I can’t believe they’re letting me fly this plane.

We decided upon Traverse City mainly because Caleb wanted to see how the kids would fair in our airplane on a long flight.  Luckily, we timed our journey correctly and both kids slept for part of the flight.  Needless to say, we haven’t tried another flight that long since, though.  However, we do have another long flight is in the works for April or May now that the kids are a bit older (and Zoe’s graduated to a spot in the backseat of the plane) and the weather isn’t as much of a concern.

So after we arrived in Traverse City on a beautiful sunny afternoon, we checked in at the Great Wolf Lodge, headed to the grocery store to pick up some food, and then headed off to the beach.

It was around dinner time when we arrived at Clinch Beach so we had a picnic dinner and played on the beach for just a bit before heading back to the lodge to swim inside.  Unfortunately, it was a bit too cold to swim in the lake (at least for the adults).

Friday morning we decided to drive over to Sleeping Bear Dunes.  Back in 2011, Good Morning America named Sleeping Bear Dunes the Most Beautiful Place in America so we thought we should check it out.

Caleb and Isaac enjoying the view from inside the park

First things first we had to play on the beach.  The weather was overcast and soon to be rainy.  We lucked out and had the beach to ourselves for the morning.

Although, Isaac would have happily stayed on the beach we decided to head over to the Dune Climb.

I made it farther than Caleb but only because Isaac wasn’t cooperating.

Here’s my view from the “top.”

Before heading out of the park we decided to complet the Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive.  One of the stops on the drive is the Lake Michigan Overlook Platform.

 By this time, we weren’t having as much luck with the weather.  But we still wandered out to the outlook.

In the picture to the left, you can see a man trying to climb up the “cliffs.”

Just as we were getting in the car, it started to rain much harder.  Luckily we were done with our must does at the dunes and headed back to lodge for a nap and more swimming.

Unfortunately for our adventures in Traverse City, it was rainy the  rest of the day of the day and the rest of our trip.  Luckily, we were staying at the lodge and we had plenty of indoor water park fun to keep us busy.  We did spend about 45 minutes in downtown Traverse City right before we walking around even though the weather wasn’t the best.

The Great Wolf Lodge was great.  Both Isaac and Zoe loved swimming and playing at the pool.  The wave pool was the unexpected hit at the water park.  And I already have plans for swim lessons for both of my little fish this summer.  Unfortunately when there are only two adults, a very excited 3 year old and a very active 10 month old, you don’t get any pictures or video of our water park adventures.

But I guess you are all probably wondering what any of this has to do with The Newport Aquarium.  We decided we couldn’t spend all of our time swimming so we planned a morning to visit the aquarium.

The first exhibit we encountered was a touch pool.  There were a variety of different crabs, star fish, and sea urchins available to touch.  Isaac wasn’t too sure about touching the sea life but after a bit of coaxing and after seeing Zoe not hesitate, he finally warmed up to creatures.  The aquarium staff were great with both of the kids and answered a ton of questions.

Check out the bad boys below.  These spider crabs were huge and very spider like. That’s Isaac’s hand in the picture.

About half way through the aquarium there was a great exhibit for the wee ones.  If you haven’t guess from the picture, the exhibit was based on frogs.  But the great thing about it was it gave Isaac and Zoe a chance to stretch their legs and play.

In case you’re wondering, yes I’m in the play structure and no I didn’t fit well.

Throughout the aquarium there are a number of tunnels.  It’s a neat way to get a different perspective of the aquatic life.

We happened to encounter divers in the tanks during our visit.

Caleb and I felt we could have spent more time a bit more time at the aquarium but the hungry kiddos won out.

But I’ll leave you with a couple of photos from our flight on Saturday afternoon.  Isaac was very excited to be in the airplane and Zoe seemed happy in her new spot in the backseat.

Somewhere between Columbus and Seymour

First things first, we had to go see the cows.

Then we headed over to see the 4 day old baby cows.

Isaac and Sprinkles

Next up was the corn crib. Think big sandbox but instead of sand corn. Isaac loved this play area.

We hit the straw play area next.  There were slides, a bit of a maze, and a tractor built of hay.

If the straw play area is a bit too big for your little ones, they also have a baby barnyard with some slides and a playhouse geared toward the little little ones.

Caleb and Isaac also wondered into the corn maze for a bit.  Luckily, the made it out safely and in time for a hay ride.

Too busy checking out the tractor to pose for a picture

Also available at the farm are tours of the milking parlor.  But we were too busy playing in the corn crib, again, to “bother” with a tour.

