It's amazing how quick and painless the getting dressed and ready-to-go process is for kids on vacation. I think the kids were ahead of us every single morning in their readiness. That never happens at home. So they had to chill for a little bit while we showered and pack up to head out. Thank goodness for the portable DVD player... and for our awesome friends who loaned us SIX new kid movies that Will and Sophie hadn't seen!
Saturday was an "everyone picks" day of sorts. I really wanted to check out the Sara Hardy Farmers Market in downtown Traverse City and Craig really wanted to drive up the Old Mission Peninsula and walk out on the sand bar just north of the lighthouse there. So we decided kind of randomly that day that everyone would get to pick one activity to do around the area. I've always wanted to have a family day exactly like that at home, so it was sort of fun to do a trial run on vacation.
After breakfast, we drove downtown and parked so that we could walk to the market. Traverse City is such a cool place with a lot of outside goings-on amongst both the locals and the tourists.
Farmers markets are an awesome way to get a genuine feel for the local scene. Obviously there were a lot of cherries for sale, but also blueberries and peaches and lots of greens and fresh vegetables and flowers.
Still a little sleepy?
Walking back through town to our car.
While wandering down by the river, Craig and Will asked a lady with children who appeared to be local about the light post flags all over the place that were advertising a Lego showcase/event at a historical museum. She told them that she'd taken her kids there and it was pretty cool and directed us where to find it. The historical museum is in the old city library and this became Will's choice of activity for the day.
The admission fee was very reasonable and we were able to walk around and check out some pretty amazing Lego creations of important landmarks across the country.
This thing was HUGE!! It was a Lego replica of the "nearby" Mackinac Bridge.
Then in a large activity room, they had set up lots of tables with tubs filled with Legos for the kids to create their own creations and leave there on display with their names on them. Many of the kids built little cars and loved letting them zoom down the slide, which you will see further down.
Besides the little Legos, there was another area with large building pieces and Sophie surprised me by jumping right in with some older boys to help build a tower with someone inside of it. They accepted her help and she was happy to be the gopher that ran around and collected more pieces and reached them up for someone to help place. She stuck with this activity for quite a long time!
Perfecting his car for the slide.
After all her help, it got to be Sophie's turn to be in the center of the tower. She was ecstatic.
By this time, it was just Sophie and this boy named Charlie from England, with Charlie's grandmother and I supervising. I had fun telling Sophie that, had she been a boy, her name would have been Charlie... if I'd had my choice. :)
Cheese! At the end, the person inside gets to knock off pieces to break free of the wall. :)
Charlie's turn now.
Will's vehicle is ready for the slide!
Craig helped give the vehicle some back weight so it wouldn't topple over itself on the way down.
Ready, set, ZOOM!
Upstairs in the museum, there was a loft with more toys set up for the kids to play with. Will checked out the wooden train set.
Sophie played with the antique telephone.
And still one more area that we scoped out in the museum was a super cool archeological dig filled with real, dried, cherry pits and little treasures for the children to sift through and find. So cool!
Sophie started to get in but then changed her mind. She was feeling cautious and this scared her a little, so she just watched with me through the plexi-glass walls.
Next up was Sophie's turn to choose our activity. She picked "go to a playground". We'd passed several along the main touristy areas but they were all pretty crowded. We always prefer to have a little more freedom in letting the kids roam and appreciate the quieter spots. So Craig had the brilliant idea of searching in our GPS for a local elementary school. There was one not far away and only one other person there (a guy shooting hoops alone) - perfect!
So we spent some time there and had some fun, Sophie-style.
After the playground, we stopped back at our hotel and ate another lunch from food I'd packed. We had another special stop to make before heading out to the peninsula and we needed to eat our lunch first. ;)
Moomers! I hadn't been here since summer 2008 and my family hadn't been here ever before. The homemade ice cream from this dairy farm is just BEYOND words delicious. It's definitely a hot spot, but the line wasn't bad.
Craig and the kids picked strawberry cones and I picked a really yummy flavor called Cherries Jubilee, which was featured on Good Morning America.
Soooo good!
Looking at the cows that helped produce our ice cream!
Looking a liiiiittle bit ready for a nap.
Perfect time for a nice, little drive up the peninsula. She missed out on some gorgeous scenery, but got to see it on the way back down.
Old Mission Light
In years passed, the water has covered all of this drier area before. After a certain point, you have to go barefoot (or wear sport sandals) because it's just squishy, mucky ground. But it's very pretty.
Love this shot that Craig got.
Back to our hotel, it was time for swimsuits and our beach again.
Will and Sophie met some really nice people with boys about their age and a couple of dads that were playing squirt gun fights with them. Will happily accepted their invitation to join in and Sophie participated for a little while too.
More racing. I don't have any pictures, but Craig and I had a couple of sprint races down this beach as well. Hehe! P.S. - Sophie got a head start here.
Chillin' for a moment. The weather was perfect. Not too hot, not too cold. I even got some snuggle time with this boy for awhile.
Here's our hotel from the front. It's really pretty and always makes me think of our first anniversary, where we wandered the town just the two of us and ate our wedding cake to celebrate one year!
We also spent some time in the indoor pool. Will is perfecting his cannon ball now, so he loved jumping in.
Busy days and no real naps = children that crash at bedtime quickly. We started them in separate beds every night and then moved them together when they fell asleep.
Breakfast on Sunday morning before packing up and heading home. We took our time getting up and around and then made another stop at Birch Run on the way back home. It was nice to do a little bit each way since kids aren't big fans of shopping at this age. And, no, they weren't drinking Coke for breakfast. That's Craig's bottle from the day before. ;)
Snacking and reading in the car while daddy runs into the Nike outlet. We tag teamed like this so we could each run solo into our stores of choice. And then we all had lunch before finishing the other half of our LONG drive home. It was an exhausting day.
Short weekend jaunts are still our current favorite way to "travel" with our children. This was a super fun, little trip!
