Fish, Legos, and Voigts

Hey guys,

We hadn't anticipated doing anything out of the ordinary in the week between Christmas in Clare and New Year's Eve - that's generally that span of time where you don't know what day it is and all you do is graze on Christmas leftovers and slowly get fat. 

Well, out of left field, our old Florida (and College) friends, the Voigts, reached out and let us know that they were flying up for a week in order to celebrate the Holidays with their extended family in the Detroit area. Now obviously they're one of those couples that we drop everything for, so once we figured out that a visit with them over the Holidays was doable (they had one unaccounted day in their crammed itinerary they could fit us in), we made it a priority to make it happen.

We showed up about an hour before the scheduled meet-up time with the Voigts (at the Legoland entrance) so we could grab some lunch in the Food Court.

Kris and Lindsey landed on the outlets at Great Lakes Crossing in Auburn Hills, kind of in the middle of where we were and where they were (45 minute drive for them, about an hour and a half for us.) The wives thought Legoland and the Aquarium might be fun to check out, too (not for our kids, of course, but for the Voigts' younger kids, Jackson and Ella.)

So here you go, gang - a random, non-Disney hangout session with the Voigts. Enjoy. . .

This Food Court is pretty bad-ass - lots of options to choose from.

Kris and I got our usual Mediterranean grub, while the girls grabbed some Chinese chicken fried rice. All these portions were absolutely nuts, so no one finished their food and we consequently had leftovers to snack on on the drive back home later in the evening.

After lunch, Kris ran the leftovers out to the van, and the girls ducked in to a couple stores (where Abby tried on Mr. T-ish necklaces.)

This isn't a full-sized, legit theme park (obviously), but a 'Discovery Center' - a smaller attraction that can fit inside malls like this one.

Abby, at the entrance into the attraction.

We met up with the Voigts around 1:30pm, and had to wait around a bit for Adam's sister to arrive. Eventually we got in and went straight towards the first ride (which was a knock-off of the Buzz Lightyear attraction at Magic Kingdom.)

The queue for the ride (since it was one of those shooting rides, I didn't have a hand free to take pics/video of the ride itself, but I suppose if you were really hard-up to see what it was like you could look it up on the ol' Internet.)

Exiting out into a Lego-version of Detroit. . .

Jackson, Ella, and their cousin, checking out Detroit (which was pretty frickin' impressive.)

The Little Caesar's Arena (and, if you look closely inside, you can even see the Red Wings playing. . .)

After mini-Detroit, you exit out into this mini-attraction/food court area. There was a play area, a spot where you could get snack food, and a few other smaller 'rides,' all geared towards super little kids. It became clear to us, at this point, that this 'Discovery Center' was geared towards kids aged 3 - 8, and that our kids were waaaaay too old for something like this.

Detroit vs. Everybody

We stood around for, like, an hour here, waiting for Ella and her young cousin to finish playing in this play structure. 

Alayna got a pretzel and played around on her phone, and we spent the time catching up with the Voigts. 

After awhile, Abby and I went in to check out a Lego Movie '4D' attraction (kinda like the Muppet 4D attraction at Hollywood Studios), which was about ten minutes long and pretty funny.

Just look at all the fun they're having.

This is what Legoland thinks of when they hear 'Famous Michiganders.' 

After Legoland, we walked through the mall over to the Aquarium. On the way, the girls pleaded to pop into some boba tea place so they could get their usual Asian specialty drinks. Kris - who also grabbed one - wanted a pic with the girls and all of their teas, and Lindsey decided to photo-bomb.

This aquarium was a nightmare. It was warm, dank, and waaaay too crowded - far more people were squeezing inside than there was room for, so you couldn't really move about freely to check out fish, you were just herded on through, anxiously looking for a free spot to step off into so you could catch a break. It was miserable.

Adam, as you can tell, wasn't having fun, either. There was a little more breathing room in this particular part of the aquarium - some shallow pool where you could touch coral and starfish and crap.

(Our girls are at center, petting. . . something.)

Underwater viewing areas.

The decor throughout this walk-through aquarium was pretty cool, more on par with Sea World than Disney, but definitely not bad for the Midwest. Still, I could've done with, like, half the people in terms of crowd size.

How festive.

This area had some breathing room, too - it was some digital fish aquarium where kids could design 'digital' fish and let them swim around in the water. 

My fish says 'FART' on it. 'Cause I'm awesome.

This tank held creepy-ass eels in it, which Alayna was enamored with.

Entering the Shark Tunnel. . .

(One of the girls took this one.)

(. . . I think these are supposed to be jellyfish)

Checkin' out more sharks.

Sooo this giant head - is this supposed to be like an alien or a mermaid or what?

Once we got out of the aquarium, Kris grabbed a pic of the girls inside this. . . tube?

