Frankenmuth

The stuff of childhood wonders! Bronner's Christmas Palace and Emporium (that may not be the official title, but if it isn't it SHOULD be) stands out in my memories of vacation visits to grandma and grandpa's in Michigan. The only thing that doesn't align as an adult is the lack of animatronics . . . I was sure there were little elves and skating things that popped in and out of the scenery on the shelves above the showroom floor (the expansive showroom floor, I might add). But whether these are figments of my imagination, have been removed due to deterioration and age, or are simply mixed up in my memory with another Christmas destination (that I know for SURE has animatronics still), I haven't been able to get my eyes on those little creatures on either of my past two trips.

Buck, on the other hand, was still able to be amazed! For him, Christmas is the opposite of the "most wonderful time of the year." So, the idea of touring a massive, city-block sized Christmas emporium did more than raise a skeptical eyebrow. However, he is an incredibly good sport. I think that in the wake of our waiting-for-opening-time silly photos outside on the grounds--he was ready to have a good time.


All of this exploration was completely impromptu. My original plan was to spend a day touring the Henry Ford Museum and Greenwich Village--old cars, machinery, history with some grease on it! But . . . that was an extremely expensive option, which would also require an additional night at the hotel. With all of our medical and dental expenses already this year, we determined that educational museum experience would have to wait . . . but Frankenmuth was kind of on the way home . . . kind of :)




Buck is always on the look out for a good antler-inclusive selfie :) 





The irony of these pictures (as the ladies carol along with the choir) was upon our return home and subsequent choir concert later that week, G$ asked immediately upon entering the van post-choir concert, "This means you'll stop singing those choir songs now, right?" Ha! Not even close, little bro :)





The father-son selfie tutorial lesson pictured above made possible the Statue of Liberty selfie awesomeness below! You're welcome :)






Guest Blogger Gabby taking over the keyboard :) Being the only slightly German-speaking person on site, it was fun to be able to translate signs for the rest of the family!

Dad was noticing how we kept finding objects for Graysen to stand next to. We had hardly any pictures of Caelan posing...hmmm gnomes and dwarves aren't her thing? We convinced her to do some group photos however.




The Christmas Palace was ginormous! I vaguely remember going there when I was little, but it is WAY bigger than I remember! We were very excited to hear that there were three press-penny machines hidden in the store, so off we went to search! Unfortunately, one of them was broken limiting our press-penny collecting. Very near one of the press-penny machines was 'Santa's hot-line' so Graysen and I gave it a try. He went first, and stood there for quite a while. When it was my turn, I heard Santa say something about making sure my room was clean so he could drop off presents...I thought he came down the chimney! ;)




















After shopping, we all felt rather hungry and decided to find somewhere to eat. The Bavarian Inn seemed promising, so we stopped there (insert mom comment: Buck loved the German food when we visited that country many years ago. Vacation to Buck equals food. So, I made sure we found a restaurant that featured meal items that ended with "schnitzel" and would normally have to be accessed with the help of a passport. I knew he'd love this place!) You know a place is good when you're served a five course meal by people in lederhosen to the sound of a live accordion! 

Oh man was the food good! Bread first, then side dishes (cranberry salad, coleslaw, pasta salad, and some salad with beans), then soup, then mashed potatoes, chicken, squash, sauerkraut and sausage, GRAVY! (that gravy was...indescribable) buttery noodles, and stuffing. And after all that...your choice of ice cream! Cranberry, orange, vanilla, and orange-vanilla swirl...whew, doggy!








And since ice cream just isn't enough, of course we had to stop at Frankenmuth Fudge Kitchen! Ooo, that place smelled so good. And there were so many options! Of course the one that looked best to me was the caramel turtle (caramel, nuts, fudge-chocolate...ahh my orthodontist would object :) We did not end up getting the caramel fudge, but we did get rocky road which was a close second.

On the way back from the Fudge Kitchen, we stopped at the Bavarian Castle Shoppe, where Graysen made a few new friends.




Gotta love cutouts! Rewind several years; we have a picture of us in the 'chillin' with my gnomies' cutout from last time we visited! Pretty neat!

We went back (mom insert: drove for a couple of hours in the rain, listening to Adventures in Odyssey) to the house, and decided to go to the beach to watch the sunset. (Mom insert: no need for supper--we were still stuffed from lunch!)





Aaah...beachy sunset. So calm, so tranquil...well except for the boys trying to push each other off the sand dunes! :) I think in the above picture that Graysen is acting out Columbus in the New World...? I don't know, I was busy trying to stay warm. ;)


My parents are so artsy. We look like a team of superheroes or something! So dramatic! (Doesn't Caelan look thrilled in the middle picture?? :) 





When we got back to the lake house after a night of world-saving (heehee), we found some slidey little word things (in the game cupboard) where you could rearrange the letters to make words...sooooo cool! I really liked those things! 

Eventually Mom started to read outloud to us, and there were five games of solitaire going on the floor. It was a relaxing way to end the day!