Then we said goodbye to the cows and the baby cows and we headed home.

But Zoe only made it about an hour and Isaac wanted to play with Cousin Joel so we made a quick stop at the Hamilton Towne Center playground so Isaac could stretch his legs and Zoe could eat. Then it was back in the car.

Luckily we made it to Cousin Joel and Cousin Hope ‘s house just before Zoe had her second screamfest of the day. Granted she was probably hungry but the girl just doesn’t like riding in the car; her preferred method of travel seems to be airplane. I digress, we met Baby Hope and played with Baby Joel and then about an hour and a half later we were back on the road headed to Muncie.

Isaac, Zoe, Cousin Hope, and Cousin Joel

We finally arrived at the Muncie Children ‘s Museum just before 2:00. Isaac was instantly in wonderland.

About this time Isaac discovered the water table. Isaac absolutely loves playing with water so he kept gravitating back to the water table and we kept having encourage him to check out other exhibits.
There was a pretty extensive train display, as well as, a large train kids could “drive.” one nice feature of the train display is that it was operated by a series of buttons that you could go up and push.

Isaac also enjoyed the play kitchen, complete with refrigerator, dishwasher, stove and an abundance of food. There’s also a supermarket. Although when we were at the market the store shelves were pretty bare; I guess everyone had stocked up on groceries before Hurricane Isaac hit.

The big rig was a big hit, as well.

Then there was the tot area. It was super cute. There was a big tree you could climb in and around complete with a slide. A caterpillar with different toys little ones could crawl through. There was also a hot air balloon and a boat to drive and a wide assortment of different shakers. Zoe’s favorite part of the area was the spinning flower.

There was also a ant hill play area, a barn, a replica playground, a post office, some art stations, a dress up area, dinosaur exhibit, an outdoor exhibit with a tree house.

We left just after 3:30 because Isaac was pretty tired and we wanted to get home. But on a different day Isaac could and would have been happy to play longer. And I think Zoe would have enjoyed herself in the tot area if she had been a bit older.

After about 5.5 hours in the car and five stops, we finally made it home.

This weather on this particular Saturday was absolutely amazing; cool and sunny.  The flight from Columbus to North Vernon was only 10 minutes, though.  All said and done, it probably would have been faster to drive… but where’s the fun in that?

We arrived about 9:30 and there were already a number of planes on the ground.

About to touch down

Isaac headed straight for the two helicopters set up for display.  I tried to have Caleb and Isaac pose for a picture in the military helicopter but Isaac was too excited.  After a quick talk with a few of the helicopter pilots, we were off to check out the other sites at the event.

Surprisingly, Isaac had little interest in the huge inflatable slide and either of the bounce houses (there was a smaller bounce house for the younger kids).

However, he did enjoy  driving the fire engine. Talking to the police officers and petting the police dog.

One of the planes on display during the event was an experimental airplane built by some kids at a local high school.

Some other interesting things on display during the event.

And here’s a partial view of some of the aircraft that flew in for the event.

And here is one more picture of Caleb and Isaac checking out a beautifully restored Pacer 115.  Isaac was definitely more interested in the pink balloon he scored earlier in the day.

Although there was still plenty to do – like eat fried fish sandwiches – we loaded up the airplane and headed to the Camp Atterbury fly-in.

At the event there were about 25 local planes on display.  Many local pilots were on hand and willing to chat.  The Atterbury-Bakalar Air Museum was open free of charge, as well.  Unfortunately we didn’t get a chance to tour the museum (Isaac was having fun checking out the planes and playing with some kids), maybe another day.

Some of the great planes on display at the event.

Beech 18

Cessna 310

Stolp V-Star

Glasair Super II

??? - Lite Experimental

J3 Piper Cub

Bellanca Vicking

Experimental

Tiger Moth

Cessna 195

Cessna 182

Looking forward to next year’s bigger and better event.

So we jumped in the air plane with Richard (Caleb’s past flight instructor) and headed north.

Hanging out in the backseat of the airplane

Since we had a safety pilot on board, Richard, Caleb decided to log an instrument approach; this added some time, but is useful for Caleb to stay current with his instrument flying.

The runway at Grissom is 12501 feet long – over 2 miles.  On a bad day I need about 3000 feet to land my plane, and on a good day closer to 1000.  This runway is massive.

We landed on a runway farther away from all the action but we taxied past a handful of military jets.  

The pancake breakfast started at 7:00 so we were a little late to the game when we arrived  just after 10:30. Caleb talked to someone involved with running the event and said they served over 700 pancakes but most of the fly-ins had already left by the time we arrived.

