Our brief jaunt to start the new year

It’s been years and years since my wild and crazy days of welcoming a new year amid insane young people in a drunken stupor.  Actually, no; that’s a blatant lie.  I’ve never done that kind of thing.

Probably the craziest new year’s eve in my experience was when I was in 11th or 12th grade, with a bunch of school friends at the house of a pal from school.  Well, not so much a pal.  A girl.  The girlfriend of one of my best friends, if you have to know.  Okay, fine, a girl who had a completely overt crush on me.  I don’t recall many details of the evening’s doings – but not because I drank so much I have no memory of them.  Rather, because I’m old and just don’t remember things anymore.  Anyway, we weren’t the drinking kind of group.  We were, instead, the ridiculous teenage angst and complicated drama kind of group.  I mean, apparently.

I do recall spending at least some of the night watching the football game being broadcast, which for years is all I really needed on NYE to make me happy.

One new year’s eve I remember is from not so long ago – well, long enough ago so that there was snow on the ground in December and January.  The Wife and I (and perhaps the girls) watched The Truman Show, but what stands out to me is how bright the night was.  The combination of white snow below, white clouds above, and city lights between made midnight almost daylike in brightness.

Well, time goes on and my new year’s activities evolve.  They’ve in fact evolved to the point that this year I was in bed by 10:30.  PM.

Wild and crazy, let me tell you.

Anyway, while this new year’s eve was low on the active meter, new year’s day saw us pack up and leave town for a few days.  The Wife snagged a real deal for overnight stays at the Bavarian Inn in Frankenmuth, a deal that presumably was offered because nobody stays there in mid-winter.  Well, it was a magnificent enough deal that I highly doubt there were many Michigan residents not staying there last week.

We’d visited there a number of times throughout the girls’ lives already, as they really loved going there.  When they were little, in fact, I’m sure their notion of “vacation” or “holiday” meant nothing other than the Bavarian Inn.  There are some seven pools, an arcade, a couple restaurants, a minigolf course, “the wedding room”*, TVs equipped to receive Disney Channel, and, now, water slides.  All inside.  Seriously, a family on holiday doesn’t need to leave the building.  Ever.

The first stop on our trip. This is the first stop on most of The Wife’s trips, actually.

While she was refueling, I made a mad dash a block backward to catch a glimpse of the gaggle congregating in the river.

In the arcade. This seems like the world’s biggest game of Connect 4. Certainly it’s the most expensive one to operate.

More arcade. Our daughter, ever the stylish one, even when playing air hockey.

Did I mention one of the restaurants is also half sports bar? That’s my daughter’s hand, helping me choose.

I liked the colors in this shot; The Wife, from afar and without her glasses, thought this was a shot of a sunset.  Anyway, this is one of the pools in the Bavarian Inn.  In the room beyond this pool you can see the water slides.

Our pool shark daughters showing their stuff. It was a long game.

Is there a Beatles album cover that has a look anything like this? I know I’m online and could look it up myself, but, well, I’m not doing it.

And this one? I think this screams Hitchcock, like maybe a poster for Vertigo.

This is in the lobby of the restaurant that accompanies the Lodge.

Outside that restaurant is this fabulous vine, and, on this occasion, The Fabulous Wife.

Back in the Lodge, at the conference center end, was still some gorgeous Christmas decorations. The girls are hamming it up.

All the meeting rooms at this end are named for composers of the region, and the decor all around celebrates these guys.

While waiting for dinner one afternoon, the girls were “not enjoying” a game of Fluxx with The Wife and I.

I took no photos of the girls in the room, watching Disney Channel with the glazed over look in their eyes, but you parents should know the look I mean.  I also took no photos of the Cheese Haus, a highlight of the trip for Dad.  It’s a local shop that sells more cheese than even I can want, including chocolate cheese, something the girls dig.

*  A number of rooms in the Lodge overlook this courtyard room, in which weddings are held.  Our girls used to dream of having their weddings in this room.  Of course, that was back before they’d grown older and wiser and each swore off boys…

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