Christmas in July

Monday, July 29, 2024

We didn’t post anything yesterday because we have been busy visiting with friends as we have been traveling. It’s been great to move around at a pace where we can make contact with some of our RVing friends. We thank them for welcoming us into their homes and taking the time to visit with us.

When we last posted we were back in Middlebury after visiting Indiana Dunes. We then drove to the Detroit area and then began making our way north. Today we stopped at Frankenmuth, Michigan and visited Bronner’s, “the largest Christmas store in the world”. The store was pretty amazing and if we were not full time RVing, we would have probably been even more interested in all the great Christmas items, but our actual favorite thing about that visit was all the things outside the store. There is a beautiful chapel and several Nativity settings around the property. So nice to see.

Bronner’s Christmas Wonderland. We appreciate the way they spell CHRISTmas and the message on their sign.

The Silent Night Chapel was one of our favorite features

There are several signs leading up to the chapel, each containing the lyrics of the song in several languages.

One of several outside nativity sets

The store sells ornaments for almost every profession and occupation.

There are also ornaments for every field of public safety and branch of military.

We bought an Advent puzzle as a Christmas present to ourselves. There are 24 small boxes of pieces inside the package and we are supposed to only put one little box of pieces together a day for the first 24 days in December. We’ll see.

While in Frankenmuth we also enjoyed the cruise on the Bavarian Belle – a flat bottomed river boat on the Cass River. We had some really good ice cream in fresh made cones and enjoyed walking around all the shops.

The crew has to lower the top part of the smokestacks to cross under the bridge. The smokestacks are just decorative since the boat is now powered by diesel instead of steam.

Using the rope and lever the smokestacks can be easily lowered and raised by one crew member.

The paddle wheel is not just for show. It actually propels the boat. The captain was very skilled with it.

From Frankenmuth we drove to Ludington to get ready for tomorrow. We both enjoy spontaneous travel and today was a good example. Fun day and we would recommend these stops to anyone up this way.

One thought on “Christmas in July”