It always seems like we spend so much time preparing for a trip and then before we know it the trip has come and gone. That’s how our last trip to Minnesota and Michigan went. The Wiktors had a pretty busy summer and we were looking forward to the time together and with our families. Even if the vacation passed in the blink of an eye, at least we have lots of photos to remind us of the fun times together.
We started our trip in Rochester to celebrate Susan & Kim’s wedding. Despite the anxiety over the weather forecast it turned out to be a lovely afternoon. Susan looked beautiful and it was such a fun and happy day. Sophia was the flower girl and to say she was thrilled is an understatement. She was so excited to carry her flowers and even hammed it up for some photos.
After the wedding celebration we headed to Minneapolis to spend some time with my family. Our first full day in the cities was spent at The Great Minnesota Get-Together. I’m not a huge fair person, but it’s hard to pass up The Minnesota State Fair seeing as it’s the largest in the country. Heck, I’m sure most people go just for the huge buckets of cookies you can buy from Sweet Martha’s Cookies, or for the dozens of varieties of fried food on a stick you can find there. In addition to eating our way through the fair we made sure to visit many of the animal barns. Sophia even got to pet a pig named Charlotte. The pig was much more nervous than Sophia was about the encounter. We also visited the “Kidway” and let Sophia and Will go on some rides. I went on the Ferris wheel with Sophia and then she chose to go on the monster trucks with her Uncle John. He was probably the perfect pick to accompany her on the monster trucks. Sophia said this was her favorite part of the fair! Our final day of playing tourist in Minneapolis involved a trip to the Minnesota Children’s Museum. The feature exhibit was Thomas the Train which Will was thrilled about. He spent most of the morning hovering around the train table while hoarding all the trains and saying, “choo, choo!”
After nearly a week in Minnesota we continued our travels making our way to Michigan for the second part of our trip. We hadn’t seen Phil’s grandma since Sophia was a baby (which means she hadn’t met Will) so the trip was long overdue! Other than catching up with family and eating some pierogies we didn’t have much on our agenda for the trip. John, Janet and Mary were great hosts and had lots of ideas of fun things for the kids to do during our visit. We spent one day at Greenfield Village in Detroit wandering the old time streets and checking out the old trains and cars there. Sophia and Will also took their first carousel ride. As I mentioned, we were sure to get some Polish food during our time with Grandma. I couldn’t convince Sophia to try the pierogies but they both loved the kielbasa! We spent our final morning at Eastern Market in downtown Detroit. Too bad we weren’t staying in Michigan longer because the kids loved snacking on all the apples and peaches as we strolled through the stalls.
Once we left Michigan our Midwest trip was nearly over. We returned to Minneapolis for less than 24 hours before we caught our final flight back to SoCal. During our last night in Minnesota we took the kids to do one of my favorite things – a walk on the parkway exploring Minnehaha Creek. Everything is so green in the Midwest this time of year. The perfect end to a pretty perfect vacation.
