The "You Are a True Michigander If You Use Your Right Hand As a Map",edition.

iPod shuffled to "U Can't Touch This", MC Hammer. Stop.  Hammer time.  Another Michigan weekend. Thanks to a friend, we discovered the Pig and Whiskey event in Ferndale.  It featured local barbecue restaurants and local whiskeys.  I passed, but Shawn and Brian went. They brought back ribs, beef brisket and some sausage sandwiches. Yum.

Saturday we headed to Frankenmuth.  I've been going there since I was a kid. Frankenmuth is about a 1/2 hour from our cottage at Shay Lake.  Frankenmuth is a German town in the thumb.  I've watched it grow from a local attraction to what it is today. So, the order of business is, where are going to eat?  Bavarian Inn or Zehnder's?  After going to both for over 40 years, we've concluded there isn't much difference.  Of course your mileage may vary.  We end up at Zehnder's.  We go in and get directed to the "Original Dining Room", which is just one of many dining rooms inside the restaurant.  The staff is dressed in German outfits. 

We order the family style meal. I mean, thats what you order. Lol. So here's what you get. 1st course is chicken noodle soup. 2nd course are the appetizers - slaw, cranberry sauce, cottage cheese, white bread and stollen (fruit bread) with jam, garlic bread chips with cheese spread and chicken liver pâté. 3rd course is dinner - fried chicken, stuffing, mashed potatoes, butter noodles, and fresh vegetables.  The final course, desert, is sherbet or vanilla ice cream topped with caramel or chocolate sauce. So so full. The food is served family style, so we pass around platters and if a platter becomes empty, it gets a refill.  For the record, we didn't refill anything. There was plenty of food for just the three of us. :-)  

I was tickled when the ice cream came. They still put little plastic animals on top.  I was just so delighted. It was a childhood memory and darn if the plastic money looked the same as it did 45 years ago!!!  "You Gets No Love", Faith Evans.  The baseline makes the song.  Imagine our surprise when they packed up what we didn't eat to take home. We took home some chicken. :-)

After eating we head downstairs to the gift shop / bakery. We were given a coupon for the bakery. Spend $20.00, get a free loaf of bread.  Brian wanted some stollen, the fruit bread. My mom loved stollen.  She'd get it and some blackberry jam.  When we'd return home she slather the jam on the stollen and offer it to us. Except no one liked it but her. Lol lol. BUT, guess who likes it?  Brian.  Brian and my mom bonded over stollen and blackberry jam. <3.   "Jet Airliner", Steve Miller Band.  Head bobbing music.  We ended getting a 1/2 loaf of stollen and a loaf of jalapeño cheddar bread,  that was delicious. Yum. The bakery was overwhelming and we were full ( which was a great thing! ) so that was it. Did see a doughnut about the size of my head, though!  

We then headed to take a leisurely ride on the Bavarian Belle boat ride, but it was full.  The next ride wasn't for another hour and a half. We passed.  We didn't even stop to see the Civil War reenactment. Yep, costumes, tents, weapons. Looked interesting to me.  We ended up at the Cheese Haus. Shawn got a ghost pepper cheese. I'm not touching it.   

We left Frankenmuth and headed to Shay Lake. Sad to say, the cottage was torn down a few years ago. Once mom and dad moved to Las Vegas and the 2nd flood, they let it go. I have wonderful memories of the cottage and I know Michigan's thumb like the back of my hand...(rimshot). So not sad..time moves on. :-)  The drive home was delightful also. So many changes. I remember when Lapeer, Oxford and Lake Orion were little rural towns. Heh. No more.  

So ends my journey to the thumb. We enjoyed it immensely. I recommend a trip to Frankenmuth to everyone. And yes, I took the kids to spend a weekend in the Bavarian Inn hotel when they were about 7,8 years old. Who can resist a resort with 3 indoor pools?  :-D. "Never Can Say Goodbye", Jackson 5.  Listen to flute weaving though the song....