Michigan Trip (December 3-10)

We wanted to take one last trip before the baby was born and before 3rd trimester, so we racked our brains on where to go, and we decided to come to Michigan. We debated tropical locales which sound nice, but what can I really do? Lounge around with a pregnant belly and not use the hot tub? Haha. Then we thought of some more adventurous places but would probably be too strenuous...So we came up with Michigan, so I could see where Duke grew up and meet some of his family.


Day 1, December 3: Mark picked us up at the house at 9am so that we could catch our flight at 11am. After about 10mins of driving, "Uh...I have to turn off the car. My engine just stopped." He tries to start the car after a few tries to no avail. I give AAA a call, and as they're getting all the info, the car starts. Ok, let's see how far we get. We get on the freeway and proceed in the slow lane, and it seems like we're going ok. Then, the engine starts misbehaving a bit, and then we pull over to the shoulder. Dead again. We give it a couple minutes, and Mark is able to start the car again. Ok, let's see how far we get this time.

We're able to exit the freeway, and we start traveling north towards the airport. It's about a couple miles away, and we hit a red light. Uh oh. Car's dead again. It starts, but then immediately dies again. The car doesn't start again. We figure that the airport is walkable, and it would be more likely to catch our plane that way vs. waiting for AAA who may not be able to fix the car anyway, and would just tow the car to Mark's mechanic...in which case we'd definitely miss our flight. So, we bid Mark good luck with his car, and we start on our trek to the airport.

It's about 9:45am when we leave Mark, and boarding starts at 10:30am. We walk for a couple miles, and are getting close to the airport. We see the rental car area, so we head over there to catch the shuttle to the terminal. We see one bus but the driver wouldn't let us on-board since it wasn't an official stop. Boo...there was no one anywhere near the road! We lose a good 5-7mins waiting for the next shuttle, but we finally arrive to our terminal. Security lines were thankfully short, and we arrive at the gate literally a few minutes after 10:30am, and they were just boarding all the 1st class and priority passengers. We took a quick stop at the bathroom, picked up a muffin, and headed right into board. Whew! We made it! Duke texted Mark to let him know that we got there. What a relief!

The plane ride was fine, aside from the fact that it was completely full and jam-packed. I was in a middle seat, and out of all the seats in the plane, the seat in front of me didn't adjust forward so it was permanently reclined. Yay! Luckily I'm smaller than say, Duke, so it was ok.

We land in Dallas for our stopover, and had an hour to get some food. We stopped in at PappaDeaux's which is a chain of restaurants (PappaDeaux's, Pappacitas, etc) which I had been to before when I used to travel to Dallas all the time for work. Duke had never had it, so we gave it a go. I ordered the crawfish etouffee and Duke had the Po Boy sandwich. The etouffee was delicious! The Po Boy was a bit dry, but who orders a Po Boy anyway.

After lunch, we had about 15 minutes before boarding, and then we were off. This plane's only snafu was that the chief who was supposed to enter in our cargo load data didn't, so they were busy trying to track him down to enter the info so we could have proper takeoff data. How careless...so many people out of work, and of course, the guy who has a job can't do it. Luckily though, we had an 80mph tailwind which helped us recover all that lost time, and we landed on schedule anyhow. Overall, the plane rides were fine - between dozing off for 10 minutes here and there, we knocked off a number of crossword puzzles, which has been our obsession of late.

After we landed, we headed over to pick up our rental car, and began our 2 hour drive up to Bay City. Along the way, we stopped at Walmart to pick up some drinks and toiletries, and we had forgotten one of our bags. The cashier actually ran out in the cold to get our attention and give it back to us. Duke was happy to see the Michigan hospitality. At first, I was convinced it was a homeless man trying to get us to give him money, but it was just another customer yelling over at us to tell us the cashier was trying to chase after us. Haha.

We then went over to see where Duke's old house was. He was shocked at the commercial development that had happened with major retail chains, etc. right off the exit, but once you got further in, it was more like home again for him.

We took a turn into the woods and onto some dirt roads. They were flat and well-kept for the most part, but the further in we got and the closer to his house we got, the potholes got huge! Duke had to drive like a maniac to avoid these giant holes. It felt like riding on the Indiana Jones ride at Disneyland.

We took a quick look at his old house, and saw that the owner there had a phone booth in the front yard. How bizarre. Apparently, it was there 2 years ago as well when Duke came to take a peek at the house last time he was here, so that booth is a permanent fixture.

