Living Our Dream

Greenfield Village

Milford, MI - Events of Thursday, August 25, to Friday, August 26, 2011

It was about a four-hour drive from Traverse City to our next stop in Milford, MI where we stayed at Camp Dearborn. Camp Dearborn is a 626-acre park that is run by the city of Dearborn. It was opened in 1948 and it was known as "the citizens' country club."

Camp Dearborn has a campground that includes full-hookup RV sites, electric-only sites, no-hookup tent sites, and cabin and tent rentals. There is also a canteen that has a fairly extensive snack menu and several lakes and ponds for swimming, fishing and paddle boats. There is a mini-golf course and a full-size 18-hole golf course.

The roads and RV pads in Camp Dearborn are paved, and the sites are grassy and fairly widely spaced. The photo below shows our site at Camp Dearborn.

Most of the full-hookup sites have full sun while the electric-only and tent sites have shade. Unfortunately for pet lovers, Camp Dearborn has a "no pets" policy. Except for traffic noise during the day (our site was fairly close to the road) and some noisy neighbors who showed up a few sites away from us toward the end of our stay, the campground was fairly quiet.

The next photo shows the view down the road from our site.

It was cloudy all day for our drive to Milford, but just before sunset, the clouds rolled back and allowed the setting sun to peek under the clouds and illuminate them with an orange glow.

We had several things we wanted to do while staying in Milford, so with the skys clearing the evening before, we headed into Dearborn the next morning to visit Greenfield Village. Greenfield Village and the Henry Ford Museum together were formerly known as the Edison Institute. Today, they are known simply as The Henry Ford. The Henry Ford also includes an IMAX Theater and serves as the departure point for a factory tour of the nearby Rouge Complex which contains 6 Ford factories including one that manufactures Ford trucks.

We planned to visit both the museum and the village, but since the weather was nice, we went to Greenfield Village first. We'll have more about the Henry Ford Museum in an upcoming post.

Admission to the village is $22 ($21 for seniors over 62), and admission for the museum is $15 ($14 for seniors). There are combo tickets available for $32 ($30 for seniors), but the campground has combo tickets available at an even better price of $24. Not only that, but when we were at the ticket window exchanging the vouchers we got at the campground for regular tickets, Paul overheard the people at other ticket windows being asked if they drove there. When they said they did, there was an extra $5 charge for parking. We were not charged the additional parking fee.

The Edison Institute was originally dedicated in 1929. It was named for Thomas Edison who was a friend of Henry Ford. Ford wanted to show how Americans lived and worked since the founding of the country. There are almost 100 buildings that were moved from their original locations to Dearborn and arranged in a village-like setting. 

Entry to the village is by way of the Josephine Ford Fountain, named for Henry Ford's granddaughter.

In addition to walking, there are several other ways to get around Greenfield Village. The Weiser Railroad travels around the perimeter of the village, and there are three stops. Tickets are $4, or you can buy an all-day pass good for all rides and transportation for $10.

The horse-drawn omnibus makes several stops around the village. Omnibus rides are only available on the all-day pass.

You can also ride a restored Model T for $4 (also included in the all-day pass), but the Model Ts make no stops along their designated route. We considered getting all-day ride passes, but since the stops of the various means of transportation were limited, we decided to walk.

Greenfield Village is so big it's almost overwhelming. It took us a while to get oriented and to come up with a plan of how to see as much as possible. The village is divided into several areas with different themes. Once we realized that, and once we decided to walk rather than try to figure out transportation routes and stops, it made our navigation a little easier.

The first area inside the entrance is called Working Farms. This area includes displays of soybean research, farm equipment, and the farm home belonging to the parents of Harvey Firestone. Harvey Firestone was the founder of Firestone Tire and Rubber and a friend of Henry Ford. The home was built in 1828 near Columbiana, OH.

The Firestone farm is set up as a working farm where sheep and vegetables are raised. There was a cooking demonstration going on in the kitchen.

In the basement, we had just missed the demonstration of cutting cabbage to make sauerkraut. Also in the basement was the fruit cellar where root crops, canned goods, hams and cheese were stored.

Next, we came to an area of the village called Liberty Craftworks where there are several mills and shops that demonstrate old time crafts. In the next photo, Paul is checking out some of the lumber stored outside the Spofford Sawmill.

