After the Ford Factory Tour, we headed off to cross the border. Once across the Bridge to Canada, we took a break to stretch our legs in a park on Lake Huron. The boys were happy to toss rocks into the lake, play tag, and play on the playground for a while. When traveling with kids, we've found that these breaks are key!
We also have video to post of this sometime, but these pictures should give you an idea of what great road trippers the kids are! I was a little worried because I had to follow through on my threat to "don't make me pull this car over" only about 35 minutes into the adventure. Since then, however, we've spent about 16 hours in the car with very few further incidents.
They have pretty much entertained themselves with crazy "dancing", reading, and playing with their guys (right now, a few Toy Story figures seem to be the guys of choice).
We came to Michigan for a bit of a convoluted reason...we wanted to be sure to stop in Ohio to see Grandma as part of our road trip. From there, it was only another few hours to go around the north side of Lake Erie to Toronto, and it meant we wouldn't be backtracking on the way back. So, I looked around and found the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn. It sounded relatively interesting and we found a package hotel deal to go with it.
The Henry Ford, as it's apparently called, proclaims itself to be the premier historical museum in America. I'm not sure I'd go quite that far (uh...the Smithsonian anyone??). It was an amazingly large collection of stuff, most of which was pretty cool - the chair from Fords Theater where Lincoln was sitting, the actual bus Rosa Parks was on, and cars cars cars! Unfortunately, we found the presentation to be a bit disjointed. Even so, it was an interesting few hours and the kids thought it was fine.
The next day was the real highlight, when we took the Ford Rouge Factory Tour. We got to see a significant portion of the truck assembly line in action. [Unfortunately, we couldn't take pictures of that part!]
My hot dogs have a first name...
There was an exhibit called PLAY, where you could put your head in these giant Foosball guys. When you talked, your voice was scrambled to a higher pitch. Kind of weird, but hugely amusing to little boys!
The Dymaxion House, designed by Buckminster Fuller. It looks like an alien spaceship but was supposed to be the ultimate in modern living when it was prototyped in the 40s.
And, yes, we did drive all the way to Michigan to play legos...
Rudy with a record breaking car...
Paper airplane competition:
With the Allegheny series locomotive. Supposedly this is the most photographed item in the museum, but I'd put my money on the Wienermobile!
I know, it looks pretty much the same as any other playground! The museum closed at 5, so even after dinner we still had some time to kill before heading back to the hotel. (The least amount of time in the hotel, the better...kids have a hard time maintaining an appropriate decibel level inside the halls and rooms!)
We spent some time playing on the playground and playing tag football. I think it might have been the highlight of the day for the kids :)
From Pittsburgh, we traveled on to a quick visit at Grandma's house. We got in around dinner time, but still had time to pick raspberries and explore in the woods a bit. The next morning, we got to enjoy breakfast with Uncle Don before heading on to Michigan.
We started our annual fall road trip with an afternoon drive back to Pittsburgh. We got a great hotel with Marriott points, right across the street from the Pirates stadium. Unfortunately, we didn't get in early enough to catch a game but the hotel was still a good starting point for the next morning.
We took a stroll down the river and across the river. The Fort Pitt Museum was closed, but it wasn't part of the original agenda anyways.
We went back to the Carnegie Science Center, which was great. Outside, the kids loved the brain maze:
The museum had nearly an entire floor filled with a robot exhibit. We got to play foosball, basketball, and air hockey against different robots. Brady even got his picture with C3PO!
The first level was full of hands on activities about motion. Brady liked the earthquake simulator; Rudy was a little less sure!
The museum also has the best train village I've ever seen. I remember it from when we took Brady there as a baby. I'm not sure who liked it best...the adults or the kids!
After the museum, we drove Brady by our old house and grabbed lunch at Quaker Steak. Then it was off to Ohio to visit with Grandma. We decided that Pittsburgh needs to be its own weekend trip next year. Between a baseball game, more time at the science center, the children's museum, and a ride up the incline there is a lot left to do!
Our neighbor, Jacob, came over after school this afternoon. The kids were playing on the playground and were thrilled to catch this guy:
They kept him in a box for a while, but eventually grew tired of watching him (her?). They let him go back in the playground where he came from...
