Joilet day 3 - drive to Indiana

We head off to see what the bottom of Lake Michigan area is like and choose a town called Gary which is on the bottom point with the intentions of driving around the lake area and seeing what Indiana has to offer - most likely we will not be coming back this close to the base of the lake, so we thought a day drive would be a good option and looking forward to a nice little town on the water.

It takes about an hour to get to Gary and we exit the interstate and cruise on in... as we cruise down the road towards the lake and town area we become increasingly aware of the area and the feeling that maybe we don't want to stay here.  Being in the coupe we stuck out like a sore thumb, and Gary turned out to be a run down unsafe black neighbourhood, we were definitely the wrong colour.
We need petrol (of course we did), so choose the best looking station which was still a dumb, get petrol and get out of there!  Mimi tells us this is where Michael Jackson was from......

Tossing up to go back to Joliet or further up the coast, we end up heading further up and decide to turn in around Porter to try and drive up the lake side.  You don't actually get to the edge of the lake but the drive up through here is lovely and turned out to be a state park with sand dunes. 

We go up to Michigan City which is still in Indiana although close to the border of Michigan and is a small 'seaside' holiday town type place.  We drive through and turn into the 'beach' about 5 miles further up which becomes a lovely area of lakeside holiday houses. I imagine this is what they term going to the lake house for summer is.

Driving back down towards Michigan city on the narrow lakeside road we finally find a park to stop at - $8 to park in there.....but after some talking there is parks across the road a bit for free, so we go there and walk across. 

This really is a 'beach' with waves, sand, rips, sand dunes and the lighthouse of course.  You can't see the other side - it is huge. 

Yip we even dipped our toes in despite being a grey day and water wasn't too bad either.  Lots of people swimming but since it was a work day it wasn't too crowded - bet it is on the 4th of July tho.

 

We head back into town and go to the outlet shops there which are designed like a seaside town - quaint.  Do a little shopping and it's about 4.30pm - we haven't had lunch yet.  Time flys when you are having fun.... this is often the way the day goes.  We are a bit peckish so decide to look for a cafe and spot the Shoreline Brewery & Restaurant, so decide to try that & have an early dinner.

 

We try one of their new brews - not my kind of beer and couldn't drink it so the waiter brought me 3 samples and replaced it with one I liked at no charge, which was very nice of him as I wasn't worried about it.  The meals were huge & very nice - tender mussels and pork, yummy.  Good choice and we head home having recovered from our little adventure at Gary, which now sets the benchmark of places not to go.