Life as a Yowler

Today started out with a ton of wind. We could hear it blowing from our hotel room. We are right by Lake Superior. Lake effect wind is no joke.  We chose to not let it stop us. We came a day early to do some sightseeing things. Brandon didn’t have to train today.

We ate a quick breakfast. Then we went and toured a mansion. It was called Glensheen Mansion. It was really cool to see, however they had one main rule…..don’t touch anything. We had one biff from Caed right into a chair. Luckily no one saw. Joah made sure to yell though “oh Caed! You weren’t supposed to touch that chair!” We also had one grump of an 18 month old who didn’t understand the concept. I ended up holding her as she squirmed and threw fits, so that was a lot of fun. This was all during the self-guided tour. I was really worried about the guided one. As soon as it started, she was an angel. Guess she just needed some other adults to pretend to be sweet to.

We first toured the carriage house.

Then the inside of the mansion.This picture was taken during the self-guided portion of the tour, as you can see from Isla.

The wind had really picked up by the end of the tour. The waves were enormous. This picture doesn’t even begin to do it justice. We wanted to at least walk down and see Lake Superior and get a couple pictures. We were so so cold. I had to cut pictures short and grab Isla, who was literally about to blow away.

Next we headed to lunch. The restaraunt offered wiki stix to each kid instead of crayons with the kids menu.  How brilliant is that? I have never been to a restaraunt that offered anything other than crayons. The wait for the food went so much faster, as all the kids were entertained and creating.

After lunch, we headed to The Great Lakes Aquarium. It did not disappoint. There was so much to see.

Isla kept saying “hot!”

Caed loved the alligators.They had three different touch pools.

The jellyfish were the highlight. They were so cool.

There was a really fun forest play area.

By the time we finished at the aquarium, the weather was terrible. The wind was unreal and it was starting to snow too. Brandon braved the wind and ran out and pulled the van up so we didn’t all need to run accross the parking lot. He came and walked kids two at a time to the van. He even took his sweatshirt off and shielded Isla from the wind. It would have taken her breath away. Joah and Isla went first. After Brandon came back he, myslef, Brielle, and Caed went next. I was carrying the stroller and diaper bag. I picked up about 5 active minutes on the Apple Watch from that walk alone. Brandon was leading kids. Like a scene from a movie the wind all the sudden grabbed Caed. He flew and smacked into the van. I was thankful it was there to stop him from blowing further. Poor little guy was hysterical. We thought he broke a leg or smacked his head on the van. We finally got out of him what happened. He dropped his little tiny alligator and stingray he had just picked out from the gift shop. Brandon, like a true hero, ran back inside the aquarium. The people working the desk saw what happened. They were worried Caed was hurt bad. Brandon explained that he just lost his animals and was only tramatized from that. They didn’t even charge us for new ones.

Dad saved the day.

We decided to cut our day short for obvious reasons. The drive back to the hotel was so icy, windy, and scary. The rest of the night will be spent indoors relaxing, swimming, staying warm, and not blowing away. I think it’s safe to say Brandon and I are more than safe from blowing away, but we were thinking of the kids. 🤣