Kalahari ~ a Sandusky, OH overnight

Sunday morning we hit the road around 10 to head to Sandusky for an overnight.  I had booked a room at Kalahari using the "Don White" block of rooms from a Facebook group.  My parents spent the night at our house to watch Luna.  It was a smooth drive and we stopped for lunch on the main drag in Sandusky at Culvers (we've never eaten here!).  

The check-in line was horrendous.  I'm talking a 45 minute wait to find out our room wasn't ready, but they gave us our wristbands to access the waterpark and they texted us later in the afternoon with our room number that our wristbands would unlock.  We changed in the locker rooms and bought a $28 locker (yikes!) and off we went!  

We took a break around 4:30 to bring the rest of our bags into our room that was finally ready.  We ordered room service pizza and salad that was reasonably priced for the size and was free delivery.  They even texted us a coupon when we checked-in.  After we ate, it was back to the waterpark to swim until about 8:30pm.  The boys played in the arcade for a half hour and didn't win anything.  So, it was back to the room to shower, have popcorn, and watch Malificent on TV.  

Monday morning we made breakfast in the hotel room (microwaveable pancakes and breakfast sandwiches, donut holes, and fruit).  We went right to the waterpark as soon as it opened at 10am and we were able to get on all the big slides inside within a half hour!  It was next to empty!

We went to the outdoor part when it opened at 11am and got on the longest line/best slide within 10 minutes.  It was pretty cool!  The kids swam in the outdoor pool and went in the hot tub.  They went back inside to do the wave pool and then everyone was ready to call it quits.  We changed in the locker room and left, grabbing lunch at Chick-Fil-A before getting on the freeway.  

We had a great time, but it felt great to get home and be home.  Lots of time traveling and on the road this summer.  

Ogemaw County Fair and Fly-in Breakfast 2021

 We left last Wednesday evening after the boys' music lessons for our last up north trip this summer to Nana and Pops' lake house in Gladwin.  It's an annual tradition to head up for the big Ogemaw County Fair (the best fair I've been to).  Sydney and AJ came up earlier in the afternoon with Nana and Pops and the Riashi's would be coming Friday evening.  

We had a very smooth ride driving up and caught a beautiful sunset off M-30 driving in to Gladwin while blasting "Buy me a boat" by Chris Jansen.  It was dark when we got to the cottage.  We let the kids all run around and have fun for a bit before putting them to bed so we could play cards.  Pops and I were the big winners with our one game we got in.  

Thursday we got up and hung out for a while.  I went for a run on my favorite route hoping to see deer, but didn't see any.  The kids played in the lake and then it was time to pack bag lunches and head to the fair. 

The carnival rides opened at noon and it wasn't crowded at all!  Most rides didn't have a wait.  The big hits this year were the bumper cars, Pharaoh's Fury (all the kids but Sydney rode), and the Ferris wheel. 

We ate lunch in the shade since it was so hot.  The kids had their bag lunches and the adults bought some things from food trucks.  The Mexican food was awesome!  After lunch we walked through all the animal stalls to see the winning animals.  We found a pig who looked like Luna while laying down!  We rode some more rides, got funnel cakes, pretzels, sno-cones, and slushies, and enjoyed our time at the fair before heading back to the house.

Back at the house we all cooled off in the lake.  We had pizza from The Hearth, salad, and fruit for dinner.  We let the kids watch Vivo on Netflix so the adults could play cards early and get to bed early.  Everyone was pretty tired!  Pops and I were the champions of Euchre for the weekend!

Friday we dedicated as a day to be lazy and enjoy the lake.  It was another hot day.  The kids played in the sand, rode jet-skis with Scott, tried water-skiing without much success, went diving and swimming, and enjoyed a picnic lunch. 

We grilled hamburgers and hot dogs for dinner, with pasta salad, corn, fruit, and french fries.  The Riashi's arrived in time for dinner.  After dinner we did a boat ride to go fishing.  Two fishing poles and six kids fishing and we only caught one fish - a pike!  We got back to the house and had a fire with s'mores, the kids ran around, and the adults played....Euchre!  Courtney and I were not as lucky with cards and lost to Scott and Nana.

Saturday morning we all got ready to head over to the fly-in breakfast.  Scott and I packed our bags so we could hit the road after the breakfast.  There was a good turn-out at the breakfast and a long line to get our food, but it was fun.  They hired some pancake flipping company that flipped your pancakes right to your plate and you had to catch them.  The kids had fun with that.  They all put their raffle tickets in various baskets in the hopes of winning and we went to check out the planes.  

Evan ended up winning a basket he put a ticket in for stuffed animal cats (5!) and a book.  Sean won a basket with "plane" themed toys.  And Sean put a ticket in to win a basil pot, sage, 2 books on gardening and garden gloves for me and he won!  How sweet is that?!  I feel like we walked away with a truck full of stuff.  

We had a great time, but it was time to head home.  We needed to do laundry and re-pack for an overnight at Kalahari to celebrate Evan's birthday.