Exploring Michigan

The last stop after Walnut Grove as we made on our way home was to explore northern Michigan a bit. We drove through the Upper Peninsula and crossed Mackinaw bridge into northern Michigan. We were heading to Grayling, which is a large National Guard base centrally located in northern Michigan.

As we drove through the Upper Peninsula, we passed through the town of Escanaba, which apparently has a movie about it. I've never seen it, but Mr M, his dad, and a couple uncles watched it while we were at the reunion, so Mr M made sure I took a couple pics as we drove. These are for you, Papa! :)

When we were working on our 5 and 10 year plans a couple years ago we identified a few places we’d potentially like to move to in a few years. We’d decided on them based on several criteria, among which were job availability, homeschool-friendly laws, topography, and weather.

Northern Idaho and northern Michigan were on our first list, though Michigan had the better job prospects since Mr M would most likely be able to get a job at the National Guard base in Grayling. Idaho is closer to family, so that was preferred, but had worse job prospects.

Mountains, lots of trees, and snow in the winter are a must for us, but job availability is no longer a deciding factor since we’ve decided to focus on being entrepreneurs and building our own businesses.

We visited northern Idaho earlier in our trip, and it stayed on our list: it's homeschool friendly, has mountains and trees, and winter with snow (something we've been missing here), and we loved the area. We could very easily see ourselves living there, building our businesses, and raising our family.

While we no longer plan on Mr M working for the National Guard or Reserves, we still wanted to check out Grayling. Michigan has good homeschooling laws, lots of trees, lots of snow in the winter, and maps showed ski resorts, so we thought there were mountains as well.

Imagine our surprise when we were driving through Michigan, and all we saw was lots of trees. It was beautiful, but it was so flat.

So, so flat.

Not a mountain to be seen.

Turns out that any hill of a decent size is used for skiing, but they're definitely not the ski resorts you'll find in Utah or Colorado.

we stopped and dipped our toes in the Lake Michigan, but the rusty color of the water was more than a bit unsettling, and didn't tempt us to go swimming

It’s a good thing we checked it out now, rather than in a few more years when we’re ready to move. The lack of mountains is a deal breaker for us, so we won't be looking for land in Michigan.

We spent the night at the base campground in Grayling. This was only the second night of the whole trip where we had full water, electric, and sewer hookups, and the price was very reasonable- only $17. The campground was almost full, but it seemed like a lot of the trailers were parked there more or less permanently, with their owners staying in them just on the weekends. We were there in the middle of the week, and a lot of them looked deserted.

Despite our disappointment with the lack of mountains, we are looking forward to returning and riding our bikes on some of the miles of trails. We’d planned on a bike ride while we were there, but an afternoon rainstorm nixed that idea.

The next morning we continued on our way, and after one last night in a Walmart parking lot, we arrived home, five weeks after we started our trip.

Natural Bridge State Park

We recently went to Natural Bridge State Park. It's been on our to-do list for awhile, and we were in the area, so we decided it was a good time to finally check it out.

Ocean was in the stroller so he didn't make it into any pictures :)

It really is quite spectacular.

George Washington supposedly surveyed the Natural Bridge area in 1750. His initials can be seen carved on the side of the rock wall. Thomas Jefferson purchased a 157 acre tract of land that included the Natural Bridge in 1774 from King George III for 20 shillings. I wish land was still that cheap :)

on the back side of the arch

There's a trail that leads past the Natural Bridge to an old Monacan Indian village site that's now a living history exhibit.

If you follow the trail further, you come to an old saltpeter mine that was used during the War of 1812 and the Civil War. You can't go in, though in all honesty, I wouldn't have wanted to. It just looked like a cramped, dirty, dark opening in the overhanging rock.

The trail continued over a stream that was formed when the miners blasted the rock to expose the hidden river they could hear, but not see. No one's been able to find the beginning or end of the river despite multiple attempts.

The trail ended near Lace Waterfall. Though it looked to me like some trees had fallen down part of the waterfall, which makes it a little less scenic.

looking downstream from the falls

The trail was a nice little walk of about a mile and a half or so from the Natural Bridge to the falls and back. It was also accessible- Ocean was in the stroller the whole time without any off-roading needed. There's some caverns nearby that we plan on visiting the next time we're in the area.

Philadelphia Trip Part 3: Smith Playground and Please Touch Museum

We had time after the tour of the temple before we needed to head home, so we went to Smith Playground. It was a very impressive (free!) playground, and Sunshine and River had a great time. The playground and it's accompanying playhouse (a 16,000 sq foot house built just to be used by kids, though it looks like any other historic house) were built more than a hundred years ago. We walked through the house, but there's no a/c and it was too hot inside for us to want to hang around, so we spent our time outside. 

