Christmas Vacation!

We got up early Tuesday morning to head off for big After Christmas sales. Actually, Tom and Scott went off to look for great Holiday sales at Home Depot. Tom usually picks up a year's supply of  LED flashlights since they are usually 1/2 off. Also he loves looking for Christmas lights on sale. When they arrived, they found everything on sale with prices marked down, however, the Home Depot staff was not ready for the sale. They did not put the prices into the register, therefore, they could not sell any of the items for the sale prices. And no one could find the manager to approve the sales, so Tom and Scott left.

Meanwhile, I was busy packing the van and we were off to Indy. I do like mixing post Christmas shopping with traveling. You never know what you are going to find in other states and other stores. I was very excited to stop into a Hallmark along the way and stock up on Star Wars ornaments for Tom's tree for next year. All 1/2 off. And Tom found some Christmas lights at Lowes while I was shopping. He was even more excited to visit the huge Cabelas to shop for a rain jacket in W Virginia.  I had picked him up a jacket for Christmas since he really needed one especially for traveling, but he wanted the more expensive Gortex coat. So we stopped in and while he was shopping the kids and I had a great time checking out all the stuffed animals on display. This store is like a wildlife museum with a huge room full of deer, mostly with abnormal antlers, then a large central display of mammals and birds, as well as a huge fish tank of North American fish and turtles, and a shooting range. Lots of fun. We just did not realize we could have brought Cookie in with us. We also stopped along the way outside Columbus, Ohio to our favorite outlet store, The JCPenney Outlet. We have shopped there for many years ever since Tom and I were married. We were looking forward to stretching our legs and stopping for a bathroom break for us and Cookie,  as well as getting some dinner. Sadly, we discovered that the Outlet store has gone the way of many of the Retail stores and it was closed down. Along with most of the stores and restaurants in the entire area. Instead, we pressed on and did not see much in the way of eateries between Columbus and Indy. We were forced to stop in for dinner at a lousy Hardees that managed to screw up our entire order(and we were the only ones in the restaurant).

Finally we made it to our destination-Mark and Linda Seitz Household. We were excited to visit their new house. We all took a tour of the house before settling into our own rooms. And Cookie and their dog, Teddy got to know each other.

On Tuesday we woke up with hopes of venturing outside for a few Holiday activities, like visiting the local German Christmas village and ice skating rink or touring the Indy Zoo Lights. However, the temperatures had dropped to the single digits and the wind chill brought everything down below zero. So we opted for the indoor activities. First we had a wonderful visit with Sarah and Eric. The two had driven down from Fort Wayne for a day visit. We are so excited about their upcoming expected baby girl's delivery in February. I had brought along a small gift for Baby Claire's room-some pictures to match their decor, so we swapped gifts. Eric presented us with a lovely photo album of a collage of Seitz Family vacations. Thanks again Eric and Sarah! After an egg and sausage crock pot breakfast, as well as some tasty cinnamon rolls, we were ready to start our day. The whole family decided to catch the Jumanji  movie and we really loved it.  And we enjoyed a huge bucket of popcorn and cup of soda with a Star WArs theme(we are still trying to get to that movie!).

After our movie, we headed over to Bubs for their Burgers. They serve a Big Ugly 1 pound burger for the brave. We were not that hungry, so we opted for soup and sandwiches. And while we waited for dinner we enjoyed playing a card game called Spot It. (I liked it so much, I bought a game for us and one for my workplace on the way home at Meijers!). After dinner we all went our own way. Eric and Sarah had a pit stop at their Grandpas for some computer work and then were driving back to Ft Wayne. Sarah will be heading back to Mark and Linda's in January to celebrate her Baby Shower. We enjoyed our driving tour around Carmel and Woodfield, looking at all the shops and Christmas lights and closed ice skating rink and German Christmas village(cause it was so cold!)

On Thursday we decided it was still too cold to venture outside, so we opted for a visit to the Indy Car Show in the downtown Convention Center. Mark dropped us all off at the door and before he could park and join us, we obtained free tickets into the show from one of the employees. Sweet! This was not a huge car show, but we had plenty to keep us busy. We all went in different directions. I was mostly interested in any new options in car styles as well as technology in the  Ford and Toyota models. We also stopped at the Ford display and picked up a credit for  $50 Gift Cards when we stop into a Ford dealership for a test drive. Allison and I will be off driving Ford products soon!  We also enjoyed the Ford robot presentation, although it was a bit corny! We spent a few hours checking out the cars and then walked through the downtown Indy indoor mall. All the buildings are connected by elevated walkways, so we stayed nice and warm. We enjoyed some after Holiday shopping, and then headed over for dinner at Buca De Beppo's Italian restaurant. I really enjoy this place. The food is served family style and they decorate the entire restaurant in crazy Italian photos and knick knacks(including the Pope Table) which was already reserved. But we sat and enjoyed our pasta, antipasta appetizer and bread with a little difficulty managing the tongs and the large salad. After cleaning up salad from the table with a lot of laughs, we packed up our leftovers and headed home. Mark gave us a wonderful driving tour of Downtown Indy and the Christmas lights on the way home.

