I've had a wonderful stay in Michigan, much better than the first time that was spent largely hugging my Aunt Emily and Uncle Bill's downstairs toilet. This time, there was no throwing up. I arrived on Tuesday after what seemed like only a brief five to six hours of driving and was greeted with wonderful company and a great dinner of spaghetti (I've been eating a lot of sandwiches up to this point). My uncle also made a wonderful batch of what he calls New Jersey Clam Chowder. This is much like Manhattan in the sense that it is red. He also thought he'd be funny and take all the clams, oh the torture my poor mother must have endured growing up. Although, knowing my mother, I'm sure she dished it back in some way.
The next day, Wednesday, they took me into Lansing to see the Michigan History Museum, which was actually pretty cool. The exhibits were very well done and there was a ton of interactive pieces to the museum including an entire section on the 60s and 70s complete with Motown! One of the really cool things about the museum is that it was free, as part of the library or connected to the library. I have never seen such a nice museum that was in fact free. We only got to see the 1900s on though, as there was a ham that needed to be cooked back home. It's o.k. that's my favorite century. The second floor apparently included pre-history up to the 1900s.
The nest day, Thursday, we drove over to Burcham hills, which is the retirement community where my grandfather lived briefly. It was a very pretty facility and it a seemingly more rural part of East Lansing. That's one thing I found very pretty about their town and the parts of Michigan I have seen in general, they seem to really value trees and wild places and therefore have a lot of park and a lot of open space, which was surprising for a city. Anyways, the below picture is of the putting green that they built at Burcham Hills largely in response to the lobbying of my grandfather. It was pretty cool. There's also a commemorative brick with his name on it, which was kind of nice to see.
Later that day we drove through a town called Grand Ledge to Grand Ledges park. It was really pretty with most of the leaves having fallen off the trees and coating the ground in a perfect crunchy landscape. My aunt and I both enjoy kicking and sliding through them as we walked along the river path. Apparently my grandpa really enjoyed this spot as well.
There was a rusty railroad bridge a little ways down into the park which looked amazing against the orange fall landscape and in the distance you could see the token town water-tower. I was telling my aunt and uncle how we don't really have water-towers like that in Oregon. You can see them in a few places, but they aren't part of the skyline on every single town you come across. I thought this was a really interesting subtle difference that I noticed as I traveled my first legs across country.
Below, Emily and I are mermaids on our rock, which turned out to be a sewer entrance. We're really classy mermaids who apparently have little regard to the sanitary conditions found in sewers. It was still fun though.
They took me out to dinner to a pizza place and although they served caprese salad, which is one of my all time favorite dishes, I ordered my first deep-dish Chicago style pizza. I figured being this close to Chicago, it still counted as local food. It was really good, although it truly reminded me of what a real pizza-pir would look like. I was really glad to have the opportunity to not only try something new, but also to try something that was more traditional to the area. It's funny how a lot of times we don't assume differences in US food until we go to these places and get the real thing. It was even good as leftovers.
It was really nice to kind of land in a place for a few days after over 2,000 miles put in on the trip, and my aunt and uncle were phenomenal hosts. They fed me and showed me the sights and even gave me a bed to sleep in. It was a lot of fun. My Uncle Bill didn't even play too many jokes on me... No mom, he did not lock me in the basement, although whenever I was down there, i went when he wasn't looking, just to protect myself. Haha. Below is a picture of Emily with their dog Hailey. She was very well trained. A lot of times she just hung out in the very large and nicely manicured back yard. She never jumped on me or licked me without permission either. She's such a cutie.
Last night we went to see a play called "Greater Tuna" in a very quaint and unique theater in some random town I have forgotten the name to. The play only had two actors, which was surprising, I had never heard of such a small cast. They played all of the parts so well though. It was really entertaining and really quite funny. I love going out to the theatre and it was really interesting to go with Bill and Em, in that they are theatre-regulars and they themselves have both studied and been part of multiple productions. In that regard, it was cool to hear their thoughts versus those of myself who does not in fact know as much as I'd like to about theatre.
Unfortunately I leave in the morning. I'm very excited to continue my road trip, but a visit never seems long enough. I had so much fun and the road trip has been such a success thus far. I can't believe that I have only been traveling for nine days or so. It seems like so much longer. Thank you so much for your generosity and hospitality Bill and Em, I hope there are many more visits in the future.