We stopped in Flint to grab some White Castle which was one of the only places open at this time of night. It was after 11pm at this point. We grabbed a couple cheeseburgers and chicken burgers to eat in the car. The burgers were fine but the chicken burgers were dry. We won't be going back though b/c Duke had some imminent bowel concerns after eating it. We were about 10 minutes outside the hotel, and Duke was having some major issues. Oh no...What else can go wrong today?

We barely make it to the hotel, and as I check in, Duke does his business. We stayed at the DoubleTree, and I have to say I'm always pleasantly surprised and happy with the DoubleTree. I was greeted with the warm chocolate chip & walnut cookies, and the beds were especially soft and comfortable. For the price, you really can't beat it. The beds were so comfy we both slept in until 11am, and for Duke, that is amazingly late since he's usually up by 7am.

Day 2, December 4: We headed over to the lake recreation area to see Lake Huron. It's overcast and dreary with random bouts of rain. The lake was pretty green but the campgrounds were empty. We took a quick stroll over to the water, and then we were soon on our way to Frankenmuth.

We stop at Halo Burger for lunch which is a local Michigan fast food chain. Duke was very excited about it. The burger was pretty standard, in my opinion but the fries were pretty good. They also sell a Boston Cooler which is Vernor's ginger soda & ice cream (like a soda shake) and that was pretty good. I don't think I want to go back though b/c it didn't sit well in my stomach. The burger was pretty greasy or something...

The main town of Frankenmuth is nearby, so we take a quick drive up there. We walk along the river and into some stores. It's a German town, so there's lots of Wilkommen signs and other things in German. Knick-knack stores are plentiful, and we stop in the Bavarian Inn which is the main place to be (a cousin of Zehnder's which is the other main spot in town). We look in the gift shop and this is where we'll have dinner later. We continue to walk along the streets to look at more shops, and decide to check into the hotel. We stayed at the Drury Inn. Nothing to write home about here. Pretty standard, lower-quality place but people are nice enough.

We head back to the Bavarian Inn for dinner, and Duke is uber-excited. We both ordered their famous chicken plates which is basically fried chicken but the fried skin is lighter and more breaded in nature. The chicken was tender, and the skin did taste good but a little bit salty for me. The one thing about this place is the amount of food that they give you. Before you get your entree, they give you a cup of chicken noodle soup (which was excellent), sides of cranberry/orange hash, chicken pasta salad (very very salty), cole slaw (pretty tasty), navy bean salad (just ok), bread & stollen bread (fruit & nut bread) with strawberry jam. Then you get your entree....Plus mashed potatoes & gravy, stuffing, and more sides - mashed squash (this was yummy; tasted like mashed yams), butter noodles (the noodles were huge and thick so it was very egg-y), and of course you get dessert which was soft-serve ice cream coupled with some ginger cookies. Holy cow, I was stuffed. I had peppermint ice cream which was different and Duke had his vanilla.

The place was packed, and definitely seemed like a local favorite for sure. We headed down to the bakery and chocolate shoppe to see what things we'd like to bring home, and of course we decided to eat some more! We split a cinnamon roll which had a flaky crust, but was very yummy. Duke got some cookies and a couple of his Danish crisps which he loves.

After that, we headed to Zehnder's. Duke was very against this place, saying it was where the "rich" would go for dinner at Frankenmuth's and wasn't even going to take me, but every time we went by, the place was packed. How could we not go? We headed over, and the menu was the same price, if not cheaper for very similar foods. Bah, for the "rich". That didn't even make sense! We might try it for lunch tomorrow so I can see for myself if I like it better or not. Haha. This place also has a large bakery and shops, but we didn't pick anything up here.

We drove over to Bronner's to see the light decorations. Bronner's is the world's largest Christmas store, so we're going to check that out tomorrow. It has a parking lot that is reminiscent of a theme park, and it was full earlier today. I'm hoping tomorrow will be less packed since it'll be a Monday. We shall see!

Day 3, December 5: We woke up around 10am, and missed our free breakfast at the hotel but I'm sure it probably wasn't anything spectacular anyway. We went over to Zehnder's for lunch, and wanted to really compare how this place stacked up to the Bavarian Inn. We ordered the dinners instead of the lunch sizes so we could get all the different side dishes (we referred to it as "ponchon" or however you say it in Korean since it's the same idea - we just don't know what it is in English).

