Yet Another Trip to the Beach

Warning: vacation recap ahead.

Visit 2010’s recap of our trip to Maranatha for a refresher course, or to see how similar trips to Maranatha are. We want them to be similar, because kids need traditions.

I tried one new (new to me, at least) ice cream flavor at the sweet shop: Caramel Apple. It was slightly disappointing; I would not get it again. There was not much flavor. If I had read the full description on one of the posters I saw afterwards, I might not have tried it in the first place. The poster called it something like a “lightly-flavored” ice cream. In other words: bland. My favorite is still Royal Coconut, which they did not have there this year.

Now on to the photos:
Like all good vacation spots with kids’ programs, there was an opportunity for tie-dye T-shirts. As usual, Alpha was the only one of our children who wanted to participate.

picture of a child making a tie-dye T-shirt at camp


We did not play much tennis this year, but Beta played at least 4 rounds of mini-golf with his cousin every day. Alpha and Gamma joined him some times.

picture of a child playing mini golf

Alpha became slightly more adventurous and tried the zip line this year.

picture of a child climbing the tower to the zip line

Everyone liked the beach. Except maybe me. It’s a bit of a process to change everyone into swimsuits, put on sunscreen, and herd everyone down there. It might be worth it once we’re down there, but I’d rather stay in the shade or maybe go after 5PM to avoid the sunscreen.

picture of a beach

The sunsets were usually pretty good.

picture of sunset over Lake Michigan

picture of sunset over Lake Michigan

picture of dusk at Lake Michigan

And everybody liked the pool.

picture of people in the pool at Maranatha on Lake Michigan

In case you’re not familiar with the pool at Maranatha: it is literally on the beach. Here is the view from the railing of the deck of the pool:

picture of the beach from the pool at Maranatha on Lake Michigan

And we finished out the week with the kids’ program, where they recited the verse they learned that week and performed the song (with motions of course) that they also learned that week.

picture of the kids' program final night at Maranatha

The view out our front door was the same as 2010, so no new photos here.

And there was a lot of preaching. Greg Speck was a good speaker to have that week. Or any week, for that matter. His theme for the week was Live for Jesus. The one thing that stood out to me was his take on what it means to glorify God. So I’ll ask you what he asked us: What does it mean to glorify God?

His answer (or definition) was to make God look good. You glorify God by making Him look good to people who happen to see you.

Conclusion: Everyone had fun (and plenty of ice cream) and no one ever wants to leave Maranatha. But leave we did, after the penny fair. After another trip to the pool and then dinner at a restaurant, we eventually made our way home just in time for bed.

Are they not across the Jordan, west of the way toward the sunset, in the land of the Canaanites who live in the Arabah, opposite Gilgal, beside the oaks of Moreh?

Deuteronomy 11:30

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This little article thingy was written by Some Guy sometime around 6:14 am and has been carefully placed in the Travel category.

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