Celebrating Annie Oakley in Darke County

I wish I could find the KitchenAid rep I met at Costco and thank her for the amazing insider tip she gave me.  She was the one who told me that there just happens to be a KitchenAid factory in Ohio, and that they have a sidewalk sale once a year.  This bit of information led me to the Annie Oakley Days celebration in Greenville, Ohio.  And this along with an amazing compilation CD of showtunes led to my daughters' obsession with Annie Oakley. 

I started getting the girls pumped up for this day trip months in advance.  We love musicals and by chance there were a couple songs from Annie Get Your Gun on a box set I purchased at Half Price Books.  We started listening to them in the car and then we rented the movie Annie Get Your Gun from the library along with a stack of books about Annie Oakley.  The girls were completely enthralled!  They watched the movie daily for a good week.  They were appalled when Annie let Frank win the contest to win him back.  I was appalled by the portrayal of Native Americans.  We had good discussions about both, so we'll just be grateful for the opportunity for dialogue and acknowledge the time in which the musical was written.

We decided to go to the sidewalk sale on the day of the parade.  The parade happens in lovely downtown Greenville.  I was delighted that it wasn't completely overrun with politicians.  There were a lot of Shriners.  I had no idea there were so many members with such a variety of little vehicles!  We also got to see Miss Annie Oakley and some beautiful horses.  We watched the parade from the sidewalk right in front of the KitchenAid Outlet, which was quite convenient.  Just before the parade was over my mom and I took turns shopping, so the girls could be spared going in.  I definitely recommend going in during the parade.  After it ended people pile into the store.  I got some amazing "free" gifts because I bought entirely too much stuff.    

After the parade we headed north of town to the Annie Oakley Festival.  The girls watched a blacksmith make a hook.  We ate a bag of kettle corn roughly the size of Lottie.  We took a free bus tour, which was interesting.  The only problem with the tour was the sound system didn't work, so it was a little difficult to catch all the information.  Part of the tour  took us past the Garst Museum and a beautiful park located in Greenville.  There were a lot of very nice looking vendors set up around the museum.  If we went up again I'd definitely go to the museum and spend more time near the town.  The festival was nice, but the girls were disappointed we didn't see any of the shooting.  I had a hard time figuring out where it would've been happening.  We watched some of the horse show and some of the whip cracking.  I think they'd have maybe gotten more out of the museum exhibits, but the festival was free and the museum charges, so I still think we did ok.  It was nice to explore a part of Ohio we'd have otherwise never happened upon.

We clearly did not brush our hair for the parade.

There were seriously hundreds of them!

This man was incredibly nice and let Gabby keep the hook he made.

Eating delicious kettle corn on the bus tour.

Whip cracking

They were pretty excited to meet Buffalo Bill.

Going Home By Way of the Upper Peninsula

It’s as though when planning trips we just ask ourselves, “What is the most impractical route to take?”  The answer is then the route we choose EVERYTIME.  This time we decided on our last day at Walloon to head 3 hours north.  To be clear that would be 3 hours in the opposite direction of home.  Home being the place we needed to be about 36 hours later.  We were going to visit a former coworker of Dan’s, who lives in the UP, and we couldn’t make it work at the beginning of the trip. 

So we got up at 5:00am and headed north towards Pictured Rock National Lakeshore.  This meant driving across the Mackinac Bridge in some killer fog.  Pictured Rock was lucky National Park number 13 for us.  We started at the Munising Falls where we picked up our Junior Ranger books.  After a very brief hike there we headed for the lake shore.  We began with a short walk out to Castle Rock.  Gabby was pretty disappointed that it wasn't more castle like.  I was pretty disappointed we drove all this way and the fog was seriously effecting the scenery.  We made our way down to the beach and saw all the kayakers heading out.  It was still pretty overcast at that point.  We decided to go ahead and take a boat ride to try and get a different perspective.  By the time we got there the fog had lifted and it ended up being one of the hottest days the UP had all summer.  I was worried before we set off that the boat would make me sick or the ride wouldn't be worth the cost.  My worries were in vain.  It was absolutely beautiful.
Although Sunday’s drive home was more than a little painful I am still glad we got to check out the UP.  I think Zion was the most beautiful park we saw out west because the colors of the rocks were incredible.  Pictured Rocks gave Zion a run for its money.  The brilliant colors of the rocks and water make for an amazing combo.  The boat ride on Lake Superior was well worth it to see everything from water level.  Someday either without our kids or when they are older I think it would be worth going back and kayaking along the lake shore.

The fog made me hate this drive just a little more.

Munising Falls = not the most impressive waterfall we've ever seen.

Still overcast at this point.

Check out all those colors!

Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore

The first time I went to Michigan I was around 3 or 4 months old.  Since that first trip I’ve probably made the 8 hour journey up to Walloon Lake at least 20 times.  Recently I’ve realized that within a couple hours of where we stay there are many places I’ve been missing out on.  A couple years ago we made a pit stop in Traverse City “on our way” to Walloon Lake.  The Old Mission Lighthouse was fantastic and so were the beaches right around Traverse City.  This year we took advantage of a sort of overcast day to drive out past Traverse City to Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore.  Since going out West last summer we’ve been trying to cram in as many National Parks as possible.  We haven’t done as well as I’d hoped.  I’d thought we could do 20, but I believe as of now we’ve only done 13.

Having cloudy skies and chilly temperatures definitely worked to our advantage that day.  Had the sun been shining bright and the sand been hot and dry there is no way we would’ve made it the 3.5 miles out on the Dune Climb.  It was an incredible hike.  I don’t think we’ve ever really seen anything like the mountains of sand we crossed here.  It was well worth the journey.  I think even the girls would agree.  They were both proud of themselves for making it all the way. 

After that we headed to the scenic drive and stopped off at the bluff to look down at Lake Michigan.  I am sad to say we didn’t brave the slope and make it down to the water.  I think my kids are pretty tough, but I don’t like to push my luck.  The sign at the top about rescue fees made me a little nervous.  And then there’s the one in our group who’s not so crazy about heights.  I guess you have to save something for the next trip right?

This is only the beginning.

Caution Signs = CHALLENGE!!!

We actually made it up and over all those hills to the beach!  And boy was it chilly!!!

It really looks (and feels) like it goes on forever.

Still smiling on the way back :)

Such an amazing thing to see

We were told to run down.  It seemed ill advised.

These people did not read the sign below.

It seemed like most people were finishing in way less than 2 hours.

Got sworn in about 10 minutes before the ranger station closed.

Such an awesome program.  We love our National Parks!

Disappointment in Detroit

And so this year our trip began with an epic fail.  I was super excited about my plan to start our vacation off with a stop in Detroit.  Usually we avoid Detroit and instead head to Northern Michigan by way of Ann Arbor.  In fact I’ve always felt like people in my family make a rather big deal about the importance of avoiding Detroit, which naturally made me want to see it even more.  We couldn’t leave until Friday afternoon because of the girls’ camp performance and so it made total sense (to me only) to drive halfway Friday afternoon and then finish the drive to Walloon Lake on Saturday.  This would give us (me) the opportunity to check out the Detroit Institute of Arts.  In my head this idea was perfect because Detroit is obviously a ghost town and there might not be much art left if they at some point start selling it off to pay the city’s debts.

I booked our hotel room at the Country Inn and Suites through Priceline and somehow convinced Dan this was going to be great.  I also got Gabby pumped up for the art museum.  Friday after camp we set off later than expected, which is pretty much standard for our road trips.  We had a healthy packed lunch for the car, so that we could justify a dinner at a restaurant featured on Man vs. Food.  We opted for a place called Mallie’s, which has the world’s largest burger.  I was more excited about the pull tabs being sold in machines than I was about the food.  The food wasn’t bad.  I just really love pulltabs!

Our hotel was clean enough.  The area was interesting.  It was pretty much how I imagined Detroit.  I kind of expected whatever the urban industrial version of tumbleweeds are (hubcaps?) to be rolling down the street.  We took our time with free breakfast in the morning since the amazing art museum wouldn’t be open until 10:00.  As we pulled up to the museum ten minutes before opening I realized I would soon be admitting defeat.  The line was around the block.  Apparently people do in fact travel to Detroit.  The fact that the museum was in the final days of it’s Kahlo/Rivera special exhibit probably didn’t help me.  We made an effort to go to the museum.  We parked.  We walked to the line.  We got to the doors.  I realized that this was not going to be a happy experience for anyone and threw in the towel.  Luckily we had a back up plan: Canada!!!!!!  I had brought passports just in case.

In order to not have this stop in Detroit be a total loss, we decided to fit in a different country.  This was also a horrible plan.  We made it pretty quickly into Canada, but sadly they don’t even stamp passports.  The novelty of Windsor is sort of limited once you’re old enough to legally drink and gamble in your native country.  We really had no plan beyond saying we went to Canada.  So the day would not be a total loss we stopped by the duty free shop and loaded up on whiskey.  We were literally in Canada for about 15 minutes.  We then got to wait in the line to return to the US, which took more like an hour.  This was almost as painful as customs and security lines in the airport, where despite my annoyance with the employees I feel compelled to kiss ass and make small talk so that they don’t feel compelled to further ruin my day.

And so the first 24 hours of our vacation was successfully flushed down the toilet.

The sign through the window says Windsor.  This is our only proof they've been to Canada.

Should we decide to do this craziness again I'll be finding the bridge.  The only thing worse than worrying your going to fall to your death in a river is worrying the river is going to come bursting through the sides of the tunnel.

Pure misery.