Frankenmuth & Chicago

Our winter break we spendt on a quick trip to Frankenmuth , Michigan to visit friends. A charming bavarian town in the heart of Michigan.
Good food and friendly people.
we stayed at Zenders splash-land( this was when I had the time to knit- was awful warm and humid in there, but did not feel like going in the water with the kids... that was left to the father to do:-))

Noro sock is doing progres.

Rapunzel was also next to Zenders- great gift store with good selection of yarns. Nice and very friendly helpers around and we had a nice chat.

Down town Frankenmuth with its typical Babarian houses.

This is Bavarian Inn across the street of Zenders Restaurant and Market Place.

Bought "chicken "wine -----meening a bottle of white wine in a very cute decorated wine bottle... with chickens.. and Zenders world famous quality chicken seasoning.. Zenders is by the way famous for their chicken dinners. yummy good.

BRONNERS

Bronners is the largest christmas year round store in the US, and doomed for a visit.

Was there 17 years ago and it is alot bigger now , with even more to temp weak soules.

I think the pic. says it all. Look at this ski girl- that was me a few days earlier in Vernon , Sussex.

But without the ski´s.

Isle after isle with shiny,glamorous christmas ornaments from all over the world.

So creativ and original.

We got tempted to start collecting their series of Villages. There is a Bavarian town, a Snow city and( which includes a NJ Diner!,very cool) but we fell in love with the New England Village.

We was leaving with 4 houses and some people and pinetrees.

A little odd being in there with all the christmas stuff and getting in the mood for selebration .

I have to wait another 9 months for that. Good being back and cant wait to come back for more in the summer.


Chicago

A 5 hr. drive west from Frankenmuth took us to Chicago..

Never been there but most definitly coming back.

What a great city. So vabriant and full of life.Lots of trees and parks.. the Lake was next to it, cold and icy.

Loved how people looked. Colourfull and in all different kinds of fashion both in clothes and hair..

So many nice hats, scarfs and mittens to see. And believe me , we needed all the assesories we could wear- it was cold.People looked healthy and happy.

We visited the Shedd Aquarium.. walked from Shedd along the lake shore to the Millennium Park where the "Cloud Gate" or "the been" was one of the masterpieces we saw. A stainless-steel sculpture by Anish Kapoor. It reflects the surrounding skyline and people next to it.

The weather was beatiful. Sun and sky high.

A ice-skate rink next too the been was full of people enjoying the very nice saturday.

A mug of coffee in a coffee house to rest feets and reload for the second half of the day.

Ice sculpture artists had made alot of sculptures for us to see.

this is just one of the pic. I took.

The afternoon ended at Navy Pier where we shopped alittle, the kids got to ride the Ferris wheel and the adults rested their feets..


The evening was completed at a Greek restaurant called Greek Islands- Very good food , friendly serving but busy as h.....

I had people jumping on my back... that was the back side of it.