We hope everybody has had a fantastic Thanksgiving weekend! We thoroughly enjoyed the sunny, dry stretch we are just now exiting. It's back to gloom today, and our first snow dump since Halloween is underway.
Unlike Michigan's weather, Star Stable isn't jumping on the winter holiday bandwagon quite yet. Instead, they revamped the Hollow Woods area (a perpetual summer forest) with updated graphics and new activities. It's been a hefty, involved update process, or at least Milton (Mom's 7-year old Macbook) thinks so. The last few updates have seriously taxed him, taking a good 25 minutes each at minimum. *Sighs* The time may be coming soon when we can't play Star Stable on Milton anymore. We are dreading that day.
We didn't ride over for the full Hollow Woods experience until Saturday. We quickly met a lovely wild horse named Rune Runner:
Rune Runner guided us to some human NPC's and the heart of the action, a giant runestone:
We then proceeded to catch fireflies until we were weary of the monotony and jerky graphics.
We were excited for the return of the horse bazaar this week, expecting deep discounts in correlation with Black Friday. Star Stable did indeed deeply discount select horses: 50% off! I thought we'd for sure be able to talk ourselves into taking home horse #7.
All of the discounted horses are magical, some more horse-like than others. The idea is that you can then go explore the magical revamped Hollow Woods with a new magical horse.
What's extra cool about these guys is that you sort-of get two horses in one: each has both a magical appearance - the ones you see above - and also a "trying to blend in with the non-magics" disguise that they can toggle between.
Here's my personal favorite, Proteus. He can either be a funky lionfish-horse hybrid:
- he is based off the narcoleptic Appaloosa
- we already have a striped equine
- if we were going to get an Appaloosa, it seems wrong for it not to have spots
- he has no special abilities whatsoever when it comes to riding into/through water, which makes no sense
who likes to masquerade as a horse with the Friesian build:
Here is Bethany's favorite, Faramawr, the green dragon:
The strikes against him:
- when idling, Friesians do a piaffe-like move where the back legs bend in an unnatural position that makes us cringe
- if we were going to get a Jorvegian Friesian, we feel like it should have the long, flowing Friesian mane, not tiny button braids
- he might scare the horses
- it would be hard to come up with a name from Star Stable's very limited options that suits both a green dragon and a clay-colored horse. We tried.
Here is Lily's favorite, Kampos the opalescent seahorse creature:
The strikes against him:
- he has mildly creepy pale eyes as a seahorse
- he is sadly lacking a mane in horse form, and his markings seem rather unrealistic/like a bleach accident
- the gaits of the Star Stable Akhal Tekes are underwhelming
- like the other fish-themed horses, he has no special abilities whatsoever when it comes to riding into/through water, which makes no sense
And here is Julie's favorite, the beautiful blue crystal-studded Ephyra:
There's only one strike against her (since we love the Paso Fino, duns, and sparkles), but it's a big one:
- we just bought Riverrock the Paso Fino in October. For variety's sake, we've so far been avoiding duplicates of the same breed
One more snag: we've heard that these magical animals all appear as their undisguised selves when you enter your stable, regardless of which version you left toggled on previously. Do we really want to see a dragon or hippocamp in a stall every single stable visit? Bethany wouldn't mind in the slightest, but the rest of us aren't so sure...
It is therefore with a heavy heart that I tell you we will likely not be taking advantage of the super tempting discount. We are big fans of magical horses - just ask Tigertin - but nobody in this particular lineup has managed to wow all 4 of us. =(
To end on something happier and a bit more festive, enjoy these photos from Mom's recent visit to Michigan's "little Bavaria," Frankenmuth.
The hotel room itself was not especially Bavarian lodge-esque...
...but the bed was quite cozy...
...and the view out their window was fun. Mom enjoyed hearing peoples' whoops of excitement as they rode these two waterslides, ha ha.
Each room in the hotel is named after a family with historic ties to the area. The one Mom stayed in was named after the Dress family, pictured below.
This central panel, where the family included a portrait of an unnamed deceased child in their group photo, was rather haunting. Luckily, Mom is so nearsighted sans glasses that there was no chance of her being spooked by the old photos overnight.
Mom and fam took a chill cruise down the Cass River on The Bavarian Belle, which used to paddle the Mississippi River back in the day. They bundled up, sat on the top deck, and had a great time despite some intermittent rain.
For supper, they lived it up at Zehnder's, a restaurant famous for its chicken dinners. Mom enjoyed the chicken but was more impressed by the butter noodles and cranberry salad (eaten separately, of course)... and the little plastic animals that came perched on the desserts.
Grandma got an elephant, our great aunt got a monkey, and Mom got a... what is that? Mom's a Taurus, so we'll go with bull.
The star attraction of the whirlwind trip: a stop at Bronner's Christmas Wonderland, a massive Christmas store.
They weren't in the market for a tree, but they still visited the little forest of Christmas trees anyway. That orange one certainly stands out from the crowd. =)
Even though this expedition took place in mid October, not December, Mom and fam had lots of company as they wandered around browsing and admiring all the festive decorations.
They lovingly picked out some new ornaments for various family members. We all know who the horse was for...
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