Our Michigan Vacation

We had such a good time it is hard to know where to start. We arrived in Chicago Tuesday morning and after getting lost and spending a lot of money on the toll roads driving back and forth we finally found the Children's Museum. Rebekah and Kara enjoyed the construction area (although in the case of Kara this usually equates to destruction) and building things with Dad. There was also a "dinosaur dig" that Rebekah enjoyed, a miniature town, and a little shop where we got freeze-dried ice cream.



After the Children's Museum, we spent a few minutes on Navy Pier but quickly moved on because it was cold. We spend the afternoon driving around and made our way to the Frank Lloyd Wright house. Unfortunately they were closed but we walked around the neighborhood and saw several houses he designed. We headed out of town, spent the night at a random hotel then woke up the next morning and continued our drive to Dearborn and The
Henry Ford. What an American treasure! This place is truly
unbelievable. There are two parts to the place: Greenfield Village
and a traditional museum.


The Village has a working town with a blacksmith, candle maker, printing press, farm, etc. The picture on the right is the transplanted farm that Harvey Firestone grew up on in Ohio. They had sheep, horses, pigs, women cooking lunch on a traditional stove, etc. Kara especially liked the sheep.







The building on the left is one that Edison used to run experiments, transplanted from New Jersey by Henry Ford. Edison and Ford were friends and supposedly greatly enjoyed each other's company.





We had so much fun at Greenfield Village that the next day we returned after taking a tour of the Ford F-150 plant and the museum. During our trip Kara discovered that taking off her shoes and socks was a lot of fun (much to our annoyance). At one point she was so tired, she leaned over to play with her shoes and fell asleep in that position. Poor girl. They were both troopers and Rebekah walked around with us for hours without complaining. She did fall and scrape her chin which made her rather crabby for a couple of hours but she recovered. Scott and I really enjoyed the history and sites of the area. We would recommend it to anyone wanting to know more about our wonderful country and its history. It is even better than Williamsburg!









On Friday, we decided to head up to Frankenmuth, a tourist town that is all about Germany. We did not have much time there but we did visit several candy and fudge stores. We ate at a German restaurant and, of course, had brats. They have a several acre Christmas store filled with more decorations than anyone could possibly need. Kara loved all the lights and sounds.





After all our running around we actually did go to Andy and Allisa's wedding. It was, of course, beautiful. Rebekah was the flower girl and Kara and Claire entertained everyone during the rehersal.