Day 18 - Frankenmuth

Sunday and it's another perfect day in Michigan. After the storms that chased me from Traverse City down to Oxford, I only had two days of harsh weather and then everything since has been picture perfect. This Sunday is no different. Last Thursday was Bambi's birthday - but being a busy mom Bambi couldn't make the time to celebrate her birthday properly (with us) on her birthday. Therefore, the only logical thing to do was move it to Sunday!

Judie made the arrangements for dinner for the seven of us at Zehnder's but there was no way we would all fit in one car, so we decided to meet in Frankenmuth. While everyone went, Judie and I are the early birds around her house and as has been our habit, every morning we woke up - made a Bob Evans sausage breakfast thingy (the croissant thingy is much better than the English muffin thingy - I don't know why) and resumed talking about whatever we had been talking about the night before.

There are no silent mornings with me and Judie in the house.

The porch is the heart of Judie and Gary's home. Diana joined us, then Gary, and everything just seems to be right in the world when we're all there catching up and enjoying the view of the lake.

But we need to leave for Frankenmuth by 11AM to allow enough time for shopping, riding the steamboat, and Cheese Hausing. Since we drove separately, the first problem we have to solve is finding each other. This gets harder when the first priority for one car (I'm not saying which one) is to find a bathroom as soon as we arrive.

Judie was attempting to locate everyone when Bambi and I bumped into each other on Main Street. I was only too happy to send Judie a selfie with Bambi. "We're not looking for Bambi, Bambi and I are looking for you!"

The first thing everyone wanted to do was to ride on the paddle boat, but for reasons I can't explain I was not feeling it. As in, I have learned to listen to my stomach when it tells me not to get on a boat. I have been on plenty of boats, but that day my system was forecasting unpleasantness if I spent an hour on a sloshy barge. Everyone else enjoyed the paddle boat, while I wandered into the Cherry Republic and discovered the greatest chocolate covered cherries of all time.

Normally I don't like Chocolate covered cherries, but these little red flavor bombs are totally different. And I don't know why. Maybe because they are red? Or it could be the type of cherry. I am too lazy to check google and see if Imperial Cherries are a thing. Regardless, I could not get enough of the free samples... so, I had to buy a bag. Which is totally rational right? Put melty chocolate candy in the saddle bag of a Harley-Davidson. What could go wrong? Not, my smartest choice but that should give you at least some indication as to how amazing Imperial Chocolate Covered Cherries are!

After more shopping, and then some more shopping. We finally started to make our way to one of Bambi's favorite places, Cheese Haus, for you guessed it. even more shopping. But this time it was cheese. And Cheesy photos. The only thing I regret is that I did not take photos of the Chocolate Peanut butter cheese I bought. Yes. Cheese Haus had a selection of Chocolate Cheeses. Since COVID however, Cheese Hause has been unable to give away samples of cheeses they are in the process of packaging. (Or they got cheap and only give out one sample cheese a day, I'm not sure which it is - blaming it on COVID sounds like the kinder option).

I am a fan of novel experiences, and if I get a chance to share one for less than $6 I am all in. I asked everyone if they would try the strange chocolate cheese if I bought a small brick. (cost $5.72). Everyone said yes. Drew and Camie picked out the Chocolate Peanut Butter Cheese - the same one I would have picked, then we went outside and tried it.

We should have filmed everyone's reactions. (If Marshall or Miles White had been there, I know the experience would have been captured). The stuff is brown like a tootsie roll, and it started out tasting like a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup, but then it finished like... cheese. Ugh. Not great. Gary liked it. And he was the only one. Gary is a badass. (And not just because he like Chocolate Peanut Butter Cheese) - but liking strange cheese takes nothing away from the legend that is Gary Davis. If you want to know more, you'll have to get invited hang out on his porch.

After we had our cheese experience, Camie decided to photo bomb me while I tried to capture the moment for posterity. The expression on my face says it all. Bambi and Cary's kids are just awesome.

Once we were done with the cheesy photos, we finally headed for the highlight of the day - Chicken dinner at Zehnder's! I normally do not like to take pictures of food, but this time I could not resist. My only memories of Frankenmuth as a kid were the Christmas store (which we missed) and eating fried chicken. However, I did not remember walking out of there feeling like I'd just had Thanksgiving in July. Holy cow did they give us a lot of food. So much so that we left with bags, and bags of leftovers.

The staff were awesome, and I don't have a negative thing to say about any dish they served us. Judie gave me the pro-tip to sprinkle Zehnder's Chicken seasoning on the fried chicken. Wow did that punch up the flavor. I can't think of another restaurant that expects you to season their fried chicken after they cook it, but the Zehnders Fried Chicken Seasoning really punched up the flavor.

This is how much food was left over after no one could eat another bite. The only member of the family not completely happy had to be Alice. I can't read her mind but I feel like she was very sad she didn't get to go with us.