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A Side Trip to Yesterday — on Our Way Back Home

Posted by Nancy Tobin on Aug 13, 2009 in Inspiration
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A highlight of our day was watching this singing group under a shade tree — Sweet Adeline…

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Sadie and Lily in the garden of a darling tea house/cottage

What's this? Matthew on his Blackberry!?

What's this? Matthew on his Blackberry!?

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Demonstrations run all through the day — here we watched glass artisans create a snowman — hot!

On our yearly camping trip to Michigan, we almost always make a stop at Greenfield Village in Dearborn, Mich., on our way home.

Greenfield Village, and the Henry Ford Museum next door, make up the nation’s largest indoor-outdoor history museum complex. Walking into the Village is a like walking into the past. There are nearly one hundred historical buildings; including the Wright brothers’ bicycle shop and home and Thomas Edison’s Menlo Park Laboratory. They’re all set up in a pretend town, with people dressed in period costumes, talking like they just stepped out of another century. For transportation, you can take a ride on the steam train, a Model T or a horse drawn carriage. You can even eat an authentic lunch at the Eagle Tavern, where they serve from an 1850′s menu. All in all  — very cute!

After the Village, we strolled over to The Henry Ford Museum, which has some really great exhibits of American Industrial wonders! Along with a huge collection on all kinds of vehicles and engines there are some of our particular favorites:

  • Buckminster Fuller’s prototype Dymaxion house.
  • Thomas Edison’s alleged last breath in a sealed tube! (weird!)
  • The bus on which Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat, leading to the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
  • … and not to be missed, the Oscar Meyer Weinermobile!

I'd like this in my bedroom

I'd like this in my bedroom

Sadie and Lily give scale to this humongous steam engine

Sadie and Lily give scale to this humongous steam engine

You'd have to look pretty cool driving down the road in this beauty

You'd have to look pretty cool driving down the road in this beauty

It was fun, but at the end of the day, we had to get back on the long road home

It was fun, but at the end of the day, we had to get back on the long road home

Pennsylvania's long but pretty

Pennsylvania's long but pretty

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I’m Goin’ Home: Part I

Posted by Nancy Tobin on Jul 24, 2009 in Daily Babble, Events & Happenings

My dear family is about to embark on our annual pilgrimage to my old stomping grounds: Western Michigan. Off to spend a week basking in the glorious natural beauty of Lake Michigan and the love of my huge family.

We’ll be camping — my little nuclear family — and a sizable chunk of my six siblings, all their spouses, offspring and grandchildren. This has become a family tradition — camping for a week in the summer — and I’m looking forward to the fun and relaxation!

Another thing I plan to do while I’m in the Grand Rapids area, is scope out the ArtPrize excitement: I hope to get over to Peaches Bed and Breakfast to meet Jane Lovette the owner, and check out the space where I’ll be hanging my work. I’d also like to do a little reporting on the event for my feature in NY Times Local; I’d love to get a chance to ask folks there in the center of the ArtPrize buzz, “how does New Jersey fit into the bigger art world?”

The camper is hooked up, we’re packed up and it’s time to head out the door for the grueling 11 hours on the road.

Bye for now — I’ll keep in touch while on the road.

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