A really great option for a staycation with the kids is the Great Wolf Lodge up by Kings Island in Mason. Occasionally sales are run and we were able to stay on a Sunday night when the kids were out of school on Monday, maximizing the savings. The indoor water park was obviously a huge hit with our kids, but we also spent time at the arcade and miniature golf.

Mediterranean Hummus

When it came time for dinner we headed to the built in Lodge Wood Fired Grill. My wife and I split a couple of items. First was the Mediterranean Hummus with extra virgin olive oil, paprika, feta cheese, and olive tapenade, served with grilled flatbread and vegetables ($9). This was a very generous portion of hummus and the addition of feta cheese was a bonus. Overall a very solid starter.

Chopped Barbeque Chicken Salad

Our other item was the chopped barbeque chicken salad with greens, fire-roasted corn, green onions, black beans, crisp fried jalapenos, cilantro, pepperjack cheese, barbeque sauce, crisp onion strings, and ranch dressing ($14.50). This was a very large salad and would be a lot for a single person. The ingredients were fresh and the combination of spicy and sweet flavors really worked well.

Kids Burger

Our son enjoyed his kids cheeseburger with fries and fruit. And our daughter really liked the spaghetti with giant meatball, veggies, and fruit. Both items were $6 and included a drink.

Kids Spaghetti

Overall the Lodge Wood Fired Grill was a great dining option while staying at the Great Wolf Lodges. Their prices were mostly on par with what you would find at comparable restaurants outside of the resort. Our service was fast and friendly.

Another stop we made during our trip to South Haven was to the Idler Riverboat Bar & Grill for lunch. There was a decent crow there upon our arrival shortly after noon, but we were immediately shown to a table on the open air top deck.

Outside Dining

The view from the top deck is pretty awesome. My kids loved watched the boats pass by on their way to and from Lake Michigan. My wife and I also enjoyed the view while sampling the S.H.I.T. or South Haven Iced Tea (similar to a Long Island, $8) and a Bell’s Two Hearted Ale.

View

If there are fried green tomatoes on the menu, chances are I am going to give them a try. The Idler offers a fried green tomato BLT that adds hickory smoked bacon, romaine, and a roasted garlic Parmesan mayonnaise ($9.25 with chips). The tomatoes themselves were really good, thick cut and golden fried. I would have liked to see a thicker cut bacon as well, but the flavor there was good. Overall it was a good sandwich.

Fried Green Tomato BLT

My daughter had the kids peanut butter and jelly ($3.95) which was actually the same size as my own sandwich. No complaints from the little one though, and she did her best to eat it all.

Peanut Butter & Jelly

My wife went with their award wining Jamaican Me Crazy sandwich that combines a jerk chicken salad with cranberries, something called holy trinity (Cajun spice), mixed greens, mango chutney, and Parmesan on a roll ($10.95). There was a lot going on with the sweet flavors of this sandwich but we both thought it was very good!

Jamaican Me Crazy

My son had the grilled cheese again served with chips ($4.95). This was another large serving for our elementary aged kids, but he did his best to polish it off. The chips were not to his picky palate as they were a salt and pepper mix. Keep that in mind for the little ones.

Grilled Cheese

Overall we had a solid dining experience while aboard the Idler Riverboat and would happily return for another lunch on the deck. And if inside dining is more of your thing, they also offer seats inside, though during our visit the dockside room was completely empty. The weather was just too nice to be inside!

Dockside Bar

The Play Library has been open for half a year in their new spot in Over-the-Rhine, 1517 Elm Street. For a monthly fee, the Play Library lends out games and toys. What started as a popup shop near Findlay Market has proven to be popular enough to fill their own permanent location.

Pop The Pig

The space is also available for families to drop in and play with the toys for absolutely no fee at all. If you want to take some home, memberships are available starting at $15 per month.

Dolls

There are so many choices available and run the spectrum from babies all the way to adult oriented games. It seemed that there were hundreds of options available and there is definitely something for everyone.

So Many Choices

If there location were any closer to home I would consider giving the membership a try. With that said I’m sure my family will stop by to play in the store from time to time.

Last week I was treated to a tour of the Servatii Commissary thanks to Yelp’s Baked & Brewed series.

Welcome

Nearly everything sold in their thirteen pastry shops is made in this central commissary, including cakes, cookies, donuts, breads, and more. It is then sorted onto carts destined for each location and delivered in the early morning hours.