Duke ordered the chicken plate and I had chicken shnitzel with a side of spaetzel. The sides this time around were chicken noodle soup, cole slaw, cranberry relish (these 3 were the same as last night), cottage cheese, and crackers with a cheese/vegetable spread & chicken liver pate. Everything was superior here. The soup was the same - both places were great. The cole slaw was a bit more crisp and tasty, and so was the relish. I also preferred the cottage cheese and crackers with cheese spread to the pasta salad we had last night. Duke even had to concede that the sides were better.

Then, the entrees came, and his chicken was a little less breaded and less salty, so I thought it was better, and his stuffing was much better. I didn't even eat it last night since it was pretty gross, but today's was much more edible. The mashed potatoes were overly salty though so last night's was better on this front though Duke disagreed and like the mashed potatoes here more. My dish was completely different, so nothing to compare there except to say that it was fine. The sides with dinner were the buttered noodles (more buttery & less eggy here) and a vegetable medley of peas, green beans, corn, and carrots (this was similar to frozen veggies that were microwaved for too long since it was pretty gross and mushy).

To me, I have no nostalgia with the place, so it's not like I put this meal in the highest regards in terms of taste, but I can see the old-style charm that this place would bring for people. We finished the meal with vanilla ice cream for Duke and cheesecake for me (dessert wasn't included in this meal, so that's not as great as the Bavarian Inn). I blew out my candle since it's my birthday, and we went on our way.

Bronner's was the next stop for us. It is ridiculous in terms of how much Christmas stuff there is. If you can think it, it's probably there. There were beautiful ornaments everywhere, albeit not cheap, but unique enough. They have sections for everything from "I just bought a new car" to "I like bowling" and a whole section of ornaments to go along with it. Pretty amazing. We bought some pretty neat fiber optics lights for the tree, and a handful of ornaments. There is free personalization there so we got a couple ornaments done with our names and 2011 on it. We also bought an ornament for baby's first Christmas 2012 and a back-dated ornament for our first Christmas at our house in 2010.

We then took a quick stop over at Birch Run which is a huge outdoor outlet store center, and then had an early dinner at Pizzeria Uno. I haven't had deep dish pizza in a long time...perhaps since the last time I visited Chicago which was almost 5 years ago! It was tasty for sure, and a great birthday dinner.

We then drove by some of the places near Duke's house on the way back toward Detroit, and ended up in Novi where our hotel is located. We're staying at a Sheraton this time around, and got upgraded to the club floor which supposedly has "better than average" free breakfast. If we get up in time, we'll be sure to check it out. :)

After unloading some of our belongings, we headed over to Laurel Park Place which is a nearby mall. There is an ice cream & chocolate shop there called Sander's and I got their well-reputed "Bumpy Cake" which was a devilishly rich chocolate cake topped with Mackinack's Hot Fudge ice cream with actual hot fudge topping. It was really yummy but so sweet, my stomach actually felt really sugary afterward. Duke had a chocolate soda which made him very happy since it's the only place he can find that understands what a chocolate soda is (made with seltzer water and vanilla ice cream).

At this point, it was snowing, making this trip a pretty darn complete Christmas trip. Duke caught some snowflakes on his tongue, and he had a good time out in the cold. Overall though, I can't complain about the weather. It's been in the 40s the last couple days, and even though today was in the 30s, there really was no heavy wind so it's not too bad. :)

Day 4, December 6: We woke up around 9:30am, and I headed over to see what the big fuss the free "above average" breakfast was about...Ha, what a laughable affair. It was basically some fruit and one serving area of pancakes. There was no one in the club room, and I didn't see any syrup or anything else. There were some cartons of milk and some sodas and waters, but I find that to be funny that that was supposed to be a big deal.

We went over to Leon's for breakfast which is known for their homemade soups. We both got the chicken noodle soup, and Duke had an omelette while I had the "mini-breakfast" which was actually quite filling (1 egg, 2 sausages, and 3 pancakes). The breakfast was average, but the soup was quite good. The place is next to Miller's Bar which we will be going back to try out at some later date.

Duke then brought me over to Greenfield Village and the Henry Ford museum. Unfortunately, Greenfield Village was on the winter schedule so it's closed except for some holiday nights during the weekend but it's apparently a pretty cool place that has old style houses and people dressed up back in the colonial days.

The Henry Ford museum was open though, so we figured we'd go check that out. After $35 (2 admissions + parking fee), the lady tells us that the museum is under construction and we won't see as many cars...and "very few, in fact". Uh, thanks for telling us, lady. Anyway, so we start walking around and we see some of the presidential cars that were used. There were a lot of cars there but yes indeed, they were behind a barricade and many cars were draped over with a cellophane so you couldn't see anything. Most of the museum that was open dealt with planes, trains, and steamboat engines. Not exactly what we were looking for since this is Detroit and everything is about cars, but what can you do...

