Monday, May 26, 2025

Final Day on Tulip Festival Trip

 I am posting this two weeks after it should have been posted.  For some reason, the last day of a trip (any trip) is hard to post.  I don't know if it is because physiologically if I post the last day, the trip is over and that makes me sad; or, if I am just too busy to get it done and time passes before I remember that I need to post the final day.  Maybe it is a combination of both.  Anyway, here it is Monday, May 26, and I am going to post our last Tulip Festival trip day which was Sunday, May 11.  

This picture is from Saturday and was taken at the Olds Museum.  It is Katie and her dad sitting in the 1959 Oldsmobile.  The looks on their faces is priceless....a daughter taking her dad for a car ride.  One simple car ride can evoke opposite feelings...pure joy and fear!!

I love this picture of John.  Linda saw the photo opportunity and snapped this picture.  I took it from her Facebook page.

On the last day we were in Michigan, we ate breakfast at a local restaurant named "Good
Truckin'."  It was located in an area of Lansing called "Old Town."  Old Town is the part of town that the original downtown was located.


This is a picture of the street across from the restaurant. The old buildings are original to "Old Town" years.

A street in "Old Town."  I am glad the city and developers see the value in retaining the old buildings and revitalizing the neighborhood.


We arrived at the restaurant at 9:45 and had nearly an hour wait to be seated.  We did not realize that their computers were down and even after we were seated, we had another 45 minutes to wait for our food.  It was worth the wait.  As you can see from this picture, the food was generous and delicious.  No one was hungry when we left.  The interior of the restaurant showed the original walls from probably over a hundred years ago.


The high ceilings and walls can be seen in this picture.

This was a bank years ago but now contains a sweet shop.

The Grand River flows through the heart of Lansing.  There is a dam across the river at this point in this picture.  Fishermen fish for steelhead, salmon, smallmouth bass, lake trout, walleye and catfish here.  The dam impedes their passage down the river.  a "fish ladder" was installed to help the fish get from one side of the dam to the other.  This is the beginning of the ladder on the north side of the dam.



The fish ladder consists of "steps of water" like steps of a ladder to allow the fish to climb the "ladder" in small steps around the dam until they are on the south side of the dam.



After eating breakfast and seeing the "fish ladder" we said our goodbyes and headed back to Decatur.  It was an six-hour trip.  We met Kara and Family at Diamonds in Decatur for supper.  It was Mother's Day so I was able to share breakfast with John and Family and supper with Kara and Family.  What a blessing!  

It was only a seven-day trip but we enjoyed it.  We loved the Tulip Festival and spending time with John and Family.  I needed to get this trip finalized on my blog because in less than two weeks, we will be leaving for another short trip.  This trip will be ten-days long to Washington D.C.  Kara, Hunter, and Keegan will be going with us.  

Saturday, May 10, 2025

Lansing, Michigan with Family

 We met John and Family at 10:00 a.m. at the Oldsmobile Museum.  It was a beautiful day but we spent most of it inside museums.  That was ok.

Lansing is the Capitol.  It is a beautiful building.

s
Interesting information on Ransom Eli Olds.


This is a replica of the house in which Mr. Olds and  Family lived.  It was torn down to build an interstate.  Some of the furniture was saved and is on display in the museum.

Mr. Olds founded several companies.  One of them was REO.

John, Linda, Katie, and Aidan in a 1959 Oldsmobile.

This is a REO built semi truck.

A 1932 hearse/ambulance. 

A 1925 dump truck.


Mr. Olds was a man before his time.  This is a 1899 electric car.

Carol, Aidan and the semi truck.

A very early version of an air conditioner for a car.

This is a 1959 Oldsmobile convertible.  I wanted this picture because it reminds me of the car Carol drove when we dated.  Two things different...his was a Pontiac (but looked like this) and a sedan.



1925 dump truck.

Katie and I cruising in the 1954 Oldsmobile Supper 88 Convertible.

This was hanging on the wall and I liked it.

This picture should be at the end because it shows the crew enjoying a rest after visiting the Michigan History Museum.  There are lots of tired feet in this picture.

Michigan History Museum

Michigan played a big part in the WW II  war effort by retooling the automobile plants into producing military equipment.


The winter of 1978-78 Michigan received a record 390.4 inches of snow!

There are some sign named after people you would not think to name a street after like Cesar Chavez.   

John says that these three smoke towers are used on official letterheads/signs/etc. as a symbol of Lansing.  He said they are laughingly named Winken, Blinken, and Nod.

Lansing has lots of murals painted on building.  This one points to the "Old Town" and "REO" districts in town.  We drove through both districts.  Lansing is focused on revitalizing the areas with quaint shops and restaurants. There were lots of people walking around in both areas so I think the city is being successful.
 
This street is named after Malcom X.  Again, I think this is unusual because as far as I could research, he has no tie to Lansing.

This is where we ate a late lunch/early supper.  It was very good.  I don't think Carol and I will eat anything more today.





The city has town down buildings and replaced them with apartment buildings like these in an effort to revitalize the downtown area.

It was a very nice day.  We learned a lot of history about Michigan.  We like Lansing.  It seems to be a city intent on becoming better in all ways.  


Friday, May 9, 2025

Sightseeing in Michigan

 We had plenty of time this morning so we didn't get packed up until after 9:00 a.m.  We couldn't check in our next motel in Lansing until 3:00 p.m.  We decided to eat a good breakfast and then not eat lunch.  We had breakfast at Russ' again.  Breakfast was as good as the supper we had last night.''

Since we had time to kill, we decided to drive  few backroads.  The road skirted Lake Michigan although we only caught glimpses through houses.  We did enjoy driving 45 miles per hour and having time to look at the scenery.

There were a lot of cherry orchards along this part of Michigan.  The trees were just starting to bloom.


This section of the highway was covered on both sides with daffodils.
  They must have visited the Tulip Festival and got the idea.
The sand dunes that are along Lake Michigan spilled over to this lake.  The lake is called Silver Lake and in the summer, I am sure it is a hub of families vacationing and taking advantage of the family-friendly activities all around the lake.


We arrived at our hotel at 3:00 p.m and checked into Room 122.  It is located at the end of a long hall but the important things is that it is on the first floor.  It seems that most of the time, we end up on the second or third floor.  We enjoyed the drive but were glad to get out of the car and relax.

John, Linda, Katie, and Aidan came to our room and we talked and got caught up before going to Culver's for supper.  We parted ways with plans to meet tomorrow in downtown Lansing to visit a couple of museums with them.