Some of the buildings in Greenfield Village are original, some are reconstructions using components from original buildings, and others are total reconstructions. The Spofford Sawmill above is reconstructed using some of the components that came from the Spofford Sawmill originally located in Georgetown, MA.

The Weaving Shop in the next photo was moved to Greenfield Village from Georgia, and it is mostly original. The lower floor, however, was intended to be open to allow access for horses to the drive mechanism for the cotton gin located on the enclosed, upper floor. The lower floor was left open for a time after relocating the building to Greenfield Village, and it was later enclosed and now houses looms where various fabrics and rugs are woven.

The Pottery Shop shown below was built in Greenfield Village in the 1930s. Numerous potters work inside creating clay pots, mugs, jugs and tiles. Like most of the Greenfield Village crafts, the pottery is for sale in the Liberty Craftworks Store.

We particularly enjoyed a demonstration of tin smithing in the Tin Shop. Back in the day, the tin smith would have used a charcoal fire to heat his soldering irons; but for reasons of fire safety, they now use a direct flame from an alcohol burner. Alcohol doesn't burn at a high enough temperature to melt solder, so the smithy uses a blow pipe to increase the airflow to the flame and increase its temperature.

We also watched a fascinating demonstration of glass blowing. The artisans use 19th century techniques, but they enjoy the use of 20th century furnaces.

After spending a good bit of time in the Liberty Craftworks area watching numerous craft demonstrations, we made our way to the adjacent area, which is called Railroad Junction. Railroad Junction has an 1884 roundhouse from Marshall, MI.

Workers in the roundhouse service the rolling stock and locomotives used at Greenfield Village.

Near the roundhouse is a scaled-down reproduction of the Edison Illuminating Company Station A from Detroit where Henry Ford worked as a steam engineer in the 1890s. Power plants like this one helped light entire communities.

From Railroad Junction, we headed to Main Street, which is the heart of Greenfield Village. We'll tell you about Main Street and the rest of our visit to Greenfield Village in our next post.

Sleeping Bear Dunes

Traverse City, MI - Events of Monday, August 22, 2011

As we said in our last post, Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, which is located on the eastern shore of Lake Michigan about 20 miles from Traverse City, was our primary reason for stopping in Traverse City. We headed to the dunes on Monday.

Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore is a strip of land that covers about 45 miles of Lake Michigan shoreline plus North and South Manitou Islands located several miles offshore. Small towns separate the park on the mainland into three sections. The central section seems to be the most popular, so that's where we headed after stopping at the visitor center in Empire, MI.

One of the overlooks recommended in the visitor guide was Inspiration Point. We made that our next stop. The lake in the foreground is Glenn Lake, which is a large, two-lobed lake that is separated from Lake Michigan by a strip of land. Beyond the strip of land is Lake Michigan, and in the far distance is North Manitou Island.

Sleeping Bear Dunes gets its name from an Indian legend that says a mother bear and her two cubs swam across Lake Michigan to escape a forest fire. The cubs didn't make it and are represented by two islands (North and South Manitou Islands). A large dune on the mainland represented the faithful mother bear who slept on the shore as she waited for her cubs.

From Inspiration Point, we headed to Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive. Pierce Stocking was a lumberman who worked in the forests of Michigan. He spent much of his spare time learning about nature, and he liked to walk the dunes and bluffs above Lake Michigan. He wanted to share the beauty of the area, so he built a road atop the dunes that was opened in 1967. Upon Stocking's death in 1977, the 7-mile loop became part of Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, and it is not to be missed if you visit Sleeping Bear dunes.

The scenic drive winds through the dense forests on the back sides of the dunes.

There are numerous scenic pull-offs along Pierce Stockton Drive including the one shown below where we could see the lighthouse in the distance on South Manitou Island. There are ferries over to both North and South Manitou Islands where you can hike, camp and tour the lighthouse.

The Lake Michigan Overlook has a boardwalk along the top of the dunes that provides scenic views of the lake.

There is also an observation platform that takes you out over the edge of the dune...

... where there were beautiful views of the dunes at the shore line.

