Frankenmuth part 2-Bronners, downtown and chicken!!!

Our last post was about our Frankenmuth gnome hunt.  None of it was lighthouse related, but it was pretty darn fun!  Frankenmuth part 2 does have some lighthouse elements.  There aren't any bodies of water in Frankenmuth, but we did manage some lighthouse activity.

Our second day was pretty exciting!  Our first outing of the day brought us to Bronner's CHRISTmas Wonderland, the world's largest Christmas store.  The place is huge, the kids were in awe.

pee you Santa!

they had a whole section dedicated to lighthouses

this is just a small section of what was available

Lincoln found his favorite

standing in front of the nautical tree

We were at Bronner's for a few hours, the place is humongous and the boys were loving every minute of it.  After that, we had lunch, then Jax and John took naps.  

Lincoln and Spencer weren't interested in that.  So, we hit the town again.  The whole town was all decked out for Christmas and the boys kept standing in front of decorations and telling me to take their picture.  We also found a few more gnomes, of course.

 

After nap time it was time to strap the feed bag on. Frankenmuth is known as, "Michigan's Little Bavaria" and one thing they are famous for is their family style all you can eat chicken dinners.  There are quite a few other restaurants to eat at, but everyone that visits Frankenmuth must do a famous chicken dinner to truly experience the essence of Frankenmuth.  We chose Zehnder's on this visit. The story of Zehnder's is pretty remarkable.  William and Emille Zehnder opened for business on Mother's Day 1929.  They served 312 meals at $1.00 each on that day.  Another interesting fact is that their neon sign is believed to be one of the longest continually used neon signs in existence.  It's first mention is in the  October 1937 edition of the Frankenmuth News.  Now that's pretty cool.  You can check out their full story on their website.

It's great for kids, because since it's family style they have a lot of options.  Of course, the one thing they liked the best was the all you can eat cottage cheese.  We had to self impose a limit on that and make them eat some meat and veggies, too.

that's a whole lotta food

ummm...chicken

Jax making his fake angry face

Lincoln copying Jax

Drumstick, the Zehnder's mascot

We had a great family get away in Frankenmuth, MI.  I would highly recommend it if you haven't been.  Go for a couple days or even just a day trip.  There was still a lot to check out that we didn't even get to.  Does anyone else have any fun get away recommendations?  Any great Frankenmuth memories?  Any favorite all you can eat memories?  Be careful with those ones.