Posts Tagged ‘Michigan’

I'm sorry it has taken me so long to post these pictures from our trip to Ohio and Michigan. It probably seems like old news now that school is starting up. I have been grappling with some computer issues that I am trying to learn, so I have been choosing to post things with fewer pictures. Hopefully eventually I will get the hang of this program.

The week after I retired we headed up to Ohio and Michigan. It had been over a year since we were last able to make the trip. Our first stop was to spend the night with Rob's sister Deb and her husband Dan. As per usual they treated us royally and we wished we could have stayed even longer. They are both great fishers and for supper Dan prepared some delicous fish which were caught in Lake Erie. I think he's as good a cook as he is a fisherman.

We also got to see their neighbor, Virginia, who is one of my faithful readers. She had been sick for a while shortly before our visit, so I hope she is feeling much better by now.

We always enjoy sitting out on Deb and Dan's patio while we are visiting with them and enjoy watching the hummingbirds which frequent the trumpet vine in the yard near the patio. We found out on this visit that Deb has been hiding some of her talents from us all these years. She showed us these corn hole boards that she had painted recently.

I mentioned in a previous post that we were able to spend the day with Rob's mom on her birthday and all of us took her out to lunch at one of her favorite places, Cracker Barrel. Here's a picture of Rob, his mom, and his sister, Deb:

After our visits in Ohio we continued on to Michigan. Drew was eagerly awaiting our arrival:

We were thrilled to find out that he is going to be a big brother and are greatly anticipating that event.

During the days we visited with Meg, Jim, and Drew we visited a number of our favorite places, including some thrift stores and Randazzo's:

Here are a couple of shots inside of this lovely market:

We did visit a new place however. Megan found tickets to an animal safari in Port Clinton, Ohio for a very good price on Groupon. We drove down there one day and all of us had a very good time. There is an area with some animals in enclosures, a playground, picnic area, pony ride, and a pig race!

The walking zoo had many animals including these llamas and a kangaroo.

Here's Drew on the pony ride:

Here's an action shot of the pig race:

After eating our picnic lunch, touring this area, and watching a pig race we headed to the drive through part of the safari. The animals were quite tame and we enjoyed getting a close up view of many of them.

We had some carrots for Drew to feed to the animals and we were all amused when Drew started taking a bite out of each of the carrots before passing them out the window. That's one way to get your kids to eat vegetables.

Megan and Drew came back home with us for a week after our visit up there and on the way back we stopped in to visit my Aunt Nana in Ohio and were also able to see her brother, my Uncle Don who we hadn't seen for many many years. Unfortunately we didn't get any photos that day.

So, as you can see we had a very busy and very blessed trip.

Becka

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While we were in Michigan in December Rob, Mark, Katie and I spent a day at the Henry Ford Museum (which is now just referred to as "The Henry Ford" on the literature they give you.) I had been to Greenfield Village a few years ago when I was up visiting with Megan and her first grade class, but the last time I visited the museum was when Megan was in a stroller.

One thing I noticed that has changed in the quarter century since my last visit is that there are a lot more interactive exhibits now. There seem to be more things that are of interest to children. Katie was a little dismayed to see that they had some of the toys on display she had played with as a little girl!

Here are a few pictures of things that we saw that day:

There was a large special exhibit of things built from Legos, such as this dragon:

There was a model of downtown Detroit made from Legos complete with a running train:

There were many, many old bicycles, cars, airplanes, and trains, such as this one:

We saw the chair that Lincoln was sitting in when he was shot:

They also have an Oscar Mayer Wienermobile:

Here is a boy experiencing what it is like to be a hot dog:

You can actually eat a hot dog in the museum but we chose to eat lunch at the Michigan Cafe instead:

We saw many, many other interesting things at the museum. I would definitely encourage you to go if you are ever in the area. It is very well organized and enjoyable.

In my next post I want to show you something I made for Christmas.

Becka

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After we left Fostoria we headed up to Michigan to see our daughter Megan, son-in-law Jim, and adorable grandson, Drew. We had a very enjoyable time with them and packed in quite a variety of activities. We celebrated my birthday with a special dinner that Megan prepared and by going out to the golf course where Jim works and watching a very nice fireworks display. Here are Jim and Drew before the fireworks began:

We attended church at Faith Baptist Church of Warren and enjoyed the teaching and preaching there and talking with people we have come to know on our previous visits to the area.

We also took a couple of day trips while we were there. One that we all really enjoyed was a visit to Cook's Dairy Farm in Ortonville, Michigan. We started off our visit by having a dish of their delicious ice cream. Rob and I tried the Cowpucchino and Megan and Drew had the Cow Pie flavor. Both were really quite tasty. After our treat we toured the farm and enjoyed seeing the cows, calves, and pigs. Drew is at a stage where he really likes animals, so this was a very exciting activity for him. (The rest of us enjoyed it too!) Here is Drew meeting one of the cows:

Megan did a whole post about our trip to the dairy farm.

One afternoon we went to a local water park where we had fun watching Drew play in the fountains:

Another day we drove down to Bowling Green, Ohio to see Rob's mom again. Rob's sister, Deb, met us at the nursing home where we visited and had lunch and took some family pictures. Unfortunately it was very difficult to get all four generations looking the right direction at the same time! Here is one of our awkward family photos:

On the way back from Bowling Green we had to pass right by an IKEA store so we stopped by and did a little shopping and ate a nice supper of Swedish Meatballs and Mashed Potatoes. We always enjoy looking around in IKEA and even Drew had a nice time. He was fascinated with a little wooden stacking toy they had so he ended up with two of them -- one for at home and one for Poppi and Grandma's house.

Megan enjoys cooking and trying new recipes, so we generally try some new things when we are up visiting. One thing we tried while we were up there were Gorditas. Here I'm rolling them out:

Here Megan is baking them on a griddle:

Megan reads a number of cooking blogs and a woman had posted about making them from a recipe on the King Arthur Flour web-site. Just last week they featured this recipe on The Baker's Banter Blog in a step-by-step tutorial. These are really tasty and we ended making them twice during the week we were in MI and then once again while she and Drew were here visiting with us.

As I mentioned in an earlier post Megan and Drew accompanied us on the next leg of our trek and then came back to Greenville with us. In my next post I will chronicle our trip to Missouri.

Becka

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