River Place is a pretty little section of boutique shops. There’s about 40 shops, little streams, water fountains, a courtyard with family outdoor games such as bean toss and ladder ball and beautiful flower gardens. We used to love to go there for this fun zone called the Beehive Foam Ball Factory that was loaded with foam balls. You could climb and shoot the foam balls from these guns and it was basically ball-a-palooza. Sadly, it closed a few years ago. It was like this place: http://www.nobleleisure.com/foam.php.

Usually we go to the candy and popcorn shops and the mirror maze. We’ve never spent more than a day any other time we’ve visited. Anyway, the kids wanted to get back to swimming, so we didn’t go to those places this time. We bought Ally a couple of t-shirts (One said I love Frankenmuth and another one said I love dance) and Matthew and Miranda a toy each as souvenirs. I got a straw hat with a fabric tie. Zachary decided to pass on a souvenir. I don’t blame him. Could we be more tourist-y?

They had a Cass River encampment when we were there which was interesting. LOL Basically, it’s a historical re-enactment. I caught the musket firing which was great.

The amazing thing is that there were huge arcades in River Place and in our hotel and none of our kids even asked to go there. Hurray!