National Cherry Festival - Day 2

We had all enjoyed our first (partial) day in Traverse City and Kai did very well. But we had a full day of activities planned on Sunday, our only full day at the festival. How would Kai do with all the walking and waiting we had in store?

We had breakfast at a little cafe that overlooked the river. Then we walked over to a craft fair.

My wife loves going to craft fairs, but it is not something that Kai particularly enjoys. This was a particularly large one, spanning several blocks down Union Street. I think Mom tested Kai's limits, but while he got a little grumble-y toward the end, he did not get overly agitated. He even smiled for a photo as we were leaving.

He was really happy, though, when we found a splash park.

He ran around like that for about 20 minutes. It was a perfect way to cool off, both physically and mentally.

After that, we returned to the motel for a pool break. And then it was time to head out to the lakefront to have lunch and watch the air show.

The US Navy Blue Angels were the featured performers. Growing up in Chicago, I had seen the Blue Angels many times over the years, but this would be the first time my wife and Kai would get to see them.

My experience in Chicago has been that the lakefront is extremely packed with literally a million people jamming the area for air shows like these. So I was pleased when we found that there weren't nearly as many folks here in Traverse City. We were able to find a spot to sit on the grass right at the heart of the action.

There were other performers before the Blue Angels would appear. Even these "opening acts" were quite impressive.

Kai wasn't particularly interested, though. After about a half hour, he went into the lake while we waited for the Blue Angels. In the middle of the next photo, you can see him and my wife looking up at some planes while cooling off in the water.

I was a little disappointed that he didn't take more interest in the air show, but not terribly surprised. And going in the lake turned out to be perfect. Kai had a ball swimming and looking for rocks while my wife and I had great, unobstructed views of the airplanes from our position in the water. It was also comfortably cooler standing in the water than sitting in hot sun on the shore.

After the air show, we finally found the open area space of the festival and had our first taste of cherries. Tasty!

We then made our way back to the carnival area. Kai wanted to ride the ferris wheel. He tends to be scared of amusement park rides, even ferris wheels, so it was a sign of progress that he wanted to ride it. He clung to Mom the whole time, but I think he enjoyed it.

We had a great view from the top.

After a short break back at the motel, we went out for dinner and then went over to the cherry store for some scrumptious cherry pie. I had cherry blueberry, my wife had the cherry crumb pie, and Kai had cherry rhubarb. All were very delicious and earned thumbs up!

When we returned to the motel for the night, I checked my phone and saw that we had walked nearly 19,000 steps that day or nearly 7 miles. Kai did not complain at all about all the walking, quite a big change from when we walked around Boston last summer. So it was another great day at the cherry festival. A big thumbs up, not just for the cherries and the pie, but for Kai as well.