Greetings from Michigan,

We arrived in Traverse City, Michigan on Tuesday, July 9. This area is known as the cherry capital of the U.S.  Approximately 70% of the U.S. sour cherries are grown in this region. They also grow several varieties of sweet cherries.  We’ve eaten some great cherry pie, chocolate covered cherries, dried cherries, cherry salsa, cherry BBQ sauce, cherry butter, cherry ice cream, cherry preserves and cherry wine.  What we didn’t realize until we arrived in Traverse City is that it has also become a wine producing area. A couple of years ago (remember that March when we had 80+ degrees for a couple of days) farmers is Michigan lost 90% of the cherry crop due to higher than normal temperatures in that same year. The cherry trees began budding prematurely. When temperatures returned to normal (read: freezing), the buds were damaged and the trees didn’t produce any cherries that year. The farmers who were growing grapes for several local wineries didn’t experience any change in the grape crop that year. So…now a number of cherry growers are reinventing themselves by turning their cherry orchards into vineyards. We went on a wine tasting tour of the area and were surprised at the number of wines, both red and white, produced here.

 

A Peddle Pub in downtown Traverse City

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One Room School House turned into a wine tasting room.

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Chalkboard at the One Room Schoolhouse

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We departed Traverse City and headed for Dearborn, Michigan on Friday, July 12. The next day we went to The Henry Ford, a complex that includes the Henry Ford Museum, Greenfield Village, an IMAX theater, a Factory tour and the Ford Research Center. We opted to go to the museum, Greenfield Village and a show at the IMAX theatre.

 

We began our day in Greenfield Village with a ride on a steam locomotive that gave us a perspective of what we could do and see while in the village. Model A cars transported people around the village, musicians played antique instruments on stages and in a bandstand, homes that belonged to Robert Frost, Thomas Edison, Noah Webster and others lined the streets, Edison’s Menlo Park facilities were recreated and some original artifacts of his were on display (Edison and Ford collaborated on a number of projects together), formal flower gardens and vegetable gardens were tended by people in period clothing. Children were able to play on the village green with toys from earlier decades like the hoop and stick, stilts, ball and cup, and a lawn bowling game. When it began to get really warm outside, we decided it was time to sit down and cool off in the IMAX theatre watching the Rocky Mountain Express. Many of the views of the Canadian Rockies reminded us of our previous trip to Banff, Lake Louise and Jasper in Alberta, Canada which we will be revisiting in just a couple of weeks. After the movie, it was time to visit the museum.

 

Transportation at Greenfield Village

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Where Thomas Edison invented the light bulb

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The Henry Ford Museum is divided into many different areas. In With Liberty and Justice for All we saw an exhibit about Rosa Parks, including the bus she rode on when she refused to give up her seat. Next, there was the chair Abraham Lincoln sat in at Ford’s Theater when he was assassinated. An exhibit about Women’s Suffrage used a timeline to document the movement that finally gave women the right to vote.

http://www.thehenryford.org/museum/liberty/

 

            In Heroes of the Sky, there was information about early aviators as well as actual aircraft on display.

http://www.thehenryford.org/exhibits/heroes/home.asp

 

            The Presidential Limousines exhibit had many vehicles that had been used by former Presidents. There was the limousine used by John F. Kennedy when he was assassinated in Dallas, Texas and even a carriage pulled by horses that had been used as a presidential vehicle.

http://www.thehenryford.org/museum/limousines.aspx

 

            The Made in America exhibit had many items such as furniture and other household items that were made from the 1800s and up. It was interesting to see many items that had been made in New England.

http://www.thehenryford.org/museum/america.aspx

 

            Some of the other things we saw while at the museum were exhibits about clocks, transportation (including the Oscar Mayer Weinermobile), the Dymaxion House built in 1945 by inventor and architect Buckminster Fuller (futuristic, round and made of aluminum), trains, and agricultural machinery.

 

Transportation exhibit at Henry Ford Museum

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VW camper van

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Oscar Mayer Weinermobile

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            The Henry Ford was a fun and educational experience that I wanted to do for a long time, but somehow in our travels over the years, we were never in that area. That’s one thing I can now check off on my bucket list!

 

            We plan to visit our friends, Marsha and Art, in Illinois as we make our way to the Badlands.