We could also see over the edge of the dune down to the water. A lot of the specks in the next photo are people walking down to the lake like they did at Dune Slide at Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. This dune is about 450 feet above the water, and it is a long, steep climb back up. Unlike Dune Slide that was all loose sand, however, this dune has a lot of rocks and gravel in it that help keep the surface a little harder and little easier to climb. The gravel is part of a moraine left by the glaciers after the Ice Age.

A little farther up the boardwalk we got another great panoramic view of the dunes.

The dark vegetation in the distance just to the upper left of center in the next photo covers what's left of Sleeping Bear Dune. The dune used to be much larger and covered the large depression to the right of the vegetation; but the sand is constantly changing, and most of Sleeping Bear Dune has been blown out. In the far distance are South Manitou Island (left) and North Manitou Island.

A little farther along Pierce Stockton Scenic Drive is a stop where you can get another view of the dunes to the south. The small, narrow lake is North Bar Lake.

From the scenic drive, we headed north and stopped at Dune Climb where you can climb the back side of a 110-foot high dune. There were lots of shoes piled at the bottom as well as grandparents watching the fun.

To the north of Dune Climb is the historic village of Glen Haven, which is a restored logging village that was founded in 1857. We stopped in the general store, which also has a small display depicting the history of Glen Haven.

D. H. (David Henry) Day was an early resident and entrepreneur in Glen Haven. He began selling cord wood to steamships. When the ships switched to coal, Day bought a sawmill and went into the lumber business. By 1910, he owned more than 5,000 acres of forest.

When logging bagan to decline, Day planted fruit trees. By the 1920s, he had over 5,000 cherry and apple trees on his 400-acre farm. Day recognized the type of soil and the moderating effects of Lake Michigan and Traverse Bay were ideal for growing fruit. Today, the area around Traverse City grows 70 to 75% of all the tart cherries grown in the United States. Sweet cherries are also popular at roadside stands throughout the region.

D. H. Day also built the Glen Haven Canning Company on the waterfront to can cherries.

The cannery has been converted to a museum for some of the old boats used in this area. The photo below shows a 36-foot, unsinkable lifeboat. This boat was self-bailing if it got swamped, self-righting if it capsized, and its hull is filled with cork so it was unsinkable even if it got smashed against the rocks.

Lifeboats like the one shown above could travel farther and faster and in rougher water than the surf boats that had to be rowed. By the 1920s, unsinkable lifeboats made beach-side rescue stations obsolete.

Speaking of rescue stations, there is a rescue station museum about half a mile east of Glen Haven. It was getting late, so we decided to pass on that since we had seen a similar museum recently at Whitefish Point.

We headed back to Traverse City from Glen Haven and stopped at Qdoba for a late lunch. Although we had several more days scheduled in Traverse City, we're starting to slow down a bit and we didn't have any additional sightseeing planned. We ran a few errands, Paul did some motor home and car maintenance, and we relaxed. From Traverse City, we continued to make our way south. We'll tell you where we landed in our next post.

Mackinaw City, MI to Traverse City, MI

Traverse City, MI - Events of Friday, August 19 to Saturday, August 20, 2011

Our next destination was Traverse City, MI, where we stayed at the Northwest Michigan Fairgrounds. It was a little less than a three-hour drive from Mackinaw City including a fuel stop. Since there was no major event going on at the fairgrounds during the time we planned on being there, no reservation was necessary even though we arrived on a Friday. Actually, if there had been a big event there, we would have probably stayed somewhere else to avoid the crowds.

Like most fairgrounds, the campground is nothing fancy. There are only electric hookups, but all sites have 30/50 amp. There are hose bibs about every 6 or 8 sites, but you need a special adapter (available from the hosts) to be able to attach a hose to fill your tank. There is an adapter and hose attached to the spigot in front of the hosts' site all the time, so we just filled our tank there after we got done registering.

The roads and pads are gravel, but the gravel on the roads is a bit old so the roads are a little dusty. There is sparse grass between the sites. The photo below shows our site at the fairgrounds.

The sites are a little close together and a little short, but it wasn't bad since there was hardly anyone else staying in the campground most of the time we were there. We parked our toad on the site next to us rather than trying to squeeze it in sideways in front of the rig.

