Saugatuck, MI

From Sunday afternoon to Monday afternoon, the boyfriend and I spent some quality beach time in Saugatuck, MI. It was about a 2 1/2 hour drive from Chicago. The weather was simply great -- low 80s and lots of sunshine. Saugatuck is definitely a summer beach town, the kind of place either the affluent own a home or visit for a few days. Of course I don't fall into either category, but I can at least pretend. It's really the closet thing I'll get to a real beach in the mundanity of the Midwest. Whereas Chicago's lakefront is littered with lifeguards and tourists, Saugatuck (or the nearby town of Douglas where we actually stayed)is isolated, lifeguardless, and quaint. You don't have to pay for parking, and the beach is pretty close by. The town has a lot of family and retired people there. We stayed at a bed and breakfast a block from the beach. This was my first bed and breakfast experience, and I found it to be a good one. The innkeeper and his wife were personable and told us what sites to see. They had a nice breakfast waiting for us in the morning. I wonder what it's like to have to cook breakfast for complete strangers every morning. What if one day you woke up and didn't feel like cooking? Could you get away with just setting out a box of cereal and store bought donuts? Probably not. The boyfriend and I joked we would be the anti-friendly bed and breakfast kind of people. Being rude and anti-social would be our shtick. The b&b even had a private pool out back with a cool ocean reef mural painted on the bottom.

After we checked in on Sunday, we headed straight for the beach. There were a lot of people there, but it wasn't overcrowded. The water was surprisingly warm. In the past few days, I've become fascinated with surfing. I lived in L.A for five years, but for some reason never considered surfing (I did own a boogie board and would occasionally use it). I think my new obsession stems from having just watched the classic, 1960s surf movie The Endless Summer (where two young surfers embark on a surfing adventure around the world). I also just read that you can surf Lake Michigan in Chicago in a couple of spots, but if you really want to learn how to surf in the Midwest, you can take lessons at a surf shop in MI. I figure, why not learn how to surf on the Lake? In MI, I saw kids with boogie boards and some guy do some sort of shore surfing. I have no idea what that's called. After we were done splashing in the water, we cleaned up and went to dinner at a nice French restaurant. The food in town was good with a lot of diversity, but I found the clothing shops to be rather lame.

One thing about transitioning from the big city to a small town is everything becomes rather quiet. Almost too quiet to the point you can actually hear crickets. I like the tranquility a beach town brings, but I think after a few days, I'd get really bored and anxious. I do love the idea of renting a beach house for the summer, maybe somewhere on the East Coast, but I would need to be somewhere with an active nightlife like in the Hamptons. Despite the lack of nightlife (then again, I was there on a Sunday not a proper weekend), I consider Saugatuck to be the Midwest's version of the Hamptons (we even spotted a Ferrari, a Bentley, and a Rolls Royce in MI)or the Midwest's version of Laguna Beach (there are a ton of art galleries in the town).

On Monday, we got up just before breakfast ended, ate, and then immediately hit the beach again. Since it was a weekday, the beach and town were less crowded than the day before. I ventured out pretty far into the lake to the point where the boyfriend felt the need to monitor me. Good thing he's a trained SCUBA diver. One nice thing about swimming in freshwater is you don't have to deal with your eyes burning from salt water or the danger of getting eaten by a shark. This lack of worry is fine, but I think I prefer the peril and smell of the ocean. After swimming, we went into town and had lunch at a bar and grill. Then we walked around the town some more, then we went back to the beach one last time.

I think being in Saugatuck made time stop for a day. I feel like I've been gone for days. Hopefully we can go back there before the end of summer and have more beach time. But, now I have stuff to do this week, especially in preparing for the big Pitchfork weekend ahead. Maybe someday I'll be able to retire on the beach, but until then, I can cherish brief summer respites in Saugatuck.