We also entertained ourselves at Mark and Linda's with a puzzle and a few games of large Jenga. And before we left, the guys went off to one of Tom's other favorite stores, Fry's electronics. Again, another unfortunate shut down. Actually, the store was open, but instead of all the wonderful tech stuff, it was filled with "As Seen On TV" paraphenalia. Too sad. But it was time to head back to Maryland. The weather was turning for the worst, and Mark and Linda had more guests on the way. On Friday we packed up and headed to Dayton Ohio for a little tour of the Air and Space Museum. We stopped into a few Costco Warehouses since I was on the hunt for another pair of wonderful boots for Allison and I, as well as my Walking Dead comic books. I bombed out at both stores on the way home. And we got hung up at Buffalo Wild Things since the service was incredibly slow. So w

e only had an hour left before it closed, which was plenty of time to visit Tom's B2 Northrop Grumman bomber. The facility has a 4 hangars full of aircraft and rockets and they just added another whole hangar. We walked through a Presidential Air Force One from the Kennedy era as well as a mock up of the space shuttle. I could not believe how huge the space shuttle is, but the living quarters are just at the very front of the ship and not too big. Enough room to sit and operate the ship, some storage space and a bathroom and some hammocks for sleeping quarters. The rest of the ship is all for cargo. Although our visit was short, it was very exciting and we saw quite a bit, but the place was closing and we discovered it had started snowing. Right on time and pretty hard.

According to the weather radar, it looked like we could out run it, somewhere past Columbus. Unfortunately, the storm was moving faster than us. We could no longer see the freeway, and there were lots of trucks and cars on the road(all over the road). So Tom thought it would be better if we stopped for the night. Allison found us a Home 2 Suites hotel room with 2 queen beds that took dogs. Perfect. It was just north of Columbus in a town called Dublin. And a great price! Just $93 for the night. We have stayed at the Home Suites before and really like the modern look and large area. It actually feels like staying at an IKEA. The only down side was that we had to pay $100 for Cookie! We figured it would have cost us more than that if we had boarded Cookie, but we also felt like we deserved another room! Well, at least we were warm and dry and not out on the road. For a very short time. Tom was adamant that we were going to go see the new Star Wars movie. And we had all evening open. So we headed out in the snowstorm after settling into our room, as well as giving Cookie a quick walk and her dinner. We also were interested in dinner, but did not have a lot of time to eat and get to the nearest movie theater. We found a theater with food and reclining seats and the show was already sold out! In a snow storm!  So we drove to another movie theater, less crowded and with reclining seats, less exciting food, but something to eat and settled in for the 2.5 hr long movie. At least we had popcorn. And we loved the movie. But there was a lot to take in, so we may have to go out and see it again before it leaves the theaters. We headed back to our hotel and drove through the adorable town of Dublin, Ohio, all dressed up in Christmas lights and fluffy snow on a large river and no humans. We decided we would have to give it a quick visit on Saturday morning on our way home.

So on Saturday morning we were up, packed, cleaned the snow and ice off the van and headed over to the Starbucks in Dublin after the snow plows came through and salted the streets. Dublin has a cute statue of a large frog-apparently they put on a yearly frog jumping contest in Dublin(when it is much warmer I'm sure!). Then we dropped into one of my favorite stores, Meijers. We loaded up on 2 liter bottles of Diet Vernors and Diet Squirt(we don't have those large sizes in Maryland and it was on sale!), looked over the post Christmas items on sale and picked up a few things and then were back on the road. We also stopped back into Cabelas on the way home and this time took Cookie in for a walk about. Everyone in the store had to stop and pet her. We decided we should pick up some winter boots for Scott in preparation for going off to Western next Fall. We also stopped into Hagerstown, MD on the way home to pick up a few pizzas from Papa Murphy's so we would have something for dinner after unpacking the car.

Overall it was a rather short trip, but very enjoyable and we loved visiting with the Seitz Family. Thank you so much for hosting us at your beautiful new home Mark and Linda!