River glanced back and then imitated Sunshine- so cute!

There was a 100 year old large wooden slide that they really enjoyed.

And this spinning thing.

River hanging off the side, is SO River. He is all fearless little boy.

I had to help River, but they liked this take on the classic teeter totter.

There was lots more, but I didn't take pictures of it all. It was hot, so after a while we went to the air conditioned coolness of the Please Touch Museum. This was a super impressive children's museum with an interesting history. It's a large, very ornate building that was originally part of the 1876 Centennial Exhibition, which was also the first major World's Fair that was held in the US. There were 60,000 exhibits spread out in 240 buildings on more than 284 acres.

In the basement level there was a model of the expo. The size of some of the buildings is truly impressive! The building in the center-ish with the light green dome is the building the museum is in, and it was quite large. The exhibit halls in front of it must have been huge.

River really liked the model ambulance with the flashing light- he comments on every truck we pass that has a flashing light (woo woo light!).

And the dump truck was pretty cool, too. He's all about trucks and tractors these days.

They had a large lazy river-type water table that the kiddos both enjoyed.

The rotunda was quite impressive. The arm is a model of the Statue of Liberty arm that was exhibited during the expo. The Statue of Liberty wasn't completed yet, so they exhibited the arm and visitors could pay a fee to go up to the platform of the torch. The fees collected helped finish putting together the Statue of Liberty.

The Statue of Liberty arm model was made out of old toys and signs.

This was a super cool play museum, but it was almost too big. We visited the whole thing, but the last couple rooms we just stopped in to see what was there. I was too tired and over stimulated at that point, so it was time to go.

I will say I thought the admission cost a bit steep: $17 per person 1 years old and up. For four people, that's $68! Luckily, I had researched the museum ahead of time and knew that it participates in the Blue Star Museums program. This means that between Memorial Day and Labor Day, military families can attend participating museums for free. Instead of $68, we got in for free. That made it a lot easier to only stay for a few hours and not feel like we had to stay longer to get our money's worth.

Our trip to Philadelphia wasn't super long and we didn't see everything there is to see, but for the amount of time we had I think we did pretty good. I was tempted to cram more in, but I'm glad I didn't since I got over-stimulated just with what we did. I am getting better at recognizing my limits and not-over scheduling, but each activity comes with it's own stimuli and I can't always account for them ahead of time. One of these days I'll do a post about being a highly sensitive person (HSP) and how it affects me and how I deal with it. I started it awhile ago, but haven't quite gotten around to finishing it as it's not a fluffy topic and takes some thought.

Philadelphia Trip Part 2: Temple Open House

It rained overnight and was still overcast when we arrived for our 9 am tour. One of the guides mentioned that this temple incorporates a lot of local historical architecture, and it was easy to see those influences since we'd spent time in Independence Hall just the day before.

The columns, the shape of the trim around the interior doors and windows, the swooping metal arms of the chandeliers, and the wood planked floors were very reminiscent of what we saw at Independence Hall. It was quite interesting to see how they brought those details in, and it worked quite well (of course!).

I told Sunshine and River to touch the temple, and this was the result:

I love how River took me so literally and spread out both arms :)

And Ocean had to get in on the action as well:

Philadelphia Trip Part 1: Independence NHP

the less-well known side of the Liberty Bell

Last week we went to Philadelphia so we could tour the new Philadelphia Temple during the Open House before it's dedicated. Since we went through the effort of driving up there and we weren't about to do the whole trip in one day, we used the extra time to do some sightseeing. After we arrived in Philadelphia we went to Independence National Historical Park. 

I made reservations for us to visit Independence Hall, but we had some time before the appointed time, so we stopped in to see the Liberty Bell.

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After we saw the Liberty Bell we headed across the street to Independence Hall. We still had a little bit of time, so we found a spot to sit so Sunshine could work on her Junior Ranger packet. The boys weren't super thrilled. I miscalculated the timing of everything- I thought the boys would take a nap as we traveled, but at this point (3 pm, I think), Ocean had only taken a short nap and River hadn't slept at all. 

Independence Hall

waiting...

waiting...

working...

Pennsylvania Supreme Court Chamber. 

This was across the hall from the Assembly Room pictured below.

