Columbus Day Weekend Get Away

Okay, so we knew several days away from home with three small kids was probably going to be challenging. We knew it would probably be more fun to remember the trip, than to actually do it. Turns out we were totally right. On the way home from our travel adventure, I contemplated renaming my kids Tornado, Temper and Timebomb. (And they would probably name their parents Tired and/or Testy.) Oh, well. We did it. We survived. And in the pictures it looks like we really had fun! It's all about making memories, and that I think we accomplished. So here are some highlights...

First Stop: Sweet Stop

We started off on Friday with the intention to make the Jelly Belly Center near Kenosha our first stop to break up the drive to Milwaukee. A friend mentioned the train ride to me a few months ago since we have such a train fan in our house. It was such advertising, but we enjoyed it (as I mentioned here). I have to admit, I loved the chance to sample those nasty flavors you see on the Harry Potter Bertie Botts Beans boxes and Halloween packages. They cracked me up. I do have this advice to share, which should be obvious, do not under any circumstances allow your children to bring the chocolate beans into the car to eat during the drive! I'm still finding chocolate covered jelly beans in the back of the van and I don't know if a certain middle child's car seat will ever be the same. Like I said, should be obvious!

Some of the delightful flavors offered at the bulk bins.
The free-sample bar  had plenty available for taste testing!

On to Milwaukee ...

We went to Kopp's Frozen Custard for lunch because it was a favorite place of Jamieson in his Marquette days. To the kids' disappointment we did not have any dessert, what with having bellies full of Jelly Bellys and all, however, the burgers were more than adequate. Then it was time to check in. 

"Are we there yet?" is generally the question that drives driving parents nuts. For this parent, the grit-my-teeth question was "When do we get to the hotel?" We had planned to visit several sites to make our trip worth the effort. Honestly, we could have parked ourselves at a hotel seven minutes from our own front door and, as long as it had a pool, the kids would have been thrilled. I hate hotels. Even the nicest hotels make me feel claustrophobic, but the kids were beside themselves with the wonders of a unique room with all its hotel features, you know:  microwave, lights, multiple beds, and, William's favorite, tissue boxes at eye level in the bathroom. Really it's hard to know what William liked best because he was so busy getting into ALL of it. There is NOTHING relaxing about being in a hotel room with a toddler. Nothing is baby proofed and everything is a potential hazard. So all time is spent either telling big kids to stop bouncing on the beds or removing William from the threat of wiggling the full-length mirror, dresser drawers, outlets, curtains, closet doors, and escaping down really long hallways. Ever see those shirts for kids and pets that say, "I'm the reason we can't have nice things"? He needs one that says "I'm the reason we don't travel." And don't even think about asking about how we slept. Five people; one room. Even suite style, there's no making up for the fact that the world's most inflexible family really, really prefers our own beds. Oh well, we survived those sleepless early baby days and somehow we all survived the sleepless travel days. Just. 

The kids got their afternoon pool time in and they were happy. In both Milwaukee and Green Bay we chose hotels that had shallow toddler pools with small slides and water jets. They were no water parks, but good enough for my crew. Since I haven't seen fit to enroll the kids in year-round swimming lessons, their swimming skills are erratic at best. So it was nice to have more than just a oval-shaped, sorta deep hotel pool  for them to really enjoy and not just bob about in mom-mandated life vests. 

For dinner, everyone seemed unlikely to manage a sit-down dinner so Jamieson chose a drive-though fish fry place: Serb Hall. How very Milwaukee to have such a thing but it was amazing. The kids ate the peanut butter and fruit we picked up at a grocery store on the way back to the hotel -- more fry for us!

In the Desert Dome

Saturday morning, we basked it the glory of the hotel breakfast. Kids love Fruit Loops. Adults love the waffle bar. Mmm. 

Tropical Dome = camera fog

We then drove through Jamieson's old college  stomping grounds and then headed over to the Domes. The kids enjoy the Garfield Park Conservatory in Chicago, so we thought they might like three! Ever since the hail storm of a year ago took out much of the glass at Garfield Park, Erik has been very concerned about the progress of repair. At the Domes he immediately asked if a hailstorm would break their glass. I think the technology of greenhouse glass improved by the time these windows were installed. One of the brochures said they used mesh glass from Germany. Nice of him to be concerned, though! 

Sheboygan is more than a sausage!