Delivery Ready

Pretzel Donuts

3lb Sesame Pretzel

Bread Loaves

Wilhelm Gottenbusch opened the first Servatii store in 1963 just down the street from where I currently live. He quickly made a name for himself by focusing on quality ingredients and products. With the help of his two sons, Servatii has been growing ever since. Fortunately both Wilhelm and his son Greg were there to lead us on a tour through their entire building.

Cake Decorating Room

Melted Chocolate

Dipping Donuts

Pumpkin Donuts

Along the way we got to see many of their employees actively working to prepare some of the finest baked goods around. Though the highlight of the trip might have been seeing the donuts be fried, glazed, dipped, and decorated. We were also treated to some donuts fresh off of the line!

Glazing Donuts

Pretzel Donut

Drizzling Icing

Seeing all of this work being done, so much of it in very traditional ways, makes you really appreciate the end products even more than before. And to top it all off our hosts gave us a very generous sampling of their goods to take home. Thanks Servatii and Yelp!

Gift Bag

My family has made it to the point where more than eight or nine hours in the car while driving to or from a vacation is long enough. So we have started stopping for the night at various places along the way. On the way back from Gulf Shores this summer we stopped near Mammoth Cave to visit Kentucky Down Under. It was recommended to me from some family members and I was surprised to have never heard of it before.

Red Kangaroo

The grounds of Kentucky Down Under not only contain the Mammoth Onyx Cave, but they over the years have expanded to include animals from around the world, with an emphasis being placed on Australian species. One of the owners is from Australia and since 1990 kangaroo, dingo, kookaburra, and emu. There are also plenty of more native farm animals, along with wolves, a large bird garden, and several reptiles.

Sulcata Tortoise

The coolest part is easily walking through the kangaroo habitat where you are allowed to pet and feed them. My three-year-old could have followed them for hours. While my five-year-old was much more interested in the giant Sulcata Tortoise that was in the same enclosure.

Mammoth Onyx Cave

Mammoth Onyx Cave is included with admission to Kentucky Down Under and all guests are assigned to a 30-minute tour time. I found this to be about the perfect length of time for our family, and I think most other families on our tour would agree. While the temperature is cool (especially on a hot day) the cave can be a little tight and dark in places. Our three-year-old found it the perfect spot to take a nap in the middle of the tour, while our five-year-old enjoyed keeping climbing on his own with a flashlight and looking for salamanders.

Kentucky is well worth a couple hour visit and be sure to check Groupon before you go as we found discount tickets were available, which made our visit even better!

We are back from our week-long vacation in Florida. We are still recovering from some long and hot days but we had an awesome time! First things we did was to visit Walt Disney World, specifically we spent our first day at the Animal Kingdom and followed it up with two days at the Magic Kingdom.

Pretzel Face

Tree Of Life

I figured that Animal Kingdom would be a somewhat relaxing start to the trip after traveling the evening before. We kicked it off with trips on TriceraTop Spin for Kim and our preschool aged kids, while I took my brother-in-law Nick (age 15) on Expedition Everest, Primeval Whirl, and DINOSAUR. The kids also spent some time in The Boneyard right at its opening at 10.

From there we had an early lunch before going to Finding Nemo – The Musical, which was probably my favorite show of the trip. The puppeteers were really good at both singing their parts and working the large puppets. After enjoying the show and the air conditioning, it was time to brave the heat. Fortunately I took the older two (Trey and Nick) on the Kali River Rapids ride while Paige and Kim met Mickey and Minnie. I had made FastPass+ reservations for both so we didn’t have to wait in either of the long lines.

Adventurers Outpost

After our separate events we rejoined to see some of the animal displays at the Maharajah Jungle Trek and Discovery Island Trails before watching the Flights of Wonder bird show. After the show it was time for our FastPass+ reservation on the Kilimanjaro Safaris ride through various animal enclosures. I thought the hippo display was the coolest as I have never seen that many hippos together at one time.

Hippos

Giraffe

Rhinos

We were all very hot by this point of the day, fortunately we had just a few more indoor shows to catch. First was Festival of the Lion King, which the kids really seemed to enjoy. The acrobats dressed as monkeys were huge crowd pleasers and the sing along songs were great to hear. On our way out of the park we stopped by It’s Tough to be a Bug inside the Tree of Life for the short 4D movie featuring the characters from A Bug’s Life. It was a solid day and we managed to see nearly everything the park has to offer before leaving just past 5.

