Road Trip!!

I am totally making a New Year's Resolution this year - be a better blogger!  I started this post and left it floating around the the draft folder.  I could have sworn I posted it!  

Anyhoo.  Weekend before last, we trooped down to Ohio for a fun-filled visit to my brother Terry. 

The luggage inspectors. 

We got to the hotel Friday night in time for adult's only swim at 11.  

We shared a room with Laurie and they'd all gotten there earlier, so the first thing we saw when we came in the room was this giant freakin' toy solider.  

Her & Linda thought it would be funny.  We ended up calling him Laurie's blow-up doll!

Saturday we started out with breakfast & shopping at Cracker Barrel. Then off to the Air Force Museum.  Last time we were there, you had to go onto Wright -Pat AFB to see the Presidential planes and the research / development planes, but they build a new hangar attached to the rest for that stuff.  

All of us, minus one.  Nephew Alex showed up a little later. 

B-2 Spirit

Missiles

Laurie & great-niece Saegan. 

Randy & a mini-Shuttle 

XB-70 Valkyrie - reached Mach 3 (2056 mph!!!) in October 1965.

One of the Air Force Ones. 

MARS station inside (I think) JFK's plane. 

nose art display

MH-53M 

very similar to the CH-53E helo I got to ride in while in the Gulf. 

I loved the lighting on the "pilot".

Ded Bob!

We laughed at this "nose".

Spaceman Randy.

F-15A Eagle 

YC-125B Raider

C-17 Globemaster III 

still can't get over how short those wings look!

After a quick trip back to the hotel for warmer clothes and a stop for dinner, we went to Clifton Mills.  This little place boasts 3.5 million lights and I believe it!  Even just with the view below - I couldn't stop just looking. 

Plus there was a mini-village that you could just keep looking at.  It had the house from The Christmas Story (complete with leg lamp), a drive-in theater, an airport, a fair, a wedding chapel and even a house with a real fire in it.  

 It's a working mill and you could buy flour in the store. 

This guy was singing Rudolph - kind of disturbing! 

They had a 3000+ Santa display that some family has amassed over the years.  

Some of them were truly the stuff of nightmares! 

No.  Just no. 

Light bulbs for eyes??  WHY??? (makes sign of cross)

This would be more effective if the head had been in a freezer....

The gates closed at 9, but they didn't turn the lights off until after 10, so it mostly cleared out not long after we got there at 8:30.  They say every hour on the hour (but we saw it 3 times) the lights go out and there's a light show to a Trans-Siberian Orchestra song.  Stunning!

Robert the Nutcracker doesn't do as much fun stuff as Chuck, 

but he came along for the ride. 

(If you want to see the adventures of Chuck the Skeleton Elf, I posted here)

We drove home Sunday in a lovely snowstorm that ended up dumping 9 inches of snow on us. It only took us maybe an extra hour to get home because we were determined not to stop.  We didn't hit snow until almost Toledo, then followed a semi thru Toledo almost into Detroit, since he was moving along at a good steady clip and we figured if he wanted to change lanes, there must be a good reason, so we'd get over first and let him in.  I was so happy to get home!  

Have you had any fun trips this season?