I’ve said it before, but fall is simply the best time for camping! We went on a mid week camping trip and had great weather. A little chilly, but perfect for hiking and campfires. Our cats went along again and for the most part they did good. A few meows on the ride but nothing too bad. It’s fun to have them with us and they do enjoy watching the birds and squirrels.
Mon – 4 miles, treadmill. I reunited with my treadmill again. The morning darkness was not appealing. At night we carved pumpkins. My daughter came up with the best design this year. It turned out so good!
Tues – 6 miles, progression run. I split this up into 3 x 2 miles and it went pretty good. Although this was a dark run I did enjoy the Halloween decorations around my neighborhood.
We drove to the campground, Indiana Dunes State Park, and got set up before it got dark. It was a great site!
Weds – Hiking day. We started the day with the “3 Dune Challenge”. The trail is only 1.5 miles long but it’s climbing up some steep sand dunes! Then we hiked around some more and ended up at the beach.
You can see Chicago across Lake Michigan from the beach! So cool.
Thurs – 4 easy miles, running. I ran around the campground and enjoyed the fall colors.
We hiked in the Indiana Dunes National Park today. There is an interesting relationship between Indiana Dunes State Park and the National Park. The State Park is located within the National Park, although you don’t need a NP pass to go to the State park. I’m sure this place is crazy busy in the summer. It’s a beautiful beach area.
At night we watched some Halloween movies – Frankenstein! They are actually pretty funny because they are so old (1930s!). Of course my cats had to snuggle with me.
Fri – 3 easy miles running around the campground before we headed back home.
Happy Halloween! Also Happy NEW BIKE DAY! I’ve been on the lookout for a new mountain bike and after two failed bike showings, I finally found a winner. This beauty was located on the way home from camping in Indiana and is basically brand new. Only ridden a few times on a paved bike path. Yahoo!
We handed out candy and had 147 kids (plus a few we missed count of) in two hours. We upgraded our decorations this year with new colored lights and a skeleton with glowing eyes! We also have a smoke machine which scared many kids. Mwahahaha!
Sat – 9 miles, long run. One last long run until the Churchill’s Half Marathon next Saturday. Note to self, I still need to sign up! One fun fact about the race: the race director is my coworker and he lets me be part of the decision on race shirt colors. This year I picked brown for the ladies. Yes, brown! The shirt colors for men and women were going to different due to available stock, so I picked brown since I don’t have any shirts that color. I think the green really pops! I know there will be haters, but oh well, I think it looks good! It gives off Girl Scout vibes, no? 😉
7 miles biking – the maiden voyage of my new bike on the trails. I’m super happy with it! It’s the same model I had before but there has been updates in this generation of it. It’s now a 1-by gear system which makes shifting so quiet, smooth and fast! The shocks are more springy and the tires are more beefy. I’m SO glad I got it! My old mountain bike will be passed on to my daughter who didn’t have a good bike. She really needed one.
Sun – Rest day! We are heading to Cedar Point again for their last day of the season. I’m guessing it’s going to be a bit of craziness either with crowds or lack of items (they will probably be running out of many food items!), but that’s the fun of it all, right?
Need some more inspiration? I’m linking up with Deborah at Confessions of a Mother Runner and Kim from Running on the Fly for their Weekly Run Down. Check out all of the fun blogs there!
Q: Did you have many kids Trick or Treating at your house?
Our side of the neighborhood was busy. A friend on the other side reported only 35 kids at her house!
Q: Did you attend any Halloween parties?
I did not know about Indiana Dunes SP. Last year I got a pass for Dunes NP and stopped there on my way to Chicago – we made three trips so it was worth it to get the annual pass. Now that I have all the time in the world for short trips, I’m adding the 3 Dunes challenge to my list! If the weather holds I could still do it this year.
We saw the first two Frankenstein movies for Halloween last year and they were fun (and short enough to be able to watch them in one night). This year we ran out of candy early so we turned all of the lights in the front of the house off and had a cosy night in our back room.
We did have to pay $7 for the Indiana Park fee when we went into the campground so I’m sure you’d have to pay that, but much less than the NP fee!
Congrats on getting a new mountain bike, how exciting! Hope you enjoy many fun miles on it!
Your camping trip sounds nice and it’s great that the cats are getting used to it and seem to be enjoying themselves. Had you been to Indiana Dunes National Park before? That’s interesting that the state park is located within the national park.
We probably had about 40 trick-or-treaters.
Nope, it was a new tree for the map!
we really didn’t get to do much in the line of Halloween this year. We attended a few pop up bars, and that’s about it.
I love fall camping. It’s really just perfect. That view of Chicago is incredible!
It was so cool to see the Chicago skyline from the beach! Apparently you can even see when they shine different colored lights on the Willis (Sears) Tower.
My favorite thing about this post is that you take your cats camping! Foxy would be totally into it, but I can’t envision Muffin, or especially CHARLOTTE, being okay with that. Charlotte is so old and cranky, and set in her ways. Anyway- it looks like a beautiful camping trip, and it sounds like everything is feeling good after your marathon! You better sign up for that race before it gets sold out, since you’re resposible for the brown shirts, ha ha. I agree it’s nice to have something different.
I wish it was a little less stressful for the cats to travel in their carriers. I think they are going to get wise to the fact soon that when the carriers come out, they will be stuffed in them! It is fun for them during the camping part though! I did try a squeezy treat for the pill. We have a Costco variety that they didn’t care much for. But they did eat the crushed up pill pretty good with a name brand squeeze treat. I’ll have to try that trick again!
That pic of the Chicago skyline is impressive! That’s fun that you get to give your input on those race shirts…now, just get yourself registered 😉 I hope Cedar Point was fun. I’m jealous you live so close!
I did it, I signed up!! I do think they could be a shirt that people would wear around with regular clothes since they will be good quality Under Armor shirts.
That looks like a beautiful place to camp and hike. If I were a camper, I imagine it would be much nicer with the cooler temps and I do love a campfire.I love how you all take advantage of so many fun active adventures
It’s so nice to not use the AC in the camper! Too bad fall doesn’t last even longer around here.
Oh, I love that view of the Chicago skyline — how cool!
Congrats on the new bike! My husb just got a new road bike that was a custom order and he’s loving it.
I can’t fathom having that many trick-or-treaters! We had maybe 20-30 kids? Some years we’ve had none, but maybe the word finally got out that our cul-de-sac is worth the up hill climb.
Ooooh, a new retirement bike? That’s awesome for him! I enjoy sitting outside and passing out candy at Halloween. I think this is about the busiest year we’ve had. Sadly I didn’t know ANY of the kids though! There are many who come into the neighborhood from other places, but I don’t know any neighborhood kids anymore.
I have yet to go to the Indiana Dunes–we never drive down that way, instead preferring to drive north to Wisco! It’s on my to-do list. Love that view of Chicago across the lake!
We had maybe 15 trick or treaters? I’m not sure what has happened, but over the years, the numbers have really dwindled. I have a ton of candy left over–I need to pass it on to my coworkers and my boys.
Congrats on the new bike!
Our large bag of leftover candy is quickly dwindling! It is a bag of chocolates though, so it’s impossible to resist.