Magic Kingdom

If we thought that our first day was packed full of fun, that was nothing compared to the second day in the parks which brought our first day at the Magic Kingdom. Just as we did the day before, we split into two groups to kick off the day. I took Nick on Space Mountain while Kim took the kids on Astro Orbiter. Making a quick entry to some of the most popular rides rewards you with nearly zero wait time at the beginning of the day.

From there we saw no line for Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin, so we went ahead and did that even though I had a FastPass+ reservation for this for the following day. No problem though as I was easily able to reschedule that for another attraction using the iPhone app. We then did a quick trip on the Tomorrowland Transit Authority PeopleMover while we were in the area before stopping at the Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor, which proved to be a hilarious live comedy show.

Mad Tea Party

Tea Cups

We then took not one but two spins on the Mad Tea Party, which was probably the most enjoyable ride we shared as one group of wide varying ages. As we did each day, we stopped for lunch just before 11 to avoid the crowds that packed the restaurants leading up to noon. We had a little extra time after lunch so we made a quick stop at Prince Charming Regal Carousel to find Cinderella’s Horse.

Cinderella’s Horse

Next we again split into two groups for arguably what was each of our kid’s favorite things we did. I took Trey and Nick on the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train while Kim took Paige to meet Anna & Elsa. Both of these attractions are super popular and are some of the most sought after FastPass+ reservations. I stayed up until midnight 30 days before our trip to get these reservations and I am glad I did. At the time of our visits each one had a wait well over an hour!

Anna

Elsa

From there we watched another 4D movie at Mickey’s PhilharMagic before cooling off at Casey Jr. Splash ‘N’ Soak Station. The fun didn’t stop there as I had another FastPass+ reservation for our group on Peter Pan’s Flight, which I honestly thought was overrated. At this time Paige went down for a nap, so I took the boys into the Country Bear Jamboree show before we watched the Festival of Fantasy Parade.

After the parade we made a quick run over to our last FastPass+ for Under the Sea – Journey of The Little Mermaid. Amazingly I was then able to secure another FastPass+ for it’s a small world just minutes later using my phone. The kids all left the park singing this song as they couldn’t have been any happier. But before we left we took one final ride on the Pirates of the Caribbean to end a jam-packed day.

Mickey Bush

Accomplishing so much on our first day in the Magic Kingdom allowed us to relax a bit on this second day. But before we did that we once again arrived before the rope drop and split into two groups. I took the boys on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. Initially I wasn’t sure if Trey would like the roller coasters as much as he did, but once we did the Seven Dwarfs and he loved it I was pumped to take him on more big rides. The boys liked Big Thunder maybe even more, so we quickly rode it again without any wait! We then walked right onto Splash Mountain before meeting back up with Kim and Paige who had already ridden Aladdin’s Magic Carpets and were busy playing in some of the splashing water nearby.

We then went straight for the Jungle Cruise, and in hindsight maybe we should have skipped the second ride on Big Thunder Mountain, as we ended up waiting roughly 20 minutes for this one, by far the longest we waited for anything in either park we visited. The kids were a little spoiled by that point and nearly melted down in line but we pushed through and enjoyed the comical cruise before grabbing lunch.

Belle

After lunch we had a date with Belle at the Enchanted Tales With Belle on a FastPass+. I almost removed the boys from this one and did something else but I am glad we all went to this, though none of us truly loved it as much as Paige. The audience members get to act out part of the story with Belle and I tried to convince Nick to play the role of the Beast. Maybe next time!

From there we again split up for another round of FastPass+ selections. I couldn’t get any other ride for the boys and I to do, so we went ahead and did Splash Mountain again on the FastPass+ I had originally booked long ago. The girls got to Meet Ariel at her Grotto. Paige added another autograph to her signature book along with a photo. These meet and greets were her favorite thing she did.

Ariel

I guess going under the sea really tired out Paige as when we all met up again she had already fallen asleep for a nap. I had yet another FastPass+ for the Barnstormer for all us, but instead I just took the boys on this smaller scale roller-coaster before we all decided to call it a day and head back to the hotel a bit earlier than the day before. We had debated going over to Tom Sawyer Island or taking a ride on the Liberty Belle Riverboat, but we didn’t wait to wait in line or wake Paige so we will have to save those attractions for another time.