After this disappointing stop, we headed over to Ann Arbor to check out University of Michigan. We stopped at Le Dog which is a little red shack that is only open from 11am-2pm on weekdays for a hot dog. The hot dog was pretty good, but it was noticeably soft...I ate mine first, and Duke said "What do you mean by soft?" but I didn't know how else to describe it. He ate his, and he said "Wow, yeah, it is really soft." You don't really get the crunch of a hot dog skin, and the meat just kind of melts in your mouth. Definitely a unique hot dog, if anything but I liked it.

We then walked down the "Diag" which is a diagonal pathway through campus, and made our way over to Zingerman's Deli which is quite well-known. We shared a reuben sandwich and got an "old pickle" and a "new pickle" - the old is more garlic and pickled, whereas the new is more cucumber-y. The reuben was really good. The spread/dressing they use is quite delicious, and their motto is that you really can taste the difference. And, you can!

Afterwards, we walked over to the M Den which is a U of M store with all the paraphernalia you could ever think of, and Duke picked up a hat. We were soon off on our way, and we headed over to Deluca's which is where we would meet Duke's mom's cousins for dinner.

We ended up arriving an hour before we were supposed to meet, so we took a detour over at Starbucks, picked up a Detroit mug, and had some drinks while we waited. At 5pm, we met up with the crew, and had dinner. I had the spaghetti & meatballs - the meatballs were kind of dry but the spaghetti was really good, and most of the rest of the table had their gnocchi. We ended up staying until close to 8pm there, chatting with the 4 ladies. They are all super nice women, and had a lot of stories to share about how they grew up, kids these days, etc. I didn't get to spend that much time with them at the wedding, so it was nice to be able to hear more about their lives and be able to distinguish each one's lives and personalities.

We're now back at the hotel, and unwinding with some crossword puzzles. Tomorrow will be some more family visits but this time, on Duke's dad's side of the family.

Day 5, December 7: We headed over to Duke's aunt's place, and hung out with his dad, aunt Ann, and her son-in-law Dave. We took his aunt over to eat lunch at Highland House which is a nearby joint whose previous owner had their same last name. One of the original owners is still there, and recognized Duke's dad and sister. Anyhow, I had some fish & chips there which were actually fresh and light & crunchy. The fries were good too. Duke had the mastaccioli which I thought tasted bad, but we also had some pizza which tasted like a good Pizza Hut. Apparently a lot of fast-food pizza chains (Little Caesar's and Domino's) came from Michigan so I guess this was my first go at "Michigan pizza". It was yummy.

We then parted ways, and Duke took me around Milford and back to his old house. This time it was light out, so I could actually see the neighborhood. Duke marveled at the Christmas trees that they had planted in their yard b/c he used to jump over them as kids, but now they're gargantuan in size. Oh, what 25+ years will do to a tree. I think it's pretty neat that people grow Christmas trees in their yards.

We stopped by downtown Milford and got some pretty gross hot chocolate (but it was good enough since it was so cold outside), and walked around a park where Duke told me this terrible story of a girl who was walking there with her boyfriend, and the boyfriend got duct taped to a tree while she got kidnapped and was later found in pieces. That's so scary.

We continued our drive around and went to Fowlerville where his mom's parents used to live, and Duke kept saying it was the boonies but honestly, the town looked just like Milford so I don't know how to distinguish the boonies from the rest of the countryside we've been spending time in. Haha.

We then headed back to his aunt's house, and Dave made us some ribs and criss-cut fries. He also offered us some deer sausage with jalapeno & cheese which was actually pretty good but a bit too spicy for me. He also told us that he bought some venison and was going to make some jerky which would be ready in a couple days. Haha. I had never heard of venison sausage or venison jerky, and this guy was offering both!

They have a really nice basement which is a weight room, game room (pool table & darts), and bar which Dave built. It was a pretty sweet lay-out so Duke played a couple games of pool with the kids (they're twins who are juniors in high school). Lots of old stories were swapped, and the game room had lots of old paraphernalia from Duke's dad's family so that prompted a lot of memories too.

It's late back at the hotel now, so I've got to get some shut-eye. I'm beat.

