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Published: August 16th 2015
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The one about Frankenmuth.
Up and out early, 8:30, to head to the town of Frankenmuth. If you think of Michigan's lower peninsula as a left handed mitten, we have been staying at the tip of the thumb. If you draw a line across that thumb, from the bottom of Saginaw Bay on the west, to Lake Huron on the east there is about 80 miles of peninsula up and down, and left to right. At the bottom left corner is the town of Bay City and that was our first stop.
Sherry's husband insisted she break into the 21st century and get an iPhone 6 before the plans change and the phone cost her $600. Yup, I know. Sherry has been using a flip phone very happily for a very long time. There is one thing wrong with this scenario, well, more than one, ok, but, the BIG one is.....you cannot activate Verizon phones from this area. There are no Verizon towers, and the tower they rent space on will not allow any phone activation that isn't their product. Thus, the trip to the Verizon store. We found a company store, not a reseller, who was very sympathetic
to the problem, and knew how to help us. EXCEPT, the machine they use on older phones to transfer contacts broke. We would have to transfer the contacts using Verizon's backup assistant, which we would have to download from the App Store, after we created the Apple ID for the phone. Are you getting the picture?
Amazingly, there is a lot you can do on an iPhone without an Apple ID. You can make phone calls and send text messages, once you look the numbers up on your old phone and key them in, you can take and send pictures, you can talk to Siri. You cannot download apps, even free ones. We needed to wait until we were home and back on wifi. The salesman was very good, and convinced Sherry to get the 'glass' screen saver, which would certainly fit in the case her husband had ordered for her. Hopefully. Delivery mid week. More on this later.
Just after leaving Verizon, we passed a ship museum. I love viewing these old monuments, and I had to find out about this one.
From Wikipedia:
USS Edson (DD-946) is a Forrest Sherman-class destroyer of the United States Navy, built by Bath Iron Works in Maine in 1958. Her home port was Long Beach, California and she initially served in the Western Pacific/Far East, operating particularly in the Taiwan Strait and off the coast of Vietnam. Her exceptionally meritorious service in 1964 in the Gulf of Tonkin was recognized with the first of three Navy Unit Commendations. During the following years she was shelled by North Vietnamese land forces, and apparently received friendly fire from the US Air Force. Following an onboard fire in 1974, Edson returned to the West Pacific and was later commended for her roles in the evacuation of Phnom Penh and Saigon. She was decommissioned in 1988, but the following year became a museum ship at the Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum in New York. Returning to Navy lay-up in 2004, it was agreed in 2012 that she should again become a museum ship, at Bay City, Michigan.
The destroyers namesake, Marine General Merritt Austin Edson, was born in VT in 1897. He served in both World Wars!! As a commander at Guadalcanal, his efforts and those of his crew, put his ship in the critical path that made that battle a
victory for the allies.
We travelled the remaining 20 miles to Frankenmuth passing more of Michigan's windmill farms, now I am sure I have seen all of the states 648 windmills. The navigator (me) missed the exit on I75. More windmills. Frankenmuth was settled in 1845 by missionaries from Bavaria who settled there to give religion to the Chippewa tribe. They built their town to resemble buildings in their beloved Bavaria, and the architecture has stayed the same. The town is now a major tourist attraction, with water parks, gift shops galore, and 2 mega restaurants that can feed thousands, and remind me of the smorgasbords of Lancaster, PA.
Our first stop was Bronner's Christmas Wonderland. Bronner's is the largest year round Christmas store with 2.2 acres of salesroom, 27 landscaped acres with 8 acres of buildings!!! 100,000 lights illuminate Christmas lane; their daily electric bill averages $1250. I could go on and on with these facts; if you want more info and pics, check out their website at www.bronners.com
One of their featured buildings is an exact reproduction of the Austrian chapel where Silent Night was first sung to the world. Wood signs, cutout Christmas trees,
have the song's verses printed on them in something like 90 languages. Enough on Bronner's. On to The Bavarian Inn for lunch. The strolling accordion player plinked familiar tunes. Fresh white and stollen breads whetted our appetites while we waited for our entrees. Barb and I had The Bavarian lunch Combination, one piece of schnitzel, fried chicken, and sauerbraten with cheese puffs. Shery had hot chicken sandwich with mashed potatoes. Sauerkraut and gravy were served to the table. All was delicious, but Barb and I agreed we each like our own sauerbraten better than theirs. I had apple strudel for dessert, they had ice cream. We toured their multiple gift shops, and then walked the streets of town, visiting many of the small shops hidden under the Bavarian architecture.
Just as we started to head home, this time the navigator paid attention to the map, we saw black storm clouds growing rapidly in the west. We did not outrun them, and at times it poured so hard the windshield Wipers were useless.
Back home at 6:30, we were too full from lunch to eat. We gathered Sherry up and did more iphone things. Did you know you can
really get an Apple ID without a credit card? You can download free apps without a credit card. We walked her thru setting up her gmail email, and downloading a yahoo app for her secondary email. She asked Siri to give her the current temperature in Wilmington, NC. She has a good sense of how things work, and asked good questions, but has fingers that hit multiple keys at the same time. We had a a lot of good belly laughs this day on many things, it was a fun day, but I sure got hot! I went to bed, exhausted, but, made the mistake of turning on the last test double elimination Big Brother episode that was an unexpected 1.5 hours. It had me hooked from the get go and I was awake until 12:45.
Up early on Saturday to get to the weekly flea market in Port Austin. It is billed as one of the biggest in the state. Pete and Barb's brother, Mike and his wife, Marcie, came for the weekend. They have a vacation house nearby, and visit here to spend the day on the lake. Sherry didn't want to go to the flea market,
so the remaining 3 ladies trekked to town, the guys went fishing. The flea market was surprisingly large! Lots of crafters, vegetables, baked goods. We visited the few stores in Port Austin, and I have reached a decision. I don't need to visit anymore gift shops on this road trip.
Back to the house, quick lunch, then across the street to the beach. There is something different but still satisfying about sitting on the beach at a Great Lake. There is no salt air smell, no large waves (no sharks) but gentle lapping. Lots of boaters out, jet skiers, paddle boarders, and tubers.
I did get to see the boat hoists in action. See pictures. These structures can be hand made or store bought. They are on wheels, and roll up to the dunes in winter, then back down in spring. Boats are raised up on straps, operated by a battery motor that is powered by a solar panel. I have never seen anything like them.
Dinner was the wonderful smoked pork butt that had been cooking all day, prepared with dry rub ala Marcie, corn from the farmers market, pasta salad, and pie. A true beach
summertime BBQ. Some of the neighborhood crew went to Caseville to hear a Cheeseburger tribute band, Barb, Sherry and I played cards, Hand and Foot. I gotta stop turning TV on my iPad before sleep......it was The Last Ship that got me this time.
Kat out
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