Frankenmuth Family Fun!

Andy had four days off between his summer and fall semesters and we decided it would be fun to get away for a few days.

Frankenmuth, Michigan is a favorite place of ours.  There’s an outlet mall nearby (Birch Run) and Frankenmuth itself is a quaint, old-timey German village with cute little shops and the best Christmas store ever: Bronner’s!

We generally make a day trip to Frankenmuth and Birch Run in November.  It’s cold by then and Christmas shopping is in full swing.  But when Andy suggested we go for a few days this summer, I thought, “Heck, why not?!”

We booked two nights at the Bavarian Inn Lodge which is right in the heart of town.  The hotel boasts seven acres of family fun including five swimming pools!  Grace loves to swim, so we knew that would be the icing on the cake for her :)

We headed out after our dentist appointment on Wednesday and about an hour and a half later we were there.  That’s my kind of road trip!

We started at the outlet mall and scored a few fun items.  They’ve got a sweet Pottery Barn outlet that is a “must visit,” but this year we only walked away with a pretty bottle opener.  We hit up the Carter’s outlet and got Grace’s fall wardrobe started and Andy picked up a dress shirt and a couple of ties from Brooks Brothers and Van Heusen.  I found a cute lace tank top, mustard colored cardigan (gotta feed the addiction!), a cute red belt and a pair of coral sandals.  We also can’t pass up the Kitchen store each year, so we stopped there for some odds and ends like a glass pitcher with an airtight seal, new wooden spoon, single serving loose tea steeper and a hand-held grater.  So exciting, right?!

Our last stop of the day was the Crocs store.  Also know as Grace’s Mecca.  She freaking LOVES those overpriced foam shoes and I’m a sucker for her in cute shoes so I obliged.  They had a buy one get one half-off sale, so naturally we bought two pair.  The first was a fleece-lined hot pink traditional clog to get her through the cold weather months and the second pair was a teal slip-on sneaker lookalike.  So cute!

It was only a short jaunt to the hotel after shopping.  Grace loved driving over the covered bridge and had fun spotting all the horses that were pulling carriages around the village.

After Andy checked us in, we grabbed a luggage cart and headed to our room to rest for a bit before getting dinner in town.  Grace loved helping Andy push the cart.

I mean she really, really liked helping with the cart!

We had a nice, spacious room with a king sized bed (LOVE!) and plenty of room for Grace to run around.  It had a mini fridge for our leftovers and a nice view of the river.  Grace’s favorite part?  The flat screen TV.  Much to my chagrin!

Fortunately we kept busy so there wasn’t too much time available for being couch potatoes.  Although we did take a short nap on day one to help me over a headache that I had been battling all afternoon.  When I woke up, I was HUNGRY!

Andy, being the awesome planner that he is, had already searched out local eateries and suggested a pizza place in town.  Yum!

We took a leisurely walk back to the hotel to help our stomachs settle after the pizza feast.  The streets are so pretty all lined with flowers and fountains.  Impromptu photo shoots were a must, of course.

That night we hit up the swimming pool and had a blast!  Grace loved the water and the pool had fountains and a waterfall.  We swam until our fingers and toes were nothing but shriveled prunes.  It was so much fun.

On day 2 we got breakfast at a little crepe shoppe in town.  Grace had a strawberry/banana crepe, I had egg/cheddar/sausage crepe and Andy had a cinnamon sugar/bacon/egg/swiss cheese crepe.  His may sound weird, but it was Ah-May-Zing!  I pretty much wished I’d gotten the same thing.  Yum!

We shopped around the village after breakfast and posed for a few more pics before heading over to Bronner’s.

The next photo blast needs only one introduction…

BRONNER’S CHRISTMAS WONDERLAND!

In the collegiate section of the store, Grace could not get enough of this Michigan State pillow pet!  She has two pillow pets at home already, but it took serious will power for me not to buy this one too!  I mean how cute is this…

That night we had a Frankenmuth Favorite: Zehnder’s Famous Chicken Dinner!

I was too busy stuffing my face to get any pictures of the main course, but trust me.  It was a delicious feast of fried chicken, mashed potatoes, buttered noodles, peas & carrots and stuffing.  Yum!

After dinner we walked around town trying to work off some of our food coma.  We stopped at a fudge shop to pick up some fudge for later and we got to see them making a big loaf of turtle fudge (chocolate, caramel and pecans).

We hit up the pool on the second night too.  This time I brought my camera along and captured just a fraction of the utter joy Grace experienced during our night swims.

And just to prove I was there too…

All in all it was a fantastic trip and I’m so glad Andy had a short break which allowed us to go.  Memories were made that weekend and I find myself still playing them over in my mind :)