Michigan. July, 2019

Traditionally, every summer we take the whole family on short trips from Toronto to different American cities. This time, we headed to the state of Michigan. We visited the town of Frankenmuth, which looks like a little Bavarian village. It is also home to the world’s largest Christmas store.

We stopped in Ann Arbor, a charming city near Detroit and home to the huge University of Michigan. We also visited the famous Henry Ford Museum, which houses unique collections of automobiles along with countless other fascinating exhibits...

Day 1

Frankenmuth is a small town in the state of Michigan. About 200 years ago, 15 German immigrants settled here. They carefully preserved their traditions, and to this day, the town attracts plenty of tourists who want to experience a little taste of Bavaria. The drive from Toronto to Frankenmuth takes only about five hours. The town is quite small, and most of its main attractions are located along the central street with the rather straightforward name of Main Street.

We stayed right on Main Street at the Holiday Inn Express & Suites Frankenmuth. It was a lovely, clean hotel with a tasty breakfast and a pool.

Our first stop was, of course, somewhere to get something to eat. The town has two famous restaurants — Bavarian Inn and Zehnder’s — both supposedly known for their incredibly delicious chicken. But our kids decided it was all just advertising that wasn’t worth believing and chose another place instead — Prost. Our waiter spent quite a while explaining the origins of the food on our plates. And it was delicious!

Across the street was a large shop selling locally made cheeses 

It didn’t really impress us, so we popped into the little fudge shop next door. Fudge is a sweet, creamy candy that comes in all sorts of flavours. Everything was fresh and smelled absolutely delicious. We bought a whole box, just to be on the safe side)) 

We kept going. It was a hot summer day, and it was hard to believe that soon we would find ourselves in a place that felt anything but summery...

Our next stop was Bronner’s Christmas Wonderland. To be precise, it’s a Christmas store, but we still call these decorations “New Year’s ornaments,” so without changing course, we headed straight into the LARGEST Christmas store in the world!!

To get a better idea of just how big the store is, I checked online and learned that it covers an area equivalent to almost two football fields! 

Toys, sweets, and toys that look like food 

Beach-themed decorations, family ornaments (with any combination of family members, and you can even add a personalized inscription), and ballerinas 

Ornaments in every colour imaginable 

Musical instruments, ornaments representing different professions, and incredibly beautiful, colourful glass ornaments... There wasn’t a single theme for which you couldn’t find a Christmas ornament in this store. Everyone picked their favourite one 

Then we headed to our next destination, which was just as unique. It was a small shop with more than 1,000 cuckoo clocks — Frankenmuth Clock Company. Most of the clocks are made in Germany 

In the evening, we took a stroll around the town 

And in a small square in front of the Bavarian Inn, right at 9 o’clock, the large clock tower began its show.

First, 35 bells played a beautiful, magical melody, and then the story itself began, with little puppets appearing and disappearing from the depths of the tower. The show was presented first in English and then in German.

We took a stroll across the beautiful covered bridge and then headed to bed, because another exciting day was waiting for us tomorrow

Day 2

The next day, after a good breakfast at the hotel, we continued our journey. We were heading toward Detroit, but knowing about the city’s troubled history, we decided to stay in one of its suburbs. On the way, we stopped at a gas station, and to our great surprise, we found alcohol packed inside from floor to ceiling and all the way around the store... You definitely wouldn’t see anything like that at a gas station in Canada!

We stopped at the beautiful Somerset Collection. We weren’t planning on doing any serious shopping; we had simply heard that this mall was beautiful and that it had one particular fast-food place the kids absolutely had to try.

It was called Chick-fil-A. I was quite surprised to see a line just to place an order, and even more surprised by the dish the kids were so eager to try — a bun with a chicken schnitzel. I even tried this “rare delicacy” myself. It was tasty, but I still couldn’t understand what all the fuss was about...

We were headed to Ann Arbor, a safe and prosperous suburb of Detroit. It’s beautiful, green, and cozy. The city is home to the huge University of Michigan, so there are plenty of young people and, naturally, lots of places for entertainment. Our first stop was the University of Michigan campus. But we soon discovered that the campus is not only enormous — it’s also spread out across different parts of the city.

We decided to start with the botanical gardens — Matthaei Botanical Gardens. We always try to visit gardens like this when we travel. The gardens cover a huge area, and we only had time to explore a small part of them. Admission is free, with just a small parking fee

We had planned to explore some other interesting parts of the university, but the kids had other ideas. So instead, we headed to the YMCA sports complex, where we got a family day pass. The boys played basketball while the girls enjoyed the pool.

For dinner, we went to a very pleasant Mediterranean restaurant called Sava’s.

Then we returned to our hotel. It was a great one — Hyatt Place Ann Arbor

Day 3

In the morning, we headed to the final destination of our trip — The Henry Ford Museum.

The museum is huge and fascinating, with plenty to interest both kids and adults. Ideally, you would need two full days to see everything. The complex consists of three main parts:

1. The museum itself, with a huge collection of cars, as well as other types of machinery and technology

2. Greenfield Village, a historical village preserving the lifestyle of America’s early settlers, with a collection of historic buildings, including replicas of homes and laboratories where Ford lived and worked, as well as, for example, the laboratory where Thomas Edison worked on his inventions

3. A factory tour, where you can see how cars are made

We had planned to visit the first two parts, but the weather let us down. It drizzled all day, so our visit was shortened to the main museum. Here’s just a small taste of what we saw.

The museum displays the cars used by American presidents, including Ronald Reagan’s limousine, along with many other beautiful and fascinating exhibits

Vintage locomotives, carriages, and fire trucks 

Famous race cars, airplanes, and historic technological inventions 

There were also interactive exhibits and hands-on galleries 

The museum has countless galleries and exhibits, so everyone can find something interesting to explore