For the most part we saw just about everything that we had wanted to see in a few long days. If the kids were a little older I probably would have tried to take them back to the park for the Main Street Electrical Parade along with the fireworks show, but they don’t often stay up past 8 or 9. Instead we spent the evening relaxing in the resorts outdoor pool and lazy river. The next day we woke up, swam some more, and then headed off to Cocoa Beach for a few more days of fun in the hot sun.

Things have been pretty crazy around here lately. I had a week-long business trip to Denver towards the end of September, sandwiched by an epic run of three weddings. First was Kim’s cousin’s wedding at the Newport Aquarium Saturday night before my trip. The kids sure loved having the aquarium to themselves for the evening.

Family Shot

Frog Bog

The next morning I got up early to catch my flight to Denver in time to make the drive out to Evergreen, Colorado for our friends Rob & Robyn’s wedding. The scenery was amazing and I got to see a lot of old friends throughout the night.

Evergreen, Colorado

Robyn & Rob

After my week of work it was time for Kim’s brother’s wedding back home in Cincinnati. Chip and Emily couldn’t have been any happier and the reception was packed with well over 350 of their closest family and friends.

Emily & Chip

Flower Girl

Wedding Nap

I’m going to do my best to get back to somewhat regular posts. I already have a few restaurant reviews nearly ready to go, so check back soon.

A great place to take the kids when on vacation around Gulf Shores is the Alabama Gulf Coast Zoo. This zoo distinguishes itself from others by offering various animal encounters. You can actually play with baby tigers, though at $50 per person it is a little more than most would likely spend.

Tiger Encounter

The zoo itself is fairly inexpensive, $11 for adults and $8 for kids 3-12. And while it isn’t as large as other zoos I’ve been through, there is enough to easily spend a few hours exploring. There are plenty of big cats, bears, and lots of little critters too.

Baby Macaws

You can definitely get a little closer to many of the animals here at this zoo. We saw some animal shows taking place at various times, and keepers out talking with visitors often.

Caged Family

The lemur encounter was only $10 per person, plus it was free for our two-year-old daughter. My mom was happy to take her inside the cage to pet these primates and get some pictures. There enjoyed playing the lemurs for a good fifteen minutes before moving on to the next exhibit.

Lemur Encounters

The zoo has been open since 1989 and is open year round and has survived many hurricanes, several of which have forced evacuations for most of the animals. During Hurricane Ivan a twelve-foot alligator was lost for a week before being found and relocated back to his caged in pond.

12 Foot Gator

I’m told they are trying to build a new location farther inland and less likely to flood. This facility was announced in 2009 and was supposed to open in 2013 but it has yet to do so. They are now targeting the summer of 2017.

We made a few stops on our way up to Toronto a few weeks back. The first was a visit to the African Lion Safari outside of Hamilton, Ontario and just an hour or so outside of central Toronto. Last year my family and I went through northern Ohio’s African Safari Wildlife Park, and this one is similar to that but even wilder. In addition to the deer, bison, bongo, zebra, and giraffes, the African Lion Safari’s drive through game reserves also feature African lions, cheetahs, and baboons! There is nothing between your car and any of these animals.

Feeding of the animals is not allowed, though one of the cars in front of us was feeding the baboon bananas causing the group to climb all over our cars. This was definitely the highlight of the drive through safari. Though it was also really cool to see the African lions up close and without a cage blocking the view.

After exploring the game reserves we spent even more time taking in the elephant round-up show, looking at the bird aviaries, petting the goats in the petting zoo, and playing in both the jungle playground and Misumu Bay wet play area. The elephant show featured Asian elephants showing their strength, playing sports, and even making a painting that would later be for sale. As much fun as my kids had seeing the animals, they had as much fun in the play areas, even the wet play when the temperature couldn’t have been more than 65 degrees.

We came for the drive through safari but enjoyed the other aspects of the park just as much. In the end we stayed for hours longer than I initially thought we would. With so much to do it is easy to spend the entire day there.

With no posts last week it may have looked like I was on vacation. The truth is that I was just a little busy with St. Patrick’s Day (parade and beer events), March Madness bracket failures, and life in general. Though it would have been nice to have a week off around my birthday, I’m saving my time off for some good trips later this year. I’ll have more on that later and more regular posting too.