Las Aventuras de la Familia Cole: closing out the exchange year with some fun and adventures

The pictures are out of order, but well worth sorting through.

Saturday, 21Jun2015, we headed up to Michigan after BB's party. We got up there about 9:30 pm. we talked to my friend E and headed off to bed. On Sunday, 22Jun, we celebrated Father's Day with C (E's husband) and F (C's father) and then headed out to Greenfield village. When I lived in Michigan, I went here once with my friend Ingrid who was visiting me from the Netherlands. My visit was back in 2000, so 15 years ago. Greenfield village is on the Ford Motor Company Campus and was started by henry Ford. The campus houses the Automotive Hall of Fame, the Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield village. The village is set up to show the industrial age beginnings, shops from the Wright brothers (first men to fly) and Thomas Edison (inventor), in addition to things from the late 1800s - early 1900s. It is very cool to walk around. Nearly all of the buildings are the original buildings, bought and moved to the village by Henry Ford and his foundation in order to preserve them.

We started off by the train station. this is a full size steam engine that circles the village.

Me and E, my best friend and outside of my family, the person who has known me the longest. We met when we were 12 years old and became friends the following year. We have know each other for 36 years!

we traveled to the farm next and saw a blue slate turkey along with other animals. this turkey species was on the endangered list but recently moved to the rare list as it makes a come back. the turkey was mad at the famer. We toured the barn, the farm yard, and the house. The house has a working wood stove and it was still hot from the lunch they had just eaten.

We toured the pottery area next. This man was telling us about the technique used to create the pottery. We shopped after this area and got some cool things, a new pottery plaque for the house and a tin punch craft for bug to work on later this summer.

We got to see a grist mill.

back at the pottery area, we saw pottery set up for the kiln, which went along with the discuss from Friday night (more on that later)

We had an ice cream and then toured the round house. This one is modeled on the round house that used to be in Marshall Michigan.

you can just picture it in the Thomas the Tank engine shows.

We got to see this train engine (it stays on display all the time). The engineer also talked to us about Greenfield village. Its original name was the Edison Institution, after Thomas Edison. He used to come here and had a machine shop. He allowed Henry Ford to come over and would make pieces for engines that Ford could not make himself. The collaboration was fantastic.

The display allowed us to go below the train, 101 tons of train above us. we could see the underside much like the mechanic would see when they worked on the trains.

It looks like Thomas, Gordon, and the other engines of Soodor could come puffing up at any time.

We toured the Wright Brothers shop, these are their original tools used to build their planes.

A wind tunnel, you turn the handle and try to get the plane inside to lift up.

Little C trying her hand at it. She is E's youngest daughter and she followed Bug around the entire weekend.

This is the plane, without the 'skin' on it. AWESOME

Little C and I cranking the handle together.

The statue of Thomas Edison. Bug wrote a report on him at the end of school. We were able to tour his lab called "Menlo Park" which was in Menlo Park, new Jersey, but was brought here to Michigan. It was so cool. the entire complex is here at Greenfield village.

Love this saying!

In the Menlo Park lab. There were 5 buildings to see. We also got to see an actor portray Thomas Edison right after he had a display of his lights. We learned Thomas Edison did not invent the light bulb, he found the component that would allow the light bulb to burn more than a few seconds. Edison found that cotton thread coat with carbon would burn for hours, that was the break through that gives Edison credit for inventing the light bulb.

Another part of the lab. In front is the electric pen that Edison invented.

We walked across the covered bridge, This bridge is from Pennsylvania.

The gang: Bug, E, Little E (E's oldest daughter), BB and in front, Little C.

This is the Cotswold house, brought over from the Cotswold region in England. When I was here in 2000, this had just been completed. I love the house (all the stone) and the gardens. I want this house.

My favorite flowers, Hollyhocks. These are single hollyhocks. I really like double hollyhocks.

The inside of the barn

while I was drooling over the house, BB and Bug were checking out the military display outside. there was car show at Greenfield village on Sunday and there was a military vehicle section. I have never seen military vehicles at a car show, so this was neat. bug and BB were listening to the former solider talk about the gun that was built in WWII and used through the Vietnam war.

We rode the steam train back to the front of the village at the end of day. We probably walked close to 6 miles. After the 40 minute drive home, we took the kids to Mongolian BBQ for dinner. You choose all the ingredients in your stir fry and they cook it in front of you on a huge grill. it is yummy. Bug loved it and BB was happy to have spicy food.

Monday, we toured Ann Arbor Michigan. I lived here for 8.5 years. I took the boys to see my old work complex, which is now part of the University of Michigan research facilities. We saw my last 2 apartments but we did not get to see my first house. We picked up E and Little E and headed downtown to tour the university and pick up goodies. We stopped at Zingerman's bakery. the best breads and cookies. they do make sandwiches too and have all sorts of fresh cheeses and meats for sale. Yummy. I picked up cookies for the trip home and some bread for our sandwiches this week.

