Things To Do After Beating Michigan!

Victory was sweet and so was our next few days in Michigan. We stayed in Ypsilanti until Wednesday and had a wonderful time visiting botanical gardens, a winery, and a museum that housed the first automobile called the quadricycle built by Henry Ford. After Ford built it in this tiny shed, he realized he couldn't get it out without breaking through the brick wall, so he did!

Before our visit to the museum, we did some other interesting things. On Sunday, the day after our exciting victory over Michigan, we visited the University of Michigan's Matthaei Botanical gardens. In this conservatory there were over 1200 plant species from around the world. The collection was divided into three houses that reflected three climatic conditions. There was a tropical, temperate, and desert house that hosted plants from many warmer regions in the world.

This was a lobster claw plant located in the tropical house.

Another interesting species in the tropical house was the sausage tree.

A beautiful century plant grew in the desert house.

The desert house hosted many different species that were specialists in surviving droughts by storing water.

This was the MiSo House, a solar home, designed by students from the College of Architecture, Engineering, and the Schools of Art and Design.

This was the Shadow Pavilion, a structure and a space made entirely of holes. It was constructed from 100 aluminum laser cut cones that varied in size. The cones funneled light and sound for visitors to take in the views and sounds of the surrounding area. It was located along a road near the botanical gardens.

The sign in front of the structure said, "Research- Through- Making".

On Monday and Tuesday we visited 'The Henry Ford' that was made up of the Greenfield Villages, the Henry Ford Museum, and the Rouge Ford Factory. The brochure dubbed it as "America's greatest history attraction". There were over 90 buildings and 26 million artifacts on 200 acres that comprised this collection of American history.


This was a steam engine train stopped at the Firestone Station located in an area called 'Working Farms" in the Greenfield Village.

The Farris Windmill is the oldest windmill in America. It was located in the section of the Greenfield Village called Porches and Parlors. In this area was a collection of houses and out buildings that once belonged to the likes of Robert Frost, Noah Webster, and the Henry Ford family.

This collection of the Heinz 57 varities was in the Heinz House located on Main Street in the Village.

The Dymaxion House, R. Buckminster Fuller's all-aluminum house, designed in the 1920's. It was round, portable and environmentally efficient.

This was a Model T pulled apart for easy viewing of it's components.

A bicycle built for ten.

This was a collection of early RV's. I am glad they have come along way since those early days.

We were checking out the stainless steel storage tanks at the Spotted Dog Winery for future reference.

After a long day of enjoying American History we sampled some good Michigan made wines at the Spotted Dog Winery in Saline. Most of the wines were made from juice brought in from all over the world. Some of the wine was aged in stainless and some in oak.


On Wednesday we left Michigan and headed to the Chicago area for the Northwestern game. We have spent the past few days visiting Chicago. I will post on this next week but for now I have to get ready to go watch the Nittany Lions beat the Wildcats!

Go State!