There was still plenty of activity, though. Isaac was able to sit in a helicopter and watch a second helicopter take off to give a handful of event goers a ride. There was also a helicopter display, two Isaac sized airplanes, a dog, and a little toy airplane that entertained Isaac for quite a while.

Richard and Isaac decided it was time to partake in lunch.  After lunch there was more time to watch the helicopters, explore a few exhibits and play with the toy airplanes.  Then Caleb rounded up a volunteer to give us for a ride to the Grissom Air Museum; less than a five minute drive down the road.

The first thing you notice about the air museum is all of the airplanes in the outdoor exhibit. While the indoor portion of the museum is great make sure the weather is nice because the outdoor exhibit is by far the best part.

I was a bit concerned that being a 2.5 year old boy, Isaac may have been bored but he loved the museum. Of course, who wouldn’t be excited about climbing in and out of airplanes and helicopters.

You could sit in the cockpit of an F-4C.  Or you could crawl into the fighter jet’s intake.  The air intake just happens to be the perfect size  for Isaac; he enjoyed more than one trip inside.

Other items in the museum included:  old uniforms, a BA53 Thermonuclear bomb, old airplane propellers and more.

Then we ventured outside to checkout the airplanes.

B-17G Flying Fortress

Grissom’s old control tower is on the grounds of the outdoor exhibit.  The tower is about 40 feet high and provides great views of the aircraft in the museum’s outdoor exhibits, as well as, a few of the runways.

B-47B Stratojet

Isaac’s favorite plane was the A-10A Thunderbolt II; he thought it looked like a dinosaur.

After we finished with the museum, we caught a ride with the same great volunteer, back to our airplane and headed home.

If you’re a fan of airplanes, I highly recommend a trip to the Grissom Air Museum.

The day started with a quick flight over to Sky King airport, on the north side of Terre haute.  The interesting thing about this flight were all the clouds.  It was my (Annie’s) first real experience flying in the clouds.

Grandma Cindy gladly met us at the airport and we piled in the car and drove just a few minutes to her house.  Grandma Cindy lives in the country so Isaac had a chance to run around, check out the garden, see the dog and cats, and most importantly walk next door and see the horses.

After a homemade lunch, we piled back in the car and drove on nice curvy county backroads for about 25 minutes before arriving in Bridgeton.  Of course, Zoe feel asleep just a few minutes before we arrived.  But we still got a pretty good family picture in front of the covered bridge.

Then we explored the bridge.

By that time, Zoe was awake.  Grandma Cindy gladly took a few more family pictures.  I guess this is what you get with a 2.5 year old and a baby; I think it sums us up pretty well at the moment.

After tearing Isaac away from throwing things in the water, we ventured over to the mill.  The mill is an actual working mill and you can buy their products in the store.

Isaac found more water.

On the way back to Grandma Cindy’s house, we decided to visit the Roseville Bridge.  This one we drove through.

After a brief weather delay (for a very welcome quick summer thunderstorm), we were on our way back to Columbus.  The sun and the lingering clouds made for a beautiful flight home.

Based on Google Maps and the car’s GPS we decided to leave about 8:30 for our 10:00 tour. After a scenic drive through the countryside of Morgan County, we arrived at the bee farm about 9:45.

Reservations were required for our Groupon but I would suggest making them in a few days in advance; I called the day before and they only had two openings but luckily one of them worked for us.

We had a chance to explore the store, and check out the observation hive, sample some honey, and check out the frog pond. Unfortunately our tour got started about 20 minutes late and by that time Isaac had lost a little bit of interest.

The entire tour took place inside and we didn’t encounter any bees except when we got close to the entrance of the observation hive.

The first stop on the tour was a stop at (an empty) nest and some empty honeycomb. We then got to check out a large beeswax candle. Did you know each nest contains 50,000 – 60,000 bees? And Hunters’s has about 500 active nests at any one time.

The next stop on our tour was a stop at a different nest with some honeycomb full of honey. Honey weighs a lot. Isaac also got to try on some bee keeper’s protective clothing.

Continuing on the tour, we stopped in the wax room. Were the Hunter’s mold all of their candles.

Next up was a look at a vat of honey. This particular vat of honey had not been put through the strainer yet so there was bees wax and bees that needed to be removed.

The next stop on the tour was the bottling room.

And the last stop on the tour was back to the store were we each got to pick out two honey sticks.

After the tour Caleb and Isaac explored the little walking trail out back while Zoe and I hung out near the frog pond.

Although, it’s a bit off the beaten path, Hunter’s Honey Farm was a fun little family excursion.