I missed most of the portion of the tour in the Supreme Court Chamber and all of the Assembly Room because Ocean was losing it. He was not a happy camper and wasn't afraid to let everyone know it. The combination of teething, being strapped in to his car seat, the stroller, and to me, and the lack of sleep made him a very cranky little boy. Sunshine got to hear the presentation at least.

The Assembly Room. That chair in the center is the Rising Sun chair that Washington sat in while presiding over the Constitutional Convention. Both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were debated and signed in this room. The guide told us that if you see a picture and you're not sure which event it's depicting, look for the presence of the Rising Sun chair. If it's present, it indicates that it's a painting of the Constitutional Convention. Neat, right?

After touring Independence Hall and a couple other exhibits Sunshine had finished her Junior Ranger packet, which we took to the Visitor Center.

Sunshine got two badges this time because this year is the National Park Service's 100th anniversary. The plastic badge on the left side of the picture is the one for Independence NHP, and the wood one on the right side is to commemorate the centennial.

Look for two more posts about our trip to Philadelphia :)

Weekly Workout

Last week I still didn't hit the treadmill, but I worked on projects and I got a good amount of walking in on Wednesday. We  walked around DC with my sister and nephew (they were out for a National History Day contest that he was participating in). It was hot and humid all week last week, but thankfully Wednesday was slightly cooler and it even rained on us twice while we were walking around. This wasn't a bad thing since it helped us cool off a little :)

I forgot to wear my fitbit, so I don't know how far we walked, but it was at least 3-4 miles. Those miles were a mix of flat areas, hills, pushing Phil, not pushing Phil, etc.

Pushing Phil was actually easier except when we were going uphill. Phil gave me something to lean on and helped me walk a bit more normally. I've definitely had the pregnancy waddle going on the last couple weeks when I do much walking, and the stroller helped me walk better.

My nephew had a busy schedule with his National History Day stuff, but we managed to hit up the Air and Space Museum and the National History Museum while we hung out with him and my sister.

We went to our old standby Chipotle for lunch, but tried the ShopHouse for dinner. It's a small chain owned by Chipotle, with only a few restaurants, mostly in the LA and DC areas. Their food is all gluten free and influenced by Thai and Vietnamese flavors, focused on rice or rice noodle bowls that you build. Rice or noodles topped with protein and veg, then topped with a sauce and a garnish. You pick and choose your combination of the five items.

I thought it was pretty good, but a bit spicy, even though I tried to pick less-spicy items. River and Sunshine also thought the food was a bit spicy. Mr M didn't have a problem with the spiciness and I don't think my sister and nephew had a problem with it either. The price is similar to Chipotle's burrito/burrito bowl, so not super expensive. It's nice to be able to eat somewhere new without having to worry about gluten contamination and we will probably eat there again if we're in the same area.

For some reason none of us took any pictures until we were waiting for the metro. So we have a picture with crappy lighting of Sunshine, River, and my nephew. We were surprised that we got a smile out of River since it was almost 9 pm and he'd been up since 6:30 am and had only had a single 5 minute nap all day. The second we put him in his car seat he finally gave in and went to sleep.

Boston Area Junior Ranger Programs

We try to find National Park Junior Ranger programs whenever we travel because we all learn so much from them. And LMS gets to collect cool little pins :) Our trip to Boston was no exception. While we were in Boston we helped LMS complete three more Junior Ranger programs. There's more available, but we didn't have time to hit them all. You can see more pictures and links taken at each site in this post.

The first one was at Minuteman National Historic Park. This one was pretty easy and didn't take too long to complete, and we learned a lot.

The second Junior Ranger program was in Salem. This was a little more difficult to finish since not everything was open because it was the off-season, but we were able to figure out all the answers. This one focused on the shipping history of Salem (not the witches!), so it's too bad the Friendship wasn't open for tours, though we still learned a lot.

The final Junior Ranger program was actually a two-in-one: one pamphlet for Boston (the Freedom Trail) and one for Bunker Hill/Charlestown Naval Yard/USS Constitution. We completed the pamphlets for each, and I think they were both a bit more detailed than the previous two we did. So they took a bit more thought and exploration to complete. That's not a bad thing, but by that point we were starting to run a bit low on time. They only have one Junior Ranger pin for Boston, so because she did both programs she also received a Junior Ranger patch.

She's up to 11 pins now (starting top left and moving clockwise):

Canyonlands, Zion, Wright Brothers

Arches, Grand Teton, Grand Canyon

Boston, Shipmate (Salem), Yellowstone

Minute Man, Mount Rushmore