The campground has little shade except for a couple of larger trees. The next photo shows the shady sites in the row behind us.

There are no shower facilities in the campground, only two porta-potties. They are planning to build a bath house; but for now, tenters and those in RVs who like to stretch their holding tank capacity by using the campground facilities will need to walk or drive over to the fairgrounds where there is a bath house available.

We were treated to several nice sunsets while we were at the fairgrounds, but the one the first night was the most striking.

The campground is pretty quiet at night. On weekdays, you can hear backup beepers and the mechanical equipment from the recycling center next to the fairgrounds. On the weekend, there was a BMX bicycle meet going on at the BMX track at the back of the campground. We could hear the announcer calling the races, but we were far enough away that it didn't disturb us. We even walked over to the track on Saturday and watched for a little while. There were classes for rookies and experienced, boys and girls, kids and adults.

The next photo shows the two leaders sprinting toward the finish.

The one thing we had on our minds to see in the Traverse City area was Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, which is located on the eastern shore of Lake Michigan about 20 miles away. The campground hosts had provided us with a bunch of brochures on things to do around Traverse City including a map and visitor guide for Sleeping Bear Dunes. That was nice because we were able to plan our visit ahead of time.

Look for our next post and we'll tell you all about our visit to Sleeping Bear Dunes.

Castle Farms

Mackinaw City, MI - Events of Tuesday, August 16, 2011

When Margery was doing her online research into things to do, we found a couple of possibilities around Petoskey, MI, which is about an hour south of where we were staying in Mackinaw City. We originally considered staying several days in Petoskey, but we couldn't get reservations at the highly-recommended Magnus Park in Petoskey, and the KOA there was around $50 a night, so we decided to just stay in Mackinaw City a few more days.

One of the things we found in that area that sounded especially intriguing was Castle Farms in Charlevoix, MI, which is close to Petoskey. Therefore, we decided to take a day trip in the car to visit Castle Farms.

Castle Farms was built in 1918 by Albert Loeb, who was acting president of Sears, Roebuck and Company at that time. Loeb built the farm to raise award-winning livestock and to showcase farm products sold by his company. Castle Farms has stone barns whose design is based on old stone barns in France.

Today, Castle Farms has been restored and remodeled into a premier special event center with Renaissance-themed reception halls inside and with attractive gardens outside.

Castle Farms is open for self-guided tours when there isn't a special event going on. The website suggests calling ahead to verify their schedule. Guided tours are available for groups of 8 or more, and there are special programs available for school groups.

The farm employed 90 people at its peak. Albert Loeb died in 1924 and left the farm to his son, Ernest. There was a farming recession that preceded the Great Depression, so the Loeb family sold off the livestock in 1927 and rented out the buildings for storage for the next 30 years.

In the mid 1960s, an artist by the name of John Van Haver bought the property, cleared some of the debris from caved-in roofs, added some Renaissance touches and opened an art studio and gallery.

In 1969, Arthur and Erwina Reibel bought the property and built a large stage which they used for rock concerts. Arthur Reibel died in 1999, and the property eventually went up for auction.

In 2001, the property was purchased by Linda Mueller who, with the support of her husband, had a vision to restore the buildings and to make them available for weddings, festivals, corporate gatherings, special events and public tours. Mrs. Mueller used original construction methods and reused original materials and components wherever possible. For example, rather than replace rotted window frames, she had workmen cut away bad sections of the frames and splice in good wood so they could reuse the sound portions.

An example of using original techniques is in the roofs of the turrets, which were originally silos. Even though it would have been quicker, easier and cheaper to bend thin plywood to form the conical roofs, Mrs. Mueller had workmen cut and bend boards to form the conical surfaces as was done originally.

On the tour, we got to see the inside of one of the silos. The radial roof supports create an interesting pattern that kind of looks like a Japanese umbrella. The dark tiles on the walls added a dramatic contrast. If you look closely, you can see the swirl pattern of the roof boards.

The self-guided tour is well marked, and we had a map to follow showing numbered points of interest along the way. We started in the Butterfly Garden, which is behind the hedge in the next photo.

Later in the tour, we got to see the Butterfly Garden from the second story.

Margery tried out ont of the butterfly chairs.

Across from the Butterfly Garden is small pond.

