Week 63: We did it! We made it to Ohio!

What a drive! Whew.

Aug 28, 2025

The title says it all: we made it to Ohio!! WOO HOO!

We hatched a plan back on Week 52 when we were way down in the Guadalupe Mountains of West Texas to take a roundabout way to Ohio to visit family. When I say roundabout, I mean really mean it!

We visited a bunch of National Park units along the way, including Rocky Mountain, Grand Tetons, and Yellowstone.

Then we had to buckle down and drive, drive, drive to get to home.

Tuesday-Wednesday: Indiana Dunes National Park, Indiana

We spent Tuesday through Wednesday at Indiana Dunes National Park and it wasn’t nearly enough time — guess we’ll have to go back someday.

Highlights included:

Prairie Friends

Seeing a prairie planting at the Visitor Center was the best feeling! There were silphiums, ironweed, switchgrass, big bluestem, purple coneflowers and more:

Hiking the Cowles Bog Trail

Another Indiana Dunes National Park highlight was hiking the Cowles Bog Trail. We were hoping to see carnivorous plants (sundews!!), but the trail didn’t get close enough to the bog to be able to spot them. We did see lots of trees — and bugs:

You can’t see them, but there are so many gnats, mosquitoes, and flies in this photo!

Finishing Up a Sketchbook

A final highlight was swimming in Lake Michigan. It was so nice to relax on the beach, go for a swim when we got hot, and read books. I even finished up my accordion-fold sketchbook at the beach:

I can’t wait to share the complete sketchbook with you that has all of this summer’s National Park adventures! Stay tuned!

sideoats

A post shared by @sideoats

Watch a quick video of my sketch spot over on Instagram.

Until then, I thought you’d like to see the palette that I’ve been using.

All colors are Daniel Smith unless specified. H = Holbein, WN = Winsor & Newton

Top row: Chinese white, Hansa yellow medium, quinacridone magenta (WN), smalt (WN), cerulean blue (H), chromium green oxide, deep scarlet
Second row: raw umber (WN), new gamboge, organic vermillion, ultramarine blue, phthalo blue (green shade), phthalo green (blue shade), bloodstone genuine
Third row: 3 small mixing pans, transparent red oxide, indigo

PS. I’m honored to be a Brand Ambassador for Art Toolkit, and they’ve generously given me a discount code to share with you! Use code LISAFAN10 for 10% off your purchase of an ArtToolkit, palette, or mixing pans.

When you make a purchase using the code I’ll receive a small commission at no charge to you. I truly appreciate your support! Reviews here are my own.

Lake Michigan Sunset

We stayed to watch the sunset, which turned Lake Michigan into a glittering, shimmering mass of colors:

The sky had a weird cast to it due to Canadian wildfires.

That’s the Chicago skyline over on the right, and it brought back memories from going to trade shows there when I worked for Hero Arts.

What a great day!

Thursday: East Harbor State Park, Ohio

We spent Thursday night at East Harbor State Park and got up early the next morning to go to the beach and touch Lake Erie, the last of the Great Lakes we’d see on this trip:

I spent many fun days on Lake Erie in high school — what a walk down memory lane.

Friday: Marblehead Lighthouse State Park, Ohio

Friday morning we left camp at East Harbor SP and just HAD to stop by Marblehead Lighthouse State Park since it was only a few miles away.

We learned that Marblehead Lighthouse is the oldest lighthouse in continuous operation on the Great Lakes. It just happened to be open while we were there, so we got tickets to climb to the top.

The breezes off the lake felt so good! And we could even see Cedar Point (an amusement park) — I was feeling all nostalgic since I used to go there when I was a teenager.