The best part of the day (despite what Abby's face might lead you to believe), was when we ducked into this large bar/restaurant a short walk away from the aquarium. Apparently there was like a two-hour wait time for a table, but the whole place was empty. We soon realized that this was because they only had three people working that shift, so we just sat at a table and Adam and I made trips up to the bar to grab beers whenever the need arose. Eventually, a server was able to bring over a few appetizer and we killed a couple hours just sitting around and catching up.

Afterwards, the Voigts hit the road, seeing how they had to fly back home to Florida the next morning, so we let the girls hit up a couple more shops that they don't have at the mall in our neck of the woods. Alayna stumbled upon a K-Pop album section in some random store, but didn't end up getting anything.

After an hour or two of shopping (and not buying much) we headed back towards the parking lot, and, along the way, Alayna grabbed one more tea for the road.

So there you go, folks - a short, impromptu reunion with the Voigts. Next time will probably be down in Florida, doing the Disney Parks in the Summer of 2024.

- Brian

The Devil in Red Fur

Terrifying.

When I was a kid, I had a reoccurring nightmare that freaked the hell out of me.

It takes place in Fraggle Rock (I'm serious), and there's this levitating, demonic specter that somewhat resembles the Grim Reaper from Terry Gilliam's The Adventures of Baron Munchhausen.  Anyway, this horrible being is flying around Fraggle Rock, strangling Fraggles and scaring the bejesus out of everyone.

At one point in time, the Storyteller Fraggle is brutally murdered - strangled - right before my eyes.

Almost as scary as Fraggles.

Eventually, I find myself trapped at the end of a long, rocky corridor - deep within the bowels of Fraggle Rock, where I'm finally cornered by this Grim Reaper-ish guy.  He's at the opposite end of this rocky 'hallway,' so to speak, and begins to fly towards me.


But the scariest thing about this onslaught isn't that the guy's flying at me to kill me (even though that is scary, don't get me wrong).  No, it's the pace and - more notably - the inevitability of his attack.  He's flying down this hall, screaching and flailing his arms around, but I'm frozen in place and can only watch in horror as he SLOWLY draws closer.

It's a long, horrifying build-up.  And when he finally reaches me, I wake up.

Someone needs to make a movie about this.  So I can not watch it.

Anyway, the reason I'm talking about spooky-ass nightmares, is that our two-year old, Abby, is beginning to have nightmares herself.  And not just little 'there are monsters in my closet' sort of nightmares, either.  No, these are 'wake up every hour and half screeching at the top of one's lungs', full-fledged, staring wide-eyed into blank space, sleep-walking night terrors.

They're a blast.

Day or night, in her bed, our bed, whatever - the night terrors have been in full-force this weekend.  At first, we chalked it up to Alayna watching Alvin and the Chipmunks Meet the Wolfman on Netflix (yeah. . . it exists) with Abby in the room.  I mean, the show's ridiculous - and far from terrifying (I won't bore you with a plot summary) -but hey. . . little kids are pretty retarded.

Anyway, Abby was once again able to showcase her cowardice this weekend when we took the girls down to Sea World (yes, we live there now) after church.  Every Halloween, Sea World hosts a 'Spooktacular,' which is billed as being a 'not-scary' affair.  We haven't taken the kids out since Alayna was about four months old, so we figured we'd try it out again.

We had no intention about doing the usual 'hey kids, let's stare at dolphins' bit - instead we wanted to check out the Sesame Street stage show 'The Count's Halloween Spooktacular.'  Sure, it says its the Count's spotlight - I mean, he is the most Halloween-ish of the 'Street, right? - but let's be realistic, here:  it's still Elmo's World.

* * * Note:  Now, here's where I could divulge into a huge tirade and groan dramatically about how that red, furry little bastard ruined Sesame Street and brought about the end of the children's television as we know it. . . but I won't.  I mean, I'm sure I will later, but we should probably just move this along. . . * * *

Waiting for the Sesame Street show to start, checking out some crabs. . .

. . . and fish.

Girls in a glass box.

Waiting for the show to begin. . .

The stage looks like Tim Burton and Hemmingway had a baby together.  On acid.

I'm not sure the show has a 'plot,' per se. . . something about The Count, and teaching the other 'Street' Muppets about Halloween.  Pretty 'meh' if you ask me.  Straight-up crack for pre-schoolers, though.

Familiar faces.

From Left to Right: Random Muppet, the MC, the Product of a Marketing Team, and Satan

Shit gets creepy. . .

Abby lasted about 10 minutes into the hour-long show.  Alayna, about 20.  As it turns out, dim lights and six-foot versions of something they see on television practically every day equates to pure, bone-chilling terror.

. . . so, funned out with Sea World after a hefty hour and ten minutes, we decided to head home.

(Kris loves Sea World.)

- Brian