Day 56 Indiana

I left the Lake Michigan Recreation Area and travelled south towards Indiana. Before I left Michigan, I passed through the city of Grand Haven, which has a line on its welcoming sign claiming it is the “Coast Guard City, USA.” Since I wondered what a city in the interior of the country has to do with the Coast Guard, I googled it. Apparently, the Coast Guard is guarding the “coasts” of the Great Lakes with multiple stations. And sure enough, in 1998, President Bill Clinton signed a bill officially designating Grand Haven, Michigan, as Coast Guard City, USA. This recognition acknowledged Grand Haven’s long-standing relationship with the Coast Guard and its annual Coast Guard Festival. Grand Haven was the first city to receive this designation. Its other claim to fame is that it is the site of George “Baby Face” Nelson’s first bank robbery, at the People’s Saving Bank, and bullet holes can still be found in some of the neighboring brick buildings.

I continued south and crossed over the state line and visited the University of Notre Dame outside of South Bend. Fifty years ago, I graduated from Notre Dame in the Class of 1975. The campus has many new buildings even though the undergraduate population is about the same at roughly 8,000 students. The campus remains, in my humble opinion, one of the most beautiful across the entire country. As I walked the campus, there were many small tours conducted by current students showcasing the school to incoming or prospective students.

The church on the campus, the Sacred Heart Basilica, is rated among the most beautiful in the country. That church, the Administration Building (i.e., the Golden Dome), and the Hesburgh Library (named after the president of the University when I was there – Theodore Hesburgh), and the football stadium are the iconic images of the school. Also well known is the “Grotto,” which is a recreation of the Grotto in Lourdes, France.

I then headed back west to Indiana Dunes National Park, just north of Gary, Indiana. (Images of little Ronny Howard singing “Gary, Indiana” in the 1962 Music Man movie are dancing in my head.) Since it is essentially a suburb of Chicago, this small corner of Indiana is in the central time zone. The park stretches for at least twenty miles along the “coast” of Lake Michigan, with many popular beaches interspersed with commerce. I passed Porter Beach, Tom Mountain, and Mount Baldy, so I felt right at home. I walked the dogs at some of the spots and stopped at Mount Baldy for pictures since it was advertised as the tallest dune in the park. From there I went to my campground in the park for the night.

All of the photos are from Notre Dame except the last, which is a view of the beach at Dunes taken from Mount Baldy.