Day trip to Saugatuck

When Max woke up at 6am we told him we were going on a mystery trip, and he was all smiles. I packed our bathing suits, swimmies, sand toys and diaper bag the night before, so we were able to get out of the house super fast once the boys woke up.

Here was our itinerary:

7:30am – Stop at Tim Horton’s and get coffee to go!

7:45 – 10am – Drive time. Xavier ended up falling back to sleep (weird!) and I taught Max the universal sign for getting a truck driver to honk his horn…it kept him busy all the way to Saugatuck!

10am – I came across The Southerner on Google Places and it had great reviews for breakfast and was on the water…sold! When we arrived there was no wait, but just after we left there were people waiting for a table. We got a table in their screened in porch which overlooked a marina with beautiful yachts. It was an amazing view to kick off our beach day. We ate at a picnic style type table which the boys found very fun. They had games you could bring to your table to help keep busy. I tried to teach Max Uno but he wasn’t that into it.

11am – We decided to venture to Oval Beach, which was around 10 minutes from our restaurant. It was $10 to enter the park and you could you come and go all day. Since we were there early, we had no problem parking and finding a great spot on the beach. Once we unloaded our wagon and beach toys, the boys got sunscreen on and were ready to play. The water was freezing, so I think they only got about waist deep before running out of the water happily squealing. Mike and Max walked the dunes and down to the pier, which was a much longer walk than they anticipated, but they had blast spotting fish and turtles in the water.

1:30 – 1:45pm – After running, swimming, and digging in the sand for a few hours, we were a hungry bunch. We packed up super quick since all we had was our wagon (highly recommend this Red Rider wagon with a cover), and we were off! As we were leaving cars were lined up around 20 cars deep to get into the park. This is the advantage of having early rising kids – no waiting for our adventures!

1:45 – 3pm – We passed a restaurant downtown, called Grow, when we were driving through town in the morning. People were waiting outside for breakfast so we assumed it must be a good spot. It had great reviews on Google Places so we decided to give it a try for lunch. The menu was very simple for breakfast/brunch/lunch. Mostly a few unique salads and sandwiches. We got a shaded table outside and ordered quickly (close to nap time!) and the food came out ridiculously fast. The avocado toast, Cuban-ish sandwich, The Club sandwich and kids cheeseburger were phenomenal. The boys inhaled their burgers!

3-5:15pm – Head home + nap time! Luckily, both boys fell asleep for the entire ride home. When we pulled in our driveway Max said “that was a lot shorter trip on the way home!” Aka, he slept the entire ride.

Have you been to West Michigan yet? If so, what’s your favorite beach/lake town?