Day 6, December 8: We went to Miller's Bar for lunch today, and it's actually a lot nicer inside than outside. On the outside, it's just a red door and nothing much to it, but inside, there's a lot of bustling and old pictures of Dearborn everywhere. The waitress comes by and says "What are you having?" with no menu, etc. Duke orders us cheeseburgers and fries, and they come out on wax paper. No plates or anything. Haha. The burger was simple and classic, and you put on your own ketchup/mustard/pickles. The other big deal about this place is that there's no check either. You just go up to the cashier and tell them what you ordered. An honor system - what a concept.

After lunch, we headed over to see Duke's dad's family again since everyone would be home at around 3:30pm. We decide to hit up the local deer meat market before dinner - a place called DJ Meats. The place came highly recommended by Dave who gets the summer sausage there with jalapeno and cheese. Unfortunately all the meats have to be refrigerated so we didn't get any, but we'll probably order some when we're back in CA. I figured my brother might like some for Christmas. Ha.

We then headed to dinner at Uptown Grill with the whole family - Duke's dad, aunt, cousin, her husband and two kids. The food was good - I had a shrimp pasta and Duke and I shared a huge side of mac & cheese. Ah, more carbs, so much food.

After dinner, Duke and I headed up to Rochester to the hospital where he was born. We then stopped in downtown which was beautifully lit up for the holidays. Every store participated along Main Street, so there were different colors lights lining every single store. It was really nice. I think more small downtowns should do something like that - gives it a lot of charm and worth a visit. We took a short walk over to LiPuma to do what? Eat more, of course! They're known for their Coney Island hot dogs (hot dogs with chili & onions; no beans). We each ate one, and shared the fries. The fries were super good here - similar to McDonald's fries but a little less oily. Yummy.

On our way back down Main Street, we saw a Sander's, so of course, we took a stop there so that I could try the cream puff hot fudge that everyone raves about. Duke got another chocolate soda, and we confirmed their secret ingredient of adding half & half. I didn't particularly like my cream puff hot fudge. It was good, but the cream puff was a little dry for my taste. I much preferred the bumpy cake which was moist and rich. Oh well, at least I tried it.

We then called it a night after Rochester, and got some much needed rest.

Day 7, December 9: We headed straight to pick up Duke's dad and his sister to meet Duke's mom's cousins at her house for lunch. Barb made some homemade chicken noodle soup, some Italian sausage subs, zucchini & chocolate bread, coconut cream pie, and some pineapple. She said "Oh, it was nothing!" Wow, if that's nothing, I'd like to see something! Everything was delicious and it felt really nice to have a home-cooked meal. Lots of old stories were shared with her and Heide, and soon enough, a few hours had passed and it was time to get on our way. We hung out with Duke's dad's family for a little bit, and then Duke and I headed back to the hotel to pack up the stuff we had bought to ship back home. We took a little break doing some crossword puzzles, and then headed over to Greenfield Village. It was closed when we last went, but we heard that they open for weekend nights for the holidays so we were going to brave the cold and see what was going on.

We get there, and it is packed solid...and then we find out that they're sold out for the night. Duke was pretty pissed off since this is now strike #3 (1 for being closed during the week, 2 for duping us out of a lot of money to go see a half-complete museum, and now 3 for being sold out while they were open). We lost time driving, but what can we do. We tried...

We opted for plan B since we had heard that there's a nice drive along Hines Road where you pay $5 per car to see the light decorations. We figured it'd be nice, and we saw a huge line to enter. It took us almost an hour to get through it, and it was terrible. The decorations probably have been the same for the last 20 years - very old-school, tacky designs, and not much to see. We took a 20 minute video of our drive which I'm sure Duke will edit down to about a minute. It was pretty boring and bad and another waste of time.

It was close to 10pm, and we hadn't had dinner yet so we stopped by Buddy's Pizzeria. They're voted as the top 5 pizza places in the US by Food Network and seemed to have gotten a ton of accolades from other media outlets (Oprah, etc). They have a square pizza, and Duke's sister had told us that the mac 'n' cheese was the best.

Overall impression, it was a nice place but nothing too great. I didn't particularly like the pizza. It is different for sure, but I wouldn't say it's better than a regular old Domino's...The shape does psychologically throw me off though since I kept associating it with cafeteria or TV dinner pizza. Haha. The mac 'n' cheese was really good for traditional mac 'n' cheese. You can taste the sharp cheddar cheese. I liked it but Duke wasn't a huge fan.

We're now back at the hotel, and it's time to rest and get ready to pack up for tomorrow. Goodbye Michigan! It's been a good trip, and really nice to finally see some of the places that I've been hearing about and to meet all the people. I wouldn't say I'd want to ever live here, but it's definitely a nice place to visit and have some Midwestern hospitality. :)