Adventure Thursday!

Houston and Juanito are still gone until tomorrow, so Beth joined us for Adventure Thursday today! And adventure we did! Rain was totally predicted, so we were hoping it would hold off, and it totally did. It was a perfect day - warm and sunny.

We went farther than we usually do for Adventure Thursday, so it was extra-exciting. (Also extra "are we there yet?"-y from Zane.) Our first stop was the Mini Mac! It's a cute little replica of the Mackinac Bridge, built over a pretty little pond that is positively filled with turtles. I've never seen so many turtles in one small pond in my life! There was even a little grate down the middle, just like the real Mackinac Bridge! We ate lunch on the little island, took pictures in the beautiful field of yellow flowers, and let the kids watch the turtles for ages.

The Mini Mac is right outside of St. Louis, Michigan, which is a cute little, slightly abandoned-feeling, town that's smack dab in the very center of the "Mitten." (That's the Lower Peninsula of Michigan, for anyone NOT from the Mitten.) We walked up and down the street, and wandered through a couple of stores. One was a "Variety" store that fully lived up to its name. It had the most random assortment of goods, and was completely awesome. There were fishing lures and spools of thread and old-fashioned candy and kids' toys and random electronic bits and chairs and a book called, "Bird up! Pheasant Cookbook 'n More" and in smaller print it said, "How to shoot 'em and how to cook 'em...." There was a flea market-type store, which was absolutely enormous and had everything from creepy old dolls and piles of books just thrown on the floor to fancy glass dishes and old 45's. And then we went to the bakery and got ourselves each a donut, because...donuts!

After St. Louis, we drove a short distance to Michigan's smallest post office. Beth literally squealed with glee when we pulled up, because it's tiny and adorable. It was closed for the day (i can't imagine a post office that size needs to be open very many hours!), so we peeked in the windows instead.

And then we drove a few more minutes to see an old 2-story outhouse. It's on private property, so we couldn't get very close, but it was close enough to all agree that a 2-story outhouse is a TERRIBLE idea. Katrina was all, "Why not just build them NEXT TO each other if you need more than one?!" Why, indeed?

We then headed home by a different route, which brought us past a little saloon called the "Hog's Head," which also happens to be the name of a bar in Harry Potter. I was all, "We need to stop there!" and started driving around the block to go back to it, which brought us straight to a giant tank just sitting there. Double-plus good!

And then, the final stop in the adventure was a shoe tree. It's this giant tree that is filled with shoes. So many shoes!

We got home just as it started to rain and rain and rain. Everyone was starving and exhausted, so we ate dinner and collapsed on the sofa and watched an episode of "America's Got Talent." The end.