Ford Museum/Dearborn Michigan

We arrived in Dearborn Michigan this last Tuesday. We decided to head south to Dearborn so we could check out the Henry Ford Museum. There are actually two very large museums...one inside and the other outside. The museums are so large we had to break them up into two separate trips.

So this last Thursday we headed to the Ford museum and spent the day checking out the Ford Museum located inside a large building, several acres in size. Wow, we were not disappointed! There were so many things to see it's difficult to know where to begin. These museums housed unique and exotic cars as well as the Model T and many old antiques. But, cars are only a miniscule part of the Ford Museum.

There were large exhibits of everything from the 1930's and 1960's hotels and what they typically looked like; to an enormous exhibit of airplanes, representing Lindberg (who was very good friends with Ford), to Amelia Earhardt, etc. etc. There were wagon exhibits from 1700 through the latest wagons created; Railroad exhibits; A unique 'Home of the Future' built in the early 1960's, a house built with airplane metal material that could be dismantled to be moved. Obviously that idea never took off.

There was an exceptionally fascinating exhibit of Presidential limousines. The one that enthralled us was Kennedy's...the one he was actually riding in when he was assasinated in 1963. There were 4 other presidential limousines on display as well, including Eisehower's; Nixon's; Johnson's and FDR's. Whew, our first day at the Ford Museum items located inside was just awesome! We couldn't wait to check out the outside museum.

We didn't manage to make it back to the Ford museum until today, Sunday July 4th. The external exhibit is comprised of 88 acres of amazing items and actual homes that had literally been dismantled, brick by brick...board by board, and relocated to Dearborn Michigan, in the Henry Ford Museum.

Actual homes from the 1800/1900's taken apart and put back together in the Ford Museum included Ford's childhood home...and Ford made sure that literally everything was identical. It took him 13 years to find the correct heater to place in the parlor. Same wallpaper, flooring, furtniture--everything. Ford was very good friends with Thomas Edison and Edison's boyhood home; Edison's actual labratories. Ford was also good friends with the Wright Brothers. Ford purchased the Wright Brother's childhood home and had it reassembled at the Ford Museum. The Wright Brother's Bike shop was also moved.

In addition to these homes and workshops, there were so many other homes, from 1800 school houses, to a shack of an hourly worker from the early 1920's, to Ford's favorite teacher, and on and on...so many it's impossibly to list them all. But my goodness, what a sight!

We entered a tavern that was built in the 1800's and cooled off a bit. While there, we checked out their menu, as also served food. The menu was full of items directly from cookbooks from the 1850's. We took one of the menus--items on the menu that you could sit down and order included: Beef Pie; "Dressed" Tomatoes; and even "Vinegar Pie"! The items were a tad too expensive, so we decided not to stop for a meal...but boy was Mark ready to give it a try! He's certainly the adventurous one when it comes to eating new and different things, that's for sure.

Whew! So that's a "brief" summary of what we've been up to during our 5 days in the Dearborn Michigan area. Where are we headed next? Well, we're only a couple of hours away from the NFL Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio, so Mark wants to head that way so we can tour the Hall of Fame. So we leave early tomorrow morning for Canton, Ohio. We're planning on spending a few days there before continuing on to the Lancaster, Pennsylvanio area to spend a few days in Amish country.

That's a wrap for this update. Happy 4th everyone. Until later~