Rather than the usual koi, this pond was filled with what appeared to be trout.

Behind the pond is the Serenity Garden.

Several of the courtyards around the property have oversize chess sets that add to the Renaissance theme. Margery tried to lift one of the pieces and was surprised at how heavy it was.

A garden railroad was added in 2008.

There are several branches to the garden railroad, including one that sits at the tops of the tall shrubs that form the maze. You can climb up to a platform and not only look down into the maze, but also watch the trains.

There are two building complexes at Castle Farms. The main complex, which used to be the cattle barn, is called the King's Castle. Beside the King's Castle is the King's Courtyard.

There are at least four reception areas in the Kings Castle, and it looks like they could easily have several events going on at the same time.

There is a second building complex called the Knight's Castle, which was originally a stable for horses and mules.

Inside is yet another reception hall.

The Knight's Courtyard is outside the Knight's Castle. The large circular building to the left used to be the ice house, and the smaller building to the right was the farm manager's office until the farm closed in 1927.

The gardens at Castle Farms are designed not as botanical gardens or as show gardens with spectacular color, but to provide attractive venues for photography and to provide outdoor settings for wedding ceremonies. After all, the attention should be on the bride, not on the garden. The East Garden shown below not only provides a more intimate setting for photos, but it provides a pleasant view from the windows of the reception hall to the left.

While we were on our tour, we met Mrs. Mueller. We recognized her from the video they show about the history and restoration of the property. She greeted us and thanked us for coming. We chatted a few minutes, and she answered a few of our questions. The information we found most interesting is the fact they have almost 200 weddings a year. That averages out to almost four every weekend.

It was interesting to learn about the history of the farm and to see how someone with a vision (and undoubtedly a good bit of money) can change a dilapidated old cattle barn into a unique, special-event facility.

We chilled out in Mackinaw City a few more days before heading to our next destination. We'll have more info in our next post.

More Mackinac Island

Mackinaw City, MI - Events of Monday, August 15, 2011

From Fort Mackinac, we continued on our bicycle tour of some of the other sights on Mackinac Island. The central part of the island is at a higher elevation than the downtown area, and we still had a fair amount of uphill travel to get to our next stop. That meant we had to push our bikes some more. We were headed for Point Lookout, which is just about at the highest point of the island.

On the way, we took a side road a short distance to Skull Cave. The name comes from the fact Native Americans reportedly used the cave for burials. A pile of rocks in the opening of the cave also makes the cave opening look like two eyes in a skull.

Even though there were some steep hills and we had to push our bikes quite a bit, the trip to Point Lookout was worth it. There was a great view of Lake Huron and Sugar Loaf Rock, which stands 75 feet tall.

 

Our next stop was Arch Rock. Arch Rock is 146 feet above the water and the opening is 50 feet at the widest point.

There are also great views of the lake from Arch Rock.

We continued down East Bluff where many of the old Victorian summer homes are located. Most of these "cottages" were built during a flurry of construction that took place from 1885 to 1900.

We also appreciated seeing all the gardens and flowers along the way.

We made our way down East Bluff to where it joins the eastern end of Main Street. A little farther to the east, Main Street turns into Lake Shore Boulevard. Lake Shore then travels around the perimeter of the island, a distance of about 8 miles. Since Lake Shore follows the shoreline, the road is fairly level so it is a popular place to bicycle. The next photo shows the number of bicycles heading from Main Street to Lake Shore Boulevard.

We decided to join the crowds and take our bikes part way up the eastern side of the island. Fortunately, after we had gone a short distance, bike traffic thinned out quite a bit.

Our main reason for taking Lake Shore Boulevard was to get a look at Arch Rock from below.

We pedaled about half a mile past Arch Rock then headed back toward town. On the way back, we stopped for a photo of Mission Point Resort, which is at the eastern edge of town.

Mission Point Resort was originally built over a period of several years beginning in 1954 as a conference and retreat center for an evangelistic organization. The property was sold a couple of times before being sold again and converted to a resort hotel in 1987.

Mission Point gets its name from the fact that it is located adjacent to a mission to Native Americans started by New England Protestants. Mission Church, which was built in 1829, it the oldest surviving church in Michigan.

