Day 1

Our original plan was to stop in St. Joseph, Michigan on the first day to break up the driving and give the kids something fun to do after a long drive. As I was doing some last minute research I saw that a place called Conner Prairie had free admission for military in during the summer. It was just outside of Indianapolis and looked so awesome that we changed plans so we could do that instead. We arrived there Sunday afternoon after an uneventful drive up. It was really hot that day with a well deserved heat advisory which probably kept the crowds down. The place was just as awesome as I expected and maybe even more so. They have several different historical areas to explore along with a science area, craft area, museum, water playground, and more. This place had it all. We didn't have anywhere near enough time to explore it all. We did most of the prairie area which housed old buildings and costumed historians. It was the prairie version of Colonial Williamsburg. It wasn't as pretty because the people on the prairie weren't as rich but the historians were very friendly and wonderful. When we walked in we had the option of doing an adventure there. The scenario I picked up randomly was us traveling west to a new life and our wagon broke down which caused our oxen to run away. There were numerous cards with tasks on them ranging from finding food and water to meeting the mayor. The very first and only card I read had us looking for the oxen. Bohdin walked into every place he could find and asked if they had seen his oxen. Not a one of them had a clue what he was talking about since they were playing townfolk who had no knowledge of our wagon incident. They were all very helpful and did offer suggestions. Bohdin went on a wild goose or oxen chase through town looking for those oxen. We finally found them on our way out of town. Nyla was getting hot and crabby so we headed over to the Civil War area which also has a water play area and an indoor play area. Since it was so hot the idea of a water cannon sounded pretty good but to get to it we had to walk through the indoor play area which housed a train table and western themedPlaymobil. The kids were in heaven and started to play right away. We finally coaxed them away to the outdoor area which they also loved. There wasn't time to do anything much after that so they just played Playmobil a bit longer.
After Conner Prarie we headed north into Michigan. It was a long boring drive. The original goal was to make it to Grand Rapids but we were too tired of being in the car and stopped at Kalamazoo instead. Cora was good except for the last one mile.

I asked the kids what they liked about Conner Prarie.
Bohdin - I liked playing at the water cannons. I liked building the Playmobil fort but I'm sad that I didn't get to play with it.
Nyla - I loved the Playmobil! And I did like the water guns.