Frankenmuth and then some

While Aaron was out of town last week, he schemed up a plan to take our family on a day trip to someplace "AWESOME".  This was to be a birthday treat for me and Pyper, as well as just some much-needed family fun time.  He was very excited for the trip, and so were the rest of us!  He tried really hard to keep it a secret, but in the end gave one too many clues and I figured it out.  (In his defense, how was he to know that I'd ever heard of a place with such a random name as Frankenmuth?!)

 

Knowing our secret destination didn't kill the excitement one bit.  In fact, we crammed 3 awesome outings into just one day! 

 

Before we went to Frankenmuth we stopped at a nearby outlet mall that was HUGE.  I think they have 146 stores!  This part of the trip was for me.  :)  I had a good time, but next time I go I am determined to be kid-free!  They were bored to DEATH. 

 

After the outlets we visited Bronner's, the largest Christmas store in America!

 

Now, I have to say that Aaron and I were mistaken in our understanding of what we were going to see/find/do on our trip.  We were both under the impression that the town of Frankenmuth is Christmas-themed year-round.  It's not.  I think the huge Christmas store that is so close by and the way it was described to us by others gave us the impression that they're related.  We also thought the Christmas store was also a toy store, which caused us to mislead our children a tad... but luckily they didn't seem to notice that there were no toys.  Just decorations and ornaments.  Loads and loads of ornaments!

Check out this Santa.  See the itty bitty people down by his feet?  Yeah, he was huge.

We wandered around the warehouse-sized store, letting the kids scope things out and then choose one ornament each (as is our tradition). 

 

As we were walking out to the car, Aaron said that he couldn't believe how much he'd just spent on Christmas ornaments, and that he felt kind of sick about it.  I just had to chuckle.  He's such a good sport.  :)

 

Up until we actually got to Frankenmuth the weather had been pretty crummy.  Wind, rain and chilly temperatures were not what we would have preferred for our day of adventure.  Luckily the rain let up while we wandered up and down Main Street in what turned out to be the cutest Little Bavaria you ever saw!

Our one and only stop along Main Street was to this candy shop where we bought fresh water taffy and way too much fudge.

We kept a brisk pace as we went up and then back down the street, since we'd left the umbrellas in the car and it threatened to rain again any second.  Next time we go we'll have to do it when the weather is more cooperative so we can take our time!

This is the Inn where we had dinner.  Aaron was told by a colleague that you HAVE to get the chicken dinner here.  It's famous for it. 

 

 

 

So even though the only meat we've eaten for the past several weeks has been fish, we decided to set aside our semi-vegetarian diet for one meal and indulge in a family-style chicken dinner.

Oh my gosh, there was so much food.  Let me see if I can remember it all:
bread & butter
noodle soup
corn and black bean salad
chicken pasta salad
cranberry relish
coleslaw
mashed potatoes & gravy
squash
stuffing
butter noodles
famous chicken
ice cream & cookies
And all of it was all you can eat!  We were stuffed, let me tell you.

Even this little guy ate scoop after scoop of squash and LOVED it.

I told Pyper to show me how excited she was to be there, having an early birthday dinner.  What a nerd.  :)

I wish I'd taken a photo of how the waiters and waitresses were dressed in the restaurant, but this should give you an idea.

The rain had started up again when we left the Inn to go to the car, and even though we were parked pretty close and ran the whole way, we still got pretty wet!  Despite the bad weather, though, we had a really good day.  We discovered some fun things to see and do that are only about an hour and a half from where we live, and will definitely be going back again!