Right down the street from Mission Church is Ste. Anne's Catholic Church. The wooden church was moved from Fort Michilimackinac to Mackinac Island in 1780 and placed below the new fort. That wooden building was later moved down the street to this site and was subsequently replaced in 1874 by the current building.

We continued through town to West Bluff to see the Grand Hotel. Built in 1886-87, it is THE place to stay on Mackinac Island. Past guests include 5 U. S. presidents, Vladimir Putin, Dmitri Medvedev, Mark Twain and Thomas Edison.

The hotel advertises it has the world's longest porch, which runs the entire length of the building. You can get better idea of how long that is from the next photo taken earlier from the ferry.

The porch became such a tourist attraction, the hotel now charges $10 just to go onto the porch or to go into the hotel if you're not a guest. We even got chased away from the driveway in front of the hotel because we were on bicycles. At rates of over $400 to over $700 a night, the guests apparently don't want rif-raff riding by on bicycles gawking at them.

After taking a couple of photos of the Grand Hotel from a distance, we headed back downtown. As busy as Main Street was in the morning, it was a zoo by mid afternoon. Bicycles whiz by narrowly missing pedestrians who step off the curb without even looking or who walk down the middle of the street unaware of their surroundings. Horse carts and carriages move more slowly, but they take up a lot of room on the street and threaten to clip unwary bicyclists.

There were so many bikes downtown, you could hardly find space along the curb to park. We finally found a small empty space to put our bikes, and we stuck our noses into a couple of shops. We were tempted to buy some fudge, but we decided to pass.

As we mentioned in our last post about Colonial Michilimackinac in Mackinaw City, it is believed the American version of chocolate fudge was first made sometime around 1886. Henry Murdick opened a candy store on Mackinac Island in 1889, and fudge was one of the candies he sold. But fudge didn't become synonymous with Mackinac Island until the early 1960s when Harry Ryba added his marketing touch to the sweet concoction. Ryba moved the fudge-making process to the front window of his shop so customers could watch the fudge being made, and he added fans so the delicious aroma would waft through the air outside his shop. Fudge became such a popular souvenir for tourists, the day visitors became known as "fudgies."

We took along a few snacks, but we planned a stop for the 2011 Zeller Foodie Tour somewhere downtown for a late lunch before we caught the ferry back to Mackinaw City. We rode past several of the restaurants we had checked out online, and we finally decided on the Pink Pony Restaurant in the Chippewa Hotel. Paul wasn't real crazy about the name of the restaurant (it sounded like some kind of Barbie accessory), but they had a couple of things on the menu we thought sounded good, and we liked the waterfront location.

We originally planned to eat outside, but the wait for a table on the deck (green roof in the photo above) was about 25 or 30 minutes. There was no wait for the lower patio (yellow umbrellas), but when we got there, the air conditioners from the restaurant were beside the patio, and they were noisy. They were also blowing hot air on the only empty tables, which was probably the reason those tables were empty.

We headed back inside and got a nice, quiet table in air-conditioned comfort with no wait. We were interested in the whitefish dip when we ate at Brown's Fish House in Paradise, but they were out of it. We decided to try the smoked whitefish dip at the Pink Pony and to get an order of whitefish tacos so we could share both.

The dip consists of smoked whitefish in cream cheese. It is served hot with pita chips. The dip was yummy.

The fish tacos are made from pan-seared whitefish that is flaked, then served on flour tortillas with cabbage, cilantro, and lime-chipotle vinaigrette with avocado aioli. The tacos were outstanding.

Like most things on the island, the meal wasn't cheap. The tacos and the dip were $12 each. Other lunches were $9 to $14, and the other restaurants we checked out had similar prices. The only complaint about the meal was the fact the corn chips they served with the fish tacos and the pita chips that went with the dip were not real crisp. We suspect being located at the waterfront had something to do with that.

The ferry dock is only about half a block from the restaurant, and just about the time we got there, a ferry came around the breakwater and pulled up to the dock. Mackinac Island has a lot of quaint charm, and we loved our visit in spite of the crowds. However, we were tuckered from all the uphill bike riding pushing. We pedaled and pushed a total of about 9 miles.

There is still more sightseeing in the area to report on, so look for our next post.