Don't Give Up The Ship

"Molly, tomorrow we're going to spend all day outside!"

Today we went to Put in Bay!

The boat trip out.

We started the day by visiting the butterfly house.  I will say, it was my idea.  I was anxious because it kind of freaked me out but I thought that once we got in there it would be way better than I was imagining.

Wrong.

Those diabolical beauties kept brushing their evil wings against me when I clearly didn't want to be touched.

Molly's face in this pic perfectly exemplifies what I was feeling the entire time.

 

 So, we will be enjoying butterflies from afar from now on.

We then moved on to explore Perry's cave (much less creepy).  It is the world's largest geode.

She liked being in the geode.

She did not like to feel like we might leave her in the geode.

Then we went on a winery tour.  The wine was not good.  That pretty much sums that up except for a disclaimer:  Molly is drinking a sample of grape juice NOT wine.

 Then we ate ice cream.  Molly has some Moose Tracks, Red Velvet, and Chocolate Cookie Dough decorating her face.

 So, the War of 1812 is like a big deal on this here island.  Specifically the Battle for Lake Erie.  

 These two fired off actual (really old) muskets.  It was very loud and the first time they did it, Molly was fine.  But when they started the second round (showing us the different orders used to aim and fire) Molly recognized the sounds they were making and lost it.  She was not a fan.

These guns would get a bayonet attached to them when the battle got to close.  I didn't know but they are triangular and would typically be stabbed in, twisted and pulled out.  These motions in conjunction with the triangular shape was effective because (1) a triangular wound doesn't heal as well (2) the twist can break bones and (3) when pulled out, it drags your insides out with it.  Because of these they have been banned as weapons of warfare.  Hopefully Molly will be at least a little bit of a history buff, otherwise she's likely to be all like "why did you put that gross boring information on MY blog Mom!?!"

Commodore Perry was the commander of all the ships in the Battle of Lake Erie.  He is everywhere on the island.  This is him.

Behind him is the international peace memorial.  It is the only international peace memorial in a National Park.

You can go to the top.  The platform is at 517 feet and total, it stands just taller than the Statue of Liberty.

She was done taking pictures at this point!

 She was very excited to be heading back home.  A day outside is great but only two little catnaps makes for a crankbutt.

Top deck for the boat trip home.

And...

Molly has this thing:  when she is trying to go to sleep in the car and has trouble doing so, she wants to hold hands.  She just says "Mama" and holds her hand out.  So on many a long car trip, I've got my arm stretched into the backseat to hold hands while she falls asleep.

I can't remove it until she naturally shuffles after she's sleeping.

Many times my arm falls asleep.

But it's so cute.

Sometimes she even rests her head on my hand too.

I just don't want to forget it.