Camping in a Tiny House

One of our favorite things to do as a couple was camping when we first got married. We camped in a tent, dreamed of becoming campground hosts when we retired, and loved exploring our favorite places and new places with our camping gear. When we added kids to the mix, we were excited to introduce them to one of our favorite things and spent the first several years with kids dragging them across the country camping most of the time, with an occasional hotel stay to shower and do laundry on our 2- to 3-week adventures.

As Teddy got older and bigger, it became harder and harder to camp. His ability to sleep anywhere aside from our home (and even at our home) was a challenge, often up until midnight with mornings as early as 4 ... or even one horrible 2:30 a.m. wakeup for the day. The feasibility of putting all 4 of us in a tent, which Teddy could escape, began to sound like a form of torture rather than fun. 

That's why we ended up with our land to give us a place to explore the outdoors, spent time doing things we love outside and have a consistent routine and place to sleep where Teddy could get comfortable. I couldn't tell you the last time we actually camped with the boys ... possibly 2017? 

But this week we ventured back to one of our early marriage favorites, and one of Dave's childhood favorites, to visit Porcupine Mountains State Park in Michigan. We rented a tiny house cabin right on Lake Superior in the campground for 2 nights. It's an adorable, fully accessible cabin that made it possible for us to enjoy "camping" again. 

Our tiny house had 2 full-size beds, a perfect spot for a family of 4.

Now, that's not to say it was easy because rarely are things easy with Teddy. We still had a rough bedtime the first night, and he kindly woke us up for the sunrise each day (Dave got one morning, and I got the other.) But he absolutely adored the tiny house, so much so that he yelled at us for 30 minutes when we left for the day to go exploring. He scampered into the top bunk and holed up there with AJ in blankets and pillows, giggling nonstop. 

Dave kindly helped AJ as his suspenders while AJ pushed Teddy uphill to the observation tower.

He also protested several of our planned "hikes" if you can call the less than a mile trails that, with more flops and drops than usual. But despite that, we managed to see waterfalls, play in Lake Superior and do 2 family hikes to Nonesuch Mine and to the observation tower. It's really neat to see Teddy embrace being a kid at the beach, scampering up and down the shoreline, digging in the sand and running full force into the water, not realizing Lake Superior tends to be a bit chilly. 

Lake Superior is a great lake, that's for sure!

All in all, I'm grateful for this beautiful accessible cabin. I'm grateful we got to revisit places we love. I'm grateful for the family time and the memories. And, I'm grateful for our own bed when we returned.