I've had a wonderful stay in Michigan, much better than the first time that was spent largely hugging my Aunt Emily and Uncle Bill's downstairs toilet. This time, there was no throwing up. I arrived on Tuesday after what seemed like only a brief five to six hours of driving and was greeted with wonderful company and a great dinner of spaghetti (I've been eating a lot of sandwiches up to this point). My uncle also made a wonderful batch of what he calls New Jersey Clam Chowder. This is much like Manhattan in the sense that it is red. He also thought he'd be funny and take all the clams, oh the torture my poor mother must have endured growing up. Although, knowing my mother, I'm sure she dished it back in some way.
The next day, Wednesday, they took me into Lansing to see the Michigan History Museum, which was actually pretty cool. The exhibits were very well done and there was a ton of interactive pieces to the museum including an entire section on the 60s and 70s complete with Motown! One of the really cool things about the museum is that it was free, as part of the library or connected to the library. I have never seen such a nice museum that was in fact free. We only got to see the 1900s on though, as there was a ham that needed to be cooked back home. It's o.k. that's my favorite century. The second floor apparently included pre-history up to the 1900s. 
The nest day, Thursday, we drove over to Burcham hills, which is the retirement community where my grandfather lived briefly. It was a very pretty facility and it a seemingly more rural part of East Lansing. That's one thing I found very pretty about their town and the parts of Michigan I have seen in general, they seem to really value trees and wild places and therefore have a lot of park and a lot of open space, which was surprising for a city. Anyways, the below picture is of the putting green that they built at Burcham Hills largely in response to the lobbying of my grandfather. It was pretty cool. There's also a commemorative brick with his name on it, which was kind of nice to see.
Later that day we drove through a town called Grand Ledge to Grand Ledges park. It was really pretty with most of the leaves having fallen off the trees and coating the ground in a perfect crunchy landscape. My aunt and I both enjoy kicking and sliding through them as we walked along the river path. Apparently my grandpa really enjoyed this spot as well.
There was a rusty railroad bridge a little ways down into the park which looked amazing against the orange fall landscape and in the distance you could see the token town water-tower. I was telling my aunt and uncle how we don't really have water-towers like that in Oregon. You can see them in a few places, but they aren't part of the skyline on every single town you come across. I thought this was a really interesting subtle difference that I noticed as I traveled my first legs across country.
Below, Emily and I are mermaids on our rock, which turned out to be a sewer entrance. We're really classy mermaids who apparently have little regard to the sanitary conditions found in sewers. It was still fun though.
They took me out to dinner to a pizza place and although they served caprese salad, which is one of my all time favorite dishes, I ordered my first deep-dish Chicago style pizza. I figured being this close to Chicago, it still counted as local food. It was really good, although it truly reminded me of what a real pizza-pir would look like. I was really glad to have the opportunity to not only try something new, but also to try something that was more traditional to the area. It's funny how a lot of times we don't assume differences in US food until we go to these places and get the real thing. It was even good as leftovers.
It was really nice to kind of land in a place for a few days after over 2,000 miles put in on the trip, and my aunt and uncle were phenomenal hosts. They fed me and showed me the sights and even gave me a bed to sleep in. It was a lot of fun. My Uncle Bill didn't even play too many jokes on me... No mom, he did not lock me in the basement, although whenever I was down there, i went when he wasn't looking, just to protect myself. Haha. Below is a picture of Emily with their dog Hailey. She was very well trained. A lot of times she just hung out in the very large and nicely manicured back yard. She never jumped on me or licked me without permission either. She's such a cutie. 
Last night we went to see a play called "Greater Tuna" in a very quaint and unique theater in some random town I have forgotten the name to. The play only had two actors, which was surprising, I had never heard of such a small cast. They played all of the parts so well though. It was really entertaining and really quite funny. I love going out to the theatre and it was really interesting to go with Bill and Em, in that they are theatre-regulars and they themselves have both studied and been part of multiple productions. In that regard, it was cool to hear their thoughts versus those of myself who does not in fact know as much as I'd like to about theatre.
Unfortunately I leave in the morning. I'm very excited to continue my road trip, but a visit never seems long enough. I had so much fun and the road trip has been such a success thus far. I can't believe that I have only been traveling for nine days or so. It seems like so much longer. Thank you so much for your generosity and hospitality Bill and Em, I hope there are many more visits in the future. 
No comments:
Post a Comment