The Beach!

Monday morning we left Donna's place bright and early so she and Margaret could get to work.  The plan originally had been to drive up to the beach in Michigan on the way home, but Sean went to the North Avenue Beach in Chicago on Saturday with his friends and liked it, so we just went there instead.  It was a lot less driving, giving us more time to enjoy the beautiful day.

After about a half hour of driving around to find a free parking spot, we decided to go for convenience and park in the beach's pay lot.  The attendant was really nice and recommended a great breakfast place, Elly's Pancake House, where I enjoyed a delicious waffle with fresh fruit, Sean had a classic bacon, sausage, eggs, and pancakes breakfast, and Fiona had a little of both.  With nice full tummies, we headed back to the van to  get our beach gear, change, and find a patch of sand near the water.  It wasn't very busy when we got there (maybe a little before 10 AM), but several groups of people showed up shortly afterwards, so while it wasn't very crowded, there were quite a few people.

At first Fiona didn't want to go too far into the water, but as she got used to the temperature she went farther out and enjoyed playing with the mud (also called "water sand" or "poop"), looking for fish, splashing her legs, and getting me wet and dirty.  We would play in the water for awhile, then play by the shore, then back into the water, for a couple of hours until both Sean and I were hungry so we made the decision to pack up, get some food at the beach restaurant and then head on home.

 Fiona with her daddy.

 View towards the city.  You can see the restaurant we ate at behind the lifeguards' boats.

View to the north. 

Splashing!

Playing in the water with mud. 

Playing on the shore with mud.  We forgot beach toys (like a pail and shovel), but luckily we had a cup in the van.

Enjoying our lunch.