Traveling with the Schroeders -- Disney 2024

Not a bad place for some reading.

Schroeder Vacation, Part 4 -- Western Michigan: Binder Park Zoo

The final stop on our vacation was Binder Park Zoo just outside of Battle Creek, Michigan.  Binder Park Zoo focuses mainly on animals from Africa, although other animals (e.g., kangaroos and wallabees) were also there.

Binder Park Zoo was a pleasant surprise for us.  Especially cool was a large, open place where giraffes, ostriches, zebras, addax, and some other animals roamed about freely.  Peter also got to feed the giraffes.  Trails around the park allowed us to see many animals which also roamed pretty freely.

Here are some photos.

Schroeder Vacation, Part 3 -- Western Michigan: South Haven

After four nights at Hoffmaster State Park, we moved on to the KOA south of South Haven.  We had hoped to enjoy some sunsets on Lake Michigan, but clouds tended to roll in later in the day.  In South Haven, we had our chance.

Our first night, however, had strong storms blow through.  The jacks which held up our camper did a great job keeping us upright.  The camper rocked, but it never seemed to be in danger of getting tipped.  Some of the trees in the campground were not so lucky.  Thankfully, no one had their camper or car crushed by any branches or trees.

On the second night, we finally got our sunset -- sort of.  We walked down to the lighthouse later in the day, but we had not had any supper.  We hoped to grab something and still have time to walk down to the lighthouse and watch the sun go down.  The short version -- we got quite delayed getting our food.  We returned to the lakefront in time to see the late strains of sunlight which still offered some beautiful views.

Here are some photos from South Haven.

Schroeder Vacation, Part 2 -- Western Michigan: Holland

One day of our vacation took us to Holland, Michigan.  We visited Windmill Island Gardens.  If you go, pay close attention to the sign which indicates the entrance to the park.  We drove past it twice.  Heavy rains left Windmill Island a bit underwhelming as they prohibited the blooming of many tulips (these bloom in May, so we would have missed them anyway) and left portions of the park covered in water.  In addition, COVID-19 restrictions had a few of the venues closed.  The most disappointing closure was the tour of their full-size, working windmill.  They also did not have the demonstration of the wooden-shoe making and a few other buildings.  The grounds were still nice to walk around, even if it was not quite the display they are used to.

After that, we went to Nelis' Dutch Village.  After confirming that we could bring Faith's dog, Radon, into the grounds, we enjoyed the Dutch Village for quite a few hours.  Besides having buildings, canals, and bridges that reflect the Netherlands, there were also some amusement rides.  Peter especially like the pirate-themed balloon launch where people could sling-shot water balloons at each other.  Peter was on the losing end of most of these battles.  But since it was a pretty warm day, I think he appreciated the soaking.

Here are some photos from Holland.

Every photo above is from Windmill Island Gardens.

All photos which follow are from Nelis' Dutch Village.

Schroeder Vacation, Part 1 -- Western Michigan: Muskegon

The end of June took some of the Schroeder family to western Michigan for a week of vacation.  We had hoped for a longer trek, but COVID-19 restrictions and concerns kept us close to home.  And while we did not get to travel far, we did get to explore parts of the state that we had not really visited before.  Having lived in Michigan now for only 24 years, we finally got to visit something new in such places as Muskegon, Holland, and South Haven.  

Our trip could be summed up in one blog post, but photographs demand that I break this up into 3 or 4 entries.  The first entry will focus on Muskegon and, in particular, the USS Silversides Museum.  Besides touring the submarine USS Silversides, there is a WWII museum.  If you go, plan on taking a few hours to read through all the history of WWII documented there.  It focuses mainly on action in the Pacific Theater, but there is a timeline that covers everything leading up to WWII and in more detail from events from 1941-1945.  

In addition to touring the USS Silversides submarine, they also had a Coast Guard vessel to walk through.

Muskegon has more to offer, but we limited ourselves to the museum for one day.  While it was worth the visit, we found it pretty hard to find.  The signs directing us were somewhat sparse, and we often wondered if we were on the right track.  Once we failed to decipher a particular direction and took a wrong turn (we blamed an arrow which pointed neither straight nor to the left, but in between those directions, and we guessed wrong).

For the particularly adventurous, you are able to sleep overnight on the USS Silversides.  We were not that adventurous, opting for a much more comfortable night's sleep at Hoffmaster State Park.  Here are some photos.

Traveling with the Schroeders -- Kentucky

Last week, we headed down to Kentucky for part of a week of vacation.  A comedy of errors (okay, crippling frustrations) prevented us from doing all we had hoped to do.  We did manage to do one of the main things we were gunning for which was going to Mammoth Cave National Park.  We did the Domes and Dripstones tour.  It would have been nice to do another tour and to spend more time there, but the comedy of errors resulted in us getting a later jump on the day than we had hoped for.

The next day, we lounged around our campground at Big Bone Lick State Park.  That involved sleeping in, reading at the camp site, swimming, and visiting the museum at the campground which boasts many fossils, salt / mineral springs, and a bison herd.

On the way back, since we had about 2 hours to do it, we stopped at the Wright Patterson Air Force Museum in Dayton, Ohio and walked through a few of the hangars.  The museum is free, and it would have been nicer to spend a few more hours there, but as the schedule demanded, we got back on the road to get home by Thursday evening.

Here are some photos from the trip.  Enjoy.