This... is... Frankenmuth!

This is a bit of an odd post for me. I'd never considered blogging on the road before. But I'm laying in bed at the Best Western in Saginaw Michigan and they have wireless Internet and I have an Asus EEE so why not.

Well that didn't work. I wrote the above sentence and fell asleep. LOL!

Anyway Frankenmuth was a lot of fun. I hadn't been there in a good 7-8 years and my kids had never been. We ate WAAAAYY too much chicken at Zhenders and thought about buying a cuckoo clock. Turns out my Grandmother had an old cuckoo clock that she gifted us with when we left. It's not as fancy as the ones in Frankenmuth but it's a family hand me down. Now to get some weights for it and get it running again.

On a side note if you decide to visit Frankenmuth let me strongly urge you to stay somewhere other then the Best Western in Saginaw. The AC was broken which made the room really warm the whole time we were there and outside it was only 55'ish. I'd hate to see it in the summer. The indoor pool was the only nice part of the hotel and it was only nice in the morning as by early evening it was full of rowdy teenagers and half drunk party-goers. It was cheap though and lived up to the you get what you pay for rule of life.

Now for some Frankenmuth details. Zhenders.... ahhhhh I could write a short novel on the joy that is their chicken dinner but I shall try to limit myself a bit here. Zhenders is well over one hundred years old now and is the largest independent restaurant in the US. They have ten dining halls and serve over ONE MILLION meals in a year. That doesn't seem like much compared to say McDonalds but you have to remember this is entirely scratch cooked amazingly tasty food. Nothing is precooked or reheated. The family style chicken dinner costs $18.95 and I highly recommend you go with it if you will only eat one meal here. I've never had anything else but I only get up there every few years. If I lived closer I'm sure I'd branch out into their other dishes as they look delicious as well. The family dinner starts with home-made (get used to seeing that word here a lot) liver pate and cheese spread served with real french bread. Coleslaw, Cottage cheese, Chicken Noodle soup round out the appetizers. Oh and did I mention they're all home-made? Good. Just to note I hate Coleslaw and I ate the coleslaw here. It's that good. The main course is their famous deep fried chicken with home-made (there's that word again) mashed potatoes, dressing (stuffing), cranberry relish, noodles with a butter and cracker topping, and some more awesome bread. Finished off with a small bowl of ice cream. We went for lunch and let me tell you I needed the walk afterwards. Expect to wait in a line to get in. We were there on an off weekend and waited about 5-10 minutes for lunch but if you try to go on a busy holiday weekend like mother's day don't be surprised at a 2+ hour wait for dinner.

Just a minute or two drive South of Frankenmuth you will reach Bronner's Christmas Wonderland. You'll find signs for Bronner's as far South as Key West. (Head North on I-75 1500 miles or so and it's on the right.) We only spent an hour or two here but if you like Christmas stuff then you will easily spend a day here. My only regret of the trip is we were too wiped out in the evening to drive back down and look at all the lights here. Acres of Christmas lights, bulbs, trees, and decorations await in one of if not the largest Christmas store in the world. Cool place.

Well I didn't accomplish any real writing on the trip but I'm hoping to be back at it shortly. If you read two posts ago the Writing Excuses guys are working on magic systems again and after listening I think I'm OK on Light Magic but I need to really think about my other magic abilities. I think my main control on it will be its relative scarcity. Magic runs in family lines and can come and go along the generational lines.