Grace and Juliet visit the Michigan History Museum

One of the most impressive museums that I've ever been to is the Michigan History Museum near the Capitol in Lansing.  

Alice went when she was in third grade, for an entire week!!!  It was something I was excited to visit with each of my children in turn, and we had even paid for Emily's experience, but Covid just wreaked havoc on all of those plans.

In any case, Emily and William would not have been able to go, even had we not homeschooled, but I was excited to revisit the center with the twins this year!

I'd forgotten about the parking line, since their credit card reader doesn't work terribly well.  But I got parked and stuck my visitor sticker that I'd grabbed from the school on my lunch.  When I went to put my name on it, I didn't turn far enough for my arm to have ample room to write, and sure enough, I became a  Crockov just like Alice! lol.  It was a cold, slightly wet walk to the door.

My group consisted of both of my girls and Ava.

Beautiful atrium!

I feel like this picture might one day become a checklist. = )

Grace, rocking out.

A vehicle that would fit our family!!!

A Baader-Meinhof moment, when I saw the Victory Garden apron, after Billy and I had just been discussing it the day before!

Juliet:

Grace:

In the group elevator that is bigger than William's room!  It's probably the size of our big bathroom, if you pulled out the tub and toilet and sinks and closet!

I have a sweet picture of Alice in this very spot, but our guide was talking and wasn't able to recreate it with the twins.

So clever!

Apparently, a significant amount of wood came from Michigan, when they rebuilt Chicago after their famous fire!

A tree's life covering so many human events!

Grace

Juliet in her pink hoodie.

Juliet

We didn't get to do this tour as a group, but it would have been cool to follow each 'story' through the stations, and get a real glimpse of history from a youth's prespective.

Looks like many of the houses in Waxahachie!

This is such a cool museum.  I told Billy we need to go on a beautiful Sunday (when it's free entry) so that everyone is out enjoying the weather and we can see the museum as a family!

I still lament the lost trips with Emily and William, but will just have to go as a family, and soon!

later days

edit: written 6-16-23 backdated for continuity.

February 19th, Impressions 5 during Spring Break I

The high today was 29F.  It was really cold walking into and out of the museum.  We didn't have any precipitation, and I think the wind was pretty minimal.

Today Alice's playdate with Willow was a the museum.  My mom brought her friend's granddaughter too.  It was a fun way to spend 4 hours.

The big girls were allowed to go explore as long as they stayed together, and this is about all I saw of them except for our picnic lunch/gift store shopping* and leaving time.  

The twins stayed close to Avia.

So, for the most part it was just me and William. = )

They had the trains set up!

We spent a while setting up a domino course.  It looks far less impressive in the picture than it did in person. ; )

and William is now tall enough to reach the bubble pull!

When we left the museum we went to McDonalds.  The original plan was to meet up with Juliet's friend there, but due to illness, she didn't get to come. = (  After four hours at the musuem, they didn't even last 2 hours at McDonalds.

In the car I recommended spending some time at (a different) library, so that I could ensure a hot meal for Billy. I figured even 45 minutes would allow us to pick it up on our way home, but I was met with a resounding "no."  I guess I wore them out. = )  So, Billy got lukewarm McDonald's for dinner.

Everyone was very quiet and sedate on our return trip. I think there may have been a few sleepers too.

I made some quesadillas for snacking/dinner, since our eating schedule had been so strange.  Grace was still not feeling the best when we got home and slept early.  She looks so much like Juliet here, but it is Grace.

The week has gone by quickly, just as expected, but no less sad.

later days

*We don't usually do the gift shop, so they were allowed 5 minutes to shop, and mine brought $5 of their own money if they wanted.  Our guests had their own budget. 

Kalamazoo

My birthday celebrations lasted forever this year!  My mom offered up a date for me and Billy, so we took a day trip down to Kalamazoo!

It may not look like much, but breakfast on a train is so much better than anywhere else. = )

After we left the train station, we headed for a museum, and found ourselves in a nice little park.

Back side?

Front side?  There was no plaque.  I have no clue what this was supposed to be.  Is it art? Is it a piece of space shuttle that fell from the sky? A left over piece of industrial equipment?

The museum was free, and very cool!  We spent much longer there than I thought we would.

They had a "miniatures exhibit.  This was placed into the eye of a needle!

My best "biker face."

This was what our ornament read:

There were a few temporary exhibits, one of them was The Mystery of the Mummy!

Next we went to a recommended restaurant for lunch.  It's called the beer exchange because they have a live 'exchange' for their on tap beer prices.  They go up or down depending on what people are ordering.  Sadly, this didn't start until 6pm, so we didn't get to see it in action.

The building they were in was very open, and aesthetically pleasing.

This reminded me of a humorous video that I'd watched.

Since we'd had breakfast not long before, I ordered the fried pickles.  What came out was a bit unexpected.

I acquired a new button from a quarter vending machine.  I have no idea who this is.  Anybody know?

We had some time before our escape room, so we played a round of pool.

On our walk back it was sunny.  Not warm, but above freezing at least.

We stopped in a chocolate shop to see about getting souvenirs for the kids.  I was pretending to eat the UP section of the chocolate Michigan that we bought.

Billy captured the moment I decided to actually eat it. = )

Our newest escape room adventure was Amelia Earhart's lost apartment.  It was pretty awesome.  The story was really good.  They also had some fun games to play in the lobby while you waited (or after your game.)  We escaped and brought our percentage up to a 88!

After we left it was time to go to dinner.

When we arrived at the restaurant we had picked out online, they were closed for a private event until 7, which didn't work with our departing train.  So, we ended up at a place on the other side of the square.  It didn't disappoint at all. = )

It was dark when we were heading back to the train.

We entered through a different door than we had exited in the morning, so we'd missed the display the first time in the train station.

The Kalamazoo train station is really very pretty!

Nice vocabulary on the East Lansing train station door.

It was a quick trip, but so fun.  Of course, any time we take the train I'm excited.

later days