Miller Beach Family Cottage

We are located in charming Miller Beach. We are the closest Indiana Dunes community to Chicago. We are near beaches, you can enter the breathtaking Miller Woods path at the end of our block, the South Shore Line is 1 mile away, and we are 30 miles from Chicago. Miller is a small, funky town with a great microbrewery, a juice and yoga bar, several delicious restaurants, and beautiful beaches and trails. It is not a touristy town, it is a hidden gem! It is also a great place to bike. Our cottage is clean, spacious, and lovingly decorated with nautical ephemera, books, quilts and antiques. It is best suited for people who want to hike, go to the beaches, play Frisbee in the yard, etc. We have tons of books with a travel, pirate, and nature theme, a lot of vinyl records for you to play, and a working vintage tv that can show DVDs or things from the Roku. (We subscribe to Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney Plus and HBO, among other channel selections.). Our family of 4 uses this space often so the kitchen has all the equipment you need to cook a meal including a good selection of cooking spices and quality pots and pans. We have neighbors on one side and a wooded lot on the other side, so it is very quiet. Two of the bedrooms have comfortable queen-size beds. Then there is a kid's room with a bunk bed and large air mattress. The bedrooms are all located at different ends of the house so it is very quiet, even with children. We also have blackout shades and lots of pillows. Also, we have a whole enclosed porch full of board games, yard games like croquet and badminton and beach accessories like chairs, coolers, beach towels, and sand toys. We also have a small outdoor portable fire place, a bbq grill (gas and charcoal) and a small deck with a dining table and umbrella. The entire house and back and side yard. Our family does not live in the house when guests are there. It is a vacation home. We live in Chicago so will communicate by email mostly. We are not far away, so if there is a real emergency we could assist you personally. Otherwise we are available by phone and email. Miller is a suburb of Gary but physically separate, east of Gary across a highway and railroad tracks. There are some very nice restaurants including a juice bar/health club store, and a brew pub considered one of the best in Indiana, a steakhouse, a pizza parlor and a few delicious restaurants. It has to be the most quiet of all the Indiana Dunes communities. There are very few people out and about and plenty of room at the beaches. A lot of money has been spent in recent years restoring Marquette Park to its former glory. Lake Street Beach, which is closer to our cottage, is also beautiful. The hiking trail at Miller Woods, which is 2 blocks away, is a gorgeous hike that goes through forest, woods and lagoons before winding up at the beach. Miller is a great place to bike. There are trails along the beach and there is a nice 2 -mile rails-to-trails path near us called the Marquette Trail. We are a short drive away from the West Beach hike and the Tolleston Dunes. The Douglas Center Nature Reserve, a few blocks from our house, has lots of interesting nature programming and activities for children, including an outdoor open-play area in their parking lot where kids can build and explore. It also has nature hikes, lectures and a Youth Forest Ranger program where kids can come in and meet a ranger and earn a badge for completing local nature activities. They also have explorer backpacks for kids to borrow. In the winter they have free snowshoe rental. We are a mile from the South Shore line, which you can take to Chicago or onto other Indiana Dunes beach towns. You can park in front of our house and walk to the beach or hiking trails or drive and park there. We are .5 miles from Lake Street Beach and 2 miles from Marquette Beach. There is a free trolley that runs through Miller on Saturdays and Sundays between the 2 beaches, the Nature reserve, and the train. You can walk from our house to the stores on Lake Street, including the Brew Pub, pizza parlor, and juice bar. If you look at a map, you'll see we are in a heavily wooded area. You may see deer on our street and raccoons in the back yard. Cellphone connectivity is erratic.