We walked around downtown, heading to central campus and we shopped at the M Den (all Michigan stuff). BB did some shopping as did the rest of us. Bug got a Michigan Basketball jersey. I cant wait to take a picture of him in that jersey this fall.

We are in front of the main university of Michigan Library, or the oldest one. I have brought Bug around to liking UofM. He actually said "go blue" to me. I think a trip up for a football game will end his love of Ohio State.

BB doing the YMCA symbol for M

walking through the Law Quad. It was so peaceful and so much like being in an old world school.

15 years ago when Ingrid came to visit, we were able to get into the UofM stadium during non game days. Unfortunately, that is not the case now. all the gates were locked and we could only stand outside. if you look closely behind BB, there is statue of the Wolverine, the state animal and the mascot for the UofM teams.

Bug was very tired by this time, it was super hot and very humid. Even though we had the car, we had walked about 4 miles by this time.

Little E, who really wants to attend UofM when she is ready for college.

Me, at the gates. I will have to find the older picture of me and post them side by side.

Before we headed home, we stopped for lunch at my favorite restaurant- Ali baba's. E and I used to eat here after hanging out together. I love their Tawook (chicken) and Tabouli (parsley and tomato salad) sandwich. Hummus is an excellent sauce for this sandwich. BB tried it and loved it and Bug loved it too. We had to bring home some extra sandwiches for lunch and dinner over the next few days (they are now gone- they lasted 24 hours).

The boys slept on the 5 hour trip home. The excitement of the trip was that the Emergency Broadcast system interrupted the radio about 1/3 of the way into our trip home. There was a severe thunderstorm moving across the area. The thunderstorm spawned tornados, but we were well south of the areas that were hit by tornados. This is the first time I have ever experienced the EBS on the radio, usually I only here the tests that are run once a month. I would prefer never to hear it again.

Silly boys.

So this takes us back to Saturday evening- finally to Michigan. About 1 hour more to drive before we reach E's house.

At the front of Greenfield village. this was not here 15 years ago.

Friday night, we had dinner with friends are returning to the Ukraine. Their son is Bug's age and the boys have become friends. Bug will write L so L can continue to practice English and as the boys get older, they might be able to email or Skype too.

The restaurant overlooks the downtown area. This the Big Mac Bridge and the purple People bridge (same bridge we walked over when we went on the duck tour a few weeks ago).

The baseball stadium is to the right side of the picture.

Downtown with Proctor and gamble's world wide headquarters in the foreground.

L, F and Me- friends from college. we have been friends for 30 years.

F with our friends who are moving back to Ukraine (N, B- parents), L and A (kids)

Me and my handsome boys.

Dinner-

Bug's dinner. he had chicken tenders and tator tots. he is not adventurous in his food at all, so it shocked me on Monday when he liked the sandwich at Ali Baba's.

This restaurant was a pottery factory in the early 1900s. The pottery was and is world famous. this part of the factory has been converted, but you can eat in the kilns. Our group was too big to fit in the kiln, but we could look around in them. I was trying to explain to the boys (BB, Bug and L) how the pottery was put on racks and put into the kilns and fired for 24 hours. So seeing the rack of pottery at Greenfield village closed the loop for Bug.

Outside the huge kiln. I can not even imagine how many pieces of pottery could be put into the kiln at one time.

The weekend of 13Jun, I drove the boys and a friend to King's Island. I was not planning on staying, but Bug wanted to stay and ride the rides.

I had not been at KI since the early 1990s.

Bug won a Pokémon. he was happy.

He rode the ride, not sure about this stranger sitting with him and to be frank, I was not sure either.

Bug wanted to ride the bumper cars, but they did not open while we were at the park.

We rode the carousel

We headed to Planet Snoopy, but other than seeing Snoopy and riding the Woodstock ride, Bug was too big for all the rides in this section.

not a happy camper due to the heat and being scared. Our first ride was the Vortex roller coaster, it was not the one I wanted to start with and it scared Bug a lot. he was very scared of any big rides after that and I could not get him on another big ride at all. I was pretty sure this was what was going to happen, which is why I did not want to go to KI. I was happy to drop off BB and his friend and then go do something else with Bug. But we spent 4 hours at KI instead. At least Bug knows his limits. I do think it is going to be a long time before Bug comes or asks to go to Ki.

This is the Woodystock ride. Bug really like this type of ride.

We did attempt to ride the Beast with Bug, but he decided he did not want to ride with us. So he waited at the loading area for us to ride this roller coaster. I love roller coasters.

BB, Bug and R as we wait for the front seat. Bug might have liked the ride if we could have sat further back. But then again, Bug has always been cautious, so it is likely he was never going to like extreme rides.

BB and R stayed at the park for another 5 hours after we left and R's dad picked them up and brought them home.

I took the boys out for dinner that evening.

Saturday, before heading to Michigan, we hosted BB's good bye party. This was an opportunity for BB's friends to stop by and say good bye to him. he leaves on Monday, 29Jun. His friends are not allowed to be at the drop off on the last day. BB got some wonderful US regalia.