loved seeing the children's faces when one went off.

The drive back, after the firworks show, was not bad at all. With that many people I would have imagined backed up traffic, but there really wasn't any.

Our last day there the kids and stayed mostly at the camp. We did go for a small drive around the lake area and found an Elk ranch. The kids and I had a huge debate if they were reindeer (smallest was hoping this is where Santa and Reindeer vacationed) or Elk. The name was Amber Elk Ranch. There are other animals there also, that you see on the tour, but the Elk were our favorites.

The next morning we packed up to head out. I made sure the kids and I had Tshirts from the camp and each of us got a hat. This vacation was one of the best we have ever had together and was very economical also.

So if you are just looking to get away and enjoy yourself for less money, Ludington is the place to visit. The scenery itself will draw you in and the people who live there will make you want to come back.