7am: Wake up, gather beach towels and snacks, and jump in the car!
9am: We ate breakfast at the Morning Star Café, a few blocks off main street. This is a popular spot, so we had to wait 20 minutes before being seated. Luckily, a darling little book store called Bookman is located right next door, and was open at 8am, so Max and I read some books in their kids section while we waited for our table.
10:30am: We grabbed coffees to go and walked around their main downtown area. We were really early, so the shops were just starting to open up. We popped in and out of a few, and then made our way to the pier and beach.
11:30am: We walked from downtown to the Grand Haven South Pierhead Inner Light lighthouse. This had to be a good 1-2 mile walk.
12:30: Beach time! We spread a beach blanket and allowed Max to splash in the water. It wasn’t warm enough to go all the way in with bathing suits, but he had a blast running in and out of the water.
1:15pm: Walked back to downtown
1:45pm: Lunch at the Grand Haven Brew House
3pm: Head home!
- Shopping – the downtown is filled with boutique shops, including clothing, unique Michigan apparel, kids toys shops, art shops and even a boutique dog store. If you want ‘Michigan Love’ apparel, you will find tons of options.
- Rent a pontoon – this is more for a nice day, but half day rentals are available!
- Rent Kayaks
- Beach! It wasn’t warm enough to swim when we went, but my son could have spent hours splashing his little feet in the tide.
- There are a lot of restaurants on the main street. We ate breakfast at The Morning Star café (5 stars!) and lunch at the Grand Haven Brew House
- Picnic on the beach – pack a lunch and picnic blanket and snack on the beach