Number 11

Way back in August I visited with some besties in the wonderful land of Michigan.  In three short days we toured Kalamazoo, ate breakfast in Holland, swam in the ocean Lake Michigan, went on a crazy dune ride, watched the sunset and a lightning storm from the end of a pier, rode in a golf cart, had a picnic, drove across the state, ate lasagna, went to a farmer's market, and climbed a mountain.

It was a small mountain. New Englanders would probably classify it as a hill.  But Michiganders call it Mount Baldhead...so it counts.

Here's the thing about Mount Baldhead...one side looks like a mountain with forest and trees and the other side is a GIANT sand dune.  Strange but awesome.  To protect against erosion, someone erected an enormous staircase up the side of the mountain.  Yes...stairs.

We climbed stairs up the entire side of a mountain which was probably harder than just hiking up the mountain would have been.  Luckily, there were resting spots every few flights.

We made it to the top!

There was a lot of graffiti on the observation deck but this was my favorite:

After exploring the backside of the dune for a bit we headed back down which was actually worse than going up.  Staring down all the stairs was such an optical illusion and I was convinced I was going to trip and somersault down 300 stairs.  My quads were quivering by the time we got to the bottom.

Apparently there is a yearly 15K (9 mile) race that ENDS by running up all 300ish stairs. That sounds heinous.