For the next leg of our journey we headed toward Sheboygan for lunch and a visit to Bookworm Gardens. Kudos to my mom for the recommendation to visit Bookworm Gardens! When Jamieson and I were little we both visited a place in the Wisconsin Dells called Storybook Gardens. We used to think it would be neat to take our kids there someday. Unfortunately, it closed a few years ago, so no photo ops of multiple generations in the same place. Enter Bookworm Gardens. Also inspired by stories, but so, so much better. Instead of being just statues of storybook characters, this garden is filled with book inspired vignettes and activity areas. The kids knew many, many of the stories that inspired the various garden areas but even where they didn't they had fun just playing. It's the kind of place the kids love because no one is saying, "Don't touch." They are supposed to explore and they do. 

The entrance 

Bookworm Gardens: I totally want our new shed to look like this.

William having a moment of zen

Notice a theme? He did NOT want to relinquish that broom. 

The Three Little Pigs: feel free to make your own comments

For the record, I caught William before he fell out of this chair.
Getting a nice picture of these three bears is impossible!

Without hesitation, I would definitely stop at Bookworm Gardens again and I would wholeheartedly recommend it to families with kids, as well as adults who love gardens and/or books. It was a delight.

On to Green Bay...

We made it to Green Bay with enough time to squeeze in some pool time for the kids again before attempting bedtimes. Sheer exhaustion helped everyone sleep a bit better for the second night of the trip.

Our plan for Sunday was to enjoy another ample hotel breakfast and then make our way to the reason for our Green Bay destination: the National Railroad Museum. We needed to make one other stop, though. It's no surprise to anyone that we aren't the biggest football fans around, but if football needs watching, it needs to be the Packers. Jamieson feels more than a bit of loyalty to his Wisconsin roots and I find the Packers to be the only team I can stomach. The whole fan ownership thing is a win in my book. So, we swung by Lambeau. We had checked that there wouldn't be a game in town while we were there, since we did want to be able to afford a hotel room, but it seemed worth it to stop by. So, the kids ran around the atrium for awhile -- nice place! -- and then we marveled at all the Packer products in the gift shop. Packers paper towels, really? Alas, our attention to the team did not bring them a good score later in the day. Nevertheless, I enjoyed seeing the stadium, at least. I love how Green Bay is just a mid-sized town that anyone's cousin or grandma could live in and then all of a sudden, there's an NFL stadium down the street. Not sure where everyone parks for the big games, but it is a nice place.

The gift shop is that way!

The high point of the day was the train museum, of course. I've already written about it here, but it deserves a few more thoughts. The National Train Museum is a great place. It's not huge, but their collection of rolling stock is first rate. Someday I wouldn't mind going back to take in the truly historical aspects of the museum and its displays (when I can do so without loosing track of my peeps). Not unexpectedly, by the end of our visit, our tired train lover Erik was declaring that he didn't really like trains. We predicted that within a few minutes after leaving he would declare it his favorite place ever. Guess what? "I loved that place. This is a great vacation." So, I think it's time to adjust a parenting strategy just to see what will happen. Generally, I don't tell the kids about play dates, parties and trips till just before they happen. If things get changed or cancelled, the grief is much easier to manage if they never knew about the plans in the first place! On the other hand, it's more than time to begin learning to adjust to disappointment. Plus, maybe some advance notice will help take the edge off that overwhelmed feeling all three kids seem to get when they're doing something out of the ordinary. It will mean a lot more "No, it's not time for that yet." from me, but maybe moods will even out in the long run. Who knows.

An action shot of Anna at the railroad museum playground.
Honestly, action shots are about all we can get. 

Loving the cab inside the Big Boy

Oh, look. William is sticking his fingers in a random hole in a train car. Again. 

The boys on the ground while Anna and I climb to the top of the observation tower.
She made it to the very top, all 99 steps. That's my girl! 

View of Green Bay from the observation tower.
The clouds don't give it justice, but the fall color during the trip was spectacular.

To end our train-themed day, we had dinner Sunday Evening at the Titletown Brewing Company. Despite the name, it was more about railroads than Packers. Housed in an old depot, the historical building was a great place to end the trip. Or would have been if not for the 20 raucous middle-aged women having the time of their life in the table next to ours. The silver lining there was that William could be as loud as he wanted and no one cared. Anna had crayons and a kids' placemat to decorate, so she was happy. Jamieson and I liked the history of the place. So, the majority had a good time.

How I felt at the end of the trip.
(Actually, another cute statue at Bookworm Gardens.)

So, final thoughts. It was a good trip. It was a hard trip, but we expected that. I don't think we are going to plan any further excursions until William is more comfortable with alterations to his routine. Not that any of us do change very well, but he will be easier to tote along as he gets older, I hope. Every place we visited was fun and worth a repeat visit in future years. It's not all bad, though, to hear the kids say that it's good to be home. Maybe that's worth the effort of a trip, too.