Last night we returned from our trip to Santa Claus. I knew it was going to be a long drive, but with lots of anticipation, and some preperation, off we went. Mike took a half vacation day, and the boys both have study hall last hour, so they got out of school an hour early so we could set off as early as possible. We arrived very late Friday night. Mike - God Bless Him - parked the camper without much effort in the dark, in an unfamiliar place. We decided that Saturday would be our relaxing day. I had been looking forward to visiting the Christmas store, so off we went for an afternoon of shopping bliss - for me, Mike smiled, watched my pleasure and tolerated the trip. We went first to the Kringle Place shopping center (big parking lot with about a dozen shops). I was expecting a Bronners type store - huge, overflowing with all imaginable things Christmas. I was disappointed by the 3 room store, although I am sure most people would have been impressed by that. We turned one corner and just about ran over Santa as he was going back to have his picture taken with some children. I hope since we only almost ran over him he didn't put me on the naughty list! The boys emphatically refused to get their picture taken with the Jolly Old Elf. We went to the Santa Claus Museum - of the town, not the person. Driving around we found the Candy Castle and drank the speciality - frozen hot chocolate. I then asked Mike to find the downtown so we could bask in the charm of a small town with such a cool theme. Mike looked at me and told me that he had asked around and there is no uptown. Just the shopping center. What a let down. I told him we need to move there so I can join the city council and make that small town something worthy of it's name, a destination. Unfortunately, he does not want to commute hours and hours every day to go to work. SIGGGHHH. Sunday we went to the Holiday world amusement park, located next to our campground. I had packed a small cooler of drinks to find out that all over this park are "oasis" stations of complimentary soft drinks. They also had sunscreen stations with free sunscreen. The campground had free mini golf. I was unused to all this good will!!! Mike and Steve found great roller coasters. We also had family friendly rides that we all rode. The boys all went to the water park for the huge water slides and a water roller coaster. We still had lots of fun, even if I had made this trip into something bigger than it turned out to be. I'm glad we went.