Vacation Day 4 - Boats, Imagination, and some great food

Just stopping in today?  Check on Day1, Day 2, and Day 3 of our vacation first!

The boys woke up at about 8:00 - we expected them to sleep later but I think sleeping in the same bed kinda kept that from happening.  We took the boys down to Breakfast . . .that was an experience to say the least.  They did enjoy the cereal . . . and donuts :-) 

The first thing we headed out to do was  the Canal Experience.  I had read about it online and one of the main reasons we wanted to go is because it has an original working lock that they take you through on the boat that is drawn by mules, just like it was way back when.  When we arrived, we almost didn't get on the boat.  Come to find out, this is prime school field trip time so the boat was technically full based on coast guard capacity but the nice lady selling tickets let us go anyway . . .she didn't count the kids putting the boat at just one over capacity.  We were worried that it would be crowded but, because it was all little kids, there were tons of empty seats so it was no big deal. 

Notice the difference in the two faces above??  For whatever reason, Nate did NOT want to go on the boat.  He stood there saying over and over again "No boat mama no boat".  Josh, on the other hand, LOVED it!  Darryl was actually getting up to get off the boat with Nate as they shut the door; thankfully he stopped crying and just buried his head into Darryl's shoulder.  As soon as we got off the boat, he was his happy self.  I have no idea why he hated it but he did. 

Once we left the metropark, we headed back into the city for lunch.  We decided to have lunch at Tony Packo's, a "famous" Hungarian Hot Dog and Chili place.  If you are a M*A*S*H fan, you may even remember Tony Packo's being talked about by Klinger.  The food was fabulous.  Darryl got the Chili Mac and I got their famous Paprika Chicken. Oh wow.  It was fantastic food.  Instead of pasta, they put the chili and chicken on top of homemade little dumplings.  We also got a hot dog but neither one of us were fans - they were the tough skin type of dogs and that really isn't the kind we love :-)  The kids inhaled their hot dogs and fries though :-)  We will go back to this place to eat when we go back to Toledo :-)  We were too hungry to take photos :-)

After lunch we went to The Imagination Station - a great Children's Hands on Museum. Now, there is a little story behind this.  Back when I taught school, we took our students to COSI - a huge hands on science institute in Toledo.  When we started planning out trip we planned it around COSI . . ..about a week before we left, I discovered that COSI closed in 2007!  Talk about frustration.  It took me a few more days to actually figure out that The Imagination Station had moved in and had taken over COSI.  I'm so glad that we went.  There was a whole toddler area where our boys played for over 2 hours - they loved it.  We never even saw any other part of the museum.

 Once we could drag the kids away from the museum ;-), we headed to dinner.  This dinner was our "fancy" dinner - some place really nice more for Darryl and I.  The downside is that we were still pretty full from lunch!.  One of the unique things about about some of the Ohio State Parks is that they have added really nice resorts with great restaurants.  We went to Maumee Bay State Park  and ate dinner at the Water's Edge Restaurant.  Wow, such great food.  Darryl and I both got Perch Sandwiches.  Talk about good!  After dinner, we drove around the park to see the beach and the trails - talk about a nice place.  Darryl and I want to go back and stay one of these days.  Again, no photos - we were tired . . and just enjoying some family time.

By the time we got back to the room, it was late so the boys went "right" to bed.  We thought we had the bed pretty well set up but Nate fell off the foot of the bed in the middle of the night.  He cried for a few minutes while Darryl held him but then just wanted to get back in bed and go to sleep. 

This was a fantastic day :-)  The food was great and the playtime was even better!

Day 5 + the weekend will post tomorrow - there won't be a recipe post this week since I  haven't cooked many new recipes lately :-)  I'll get back to that post next week!