Day One.. well not counting the flight day

I presumed that it would be somewhat of a pain to get online very often while we were out of town, but so far that has not been the case.

We brought one of our laptops, the wireless at the hotel the first night was surprisingly easy to log into, as is the wireless at my sister's place, where I am right now... I think that my parent's have dial-up, but I think there is wireless in one of the nearby little towns, my brother said.... So I think I may do a little travel journaling after all instead of waiting to just type two lines at the end of our vacation when we get back.

I think it is interesting how experiences are raised to a new level upon pondering and contemplation... I like to paint little pictures, completely because I love the picture that is forever burned in my brain and the appreciation that I have for the fine details of whatever pretty little scene was pretty enough to sit and try to paint... I can already tell as I sit and think of what I should report on the first day here that there are some similarities between my painting experience and journaling... far too often I think we stumble through life with a slack jaw and a dull stare at the car's tail lights in front of us... I think paying attention enough to our surroundings to be able to talk about them, perhaps on a blog?, can shake us out of our stupor...

So... with no further posturing.... Day one... and a quick mention of day .5 (travel day)

Traveling: We weren't sure how Greydon was going to do on a plane... but he's usually pretty calm so we were not too worried.. but then he got sick. He has a very specific kind of cold with a name that sounds like something more serious.. he has canker cores on the back of his throat and is contagious to little kids right now... so we changed our plans a little and decided to take about a week to get up to northern Michigan instead of driving there straight from flying into Detroit... my brother's girls are little and I didn't want to expose them of course. The doctor saw no reason to wait to fly besides paying attention to who he was going to risk contaminating, but we got a little more worried that we were going to be flying with an infant for the first time that was now feeling less than great..

But Greydon flew so so so great, he barely fussed at all... everyone loved him... of course... He smiled and flirted. He fussed barely once or twice... it was a great flight. We kept all of our bags under 50 lbs, except one. And to avoid the $90!! fee for being over, we rearranged the bags a bit... I felt like we were MOVING to MI trying to carry allof our bags and his stuff all at the same time... We spent the night at a hotel near the airport.

Today we went to the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, MI... which is pretty much Detroit now days... It is a huge museum with much more than just old Ford cars... it is around 9 acres big... it was fascinating...

Kristen teaches American History, so of course she was in heaven.

I am making a photobucket slideshow of some of my pictures as I type this.

They have the car that JFK was riding in when he was shot... that was sobering. They had about four or five other presidential limos as well, but to see that actual car made the incident more.... real.

They have a great selection of trains, always fascinating. Right before steam engines were replaced with diesel engines, there was a kind that only a few were made of, or survived... THEY WERE HUGE... it's amazing...

There was a display about civil rights through the Nation's history, they have George Washington's bedroll, the actual chair Abraham Lincoln was sitting in when he was shot, a plaster cast Harriet Beecher Stowe's hand, some slavery artifacts that were amazingly sad, and a million other great things.

My favorite item was the actual bus that Rosa Parks refused to move in.

Years after she stayed seated there was a policeman that bought an old bus from a junkyard and had it in his backyard. The original ID number of the bus had never been painted over. When Ms Parks was arrested the arresting officer included the number of the bus she was riding in his report. Some years after this old bus was in someone's backyard the connection was made. I'm not ashamed to admit that I got a little teary walking onto that bus. I'm so thankful that we have brave people throughout our history who aren't afraid to affect change... I never realized that Rosa Parks wasn't alone. Three to four other people had already gotten up and moved before she refused to do the same... So brave.

There were many great items there, a day well spent.

Then we drove to the other side of the state where my sister Shannon lives.. only one of her two sons is still at home and he's a teenager so not in danger of being infected by Greydon.

She just got a great new 3 yr old house on 5 acres for the same amount we would spend on a shack built on a postage stamp. I'm so jealous.

My nephew Zach has the coolest two story bedroom ever and we are in a guest room that is basically like a tower room with a gorgeous view of the woods surrounding the home.

I am always struck by how pretty it is here when I come back. Just driving down a regular old highway is driving through trees dotted with farms surrounded by flowers. The air always smells refreshing and I could just skip everywhere we go.

We are going to stay here at my sister's for a few days.

Already Greydon is advancing just from being here. Today while we were driving in the car he started playing with two toys, and then.... started banging them together... HAH... perfect... (if this makes no sense, read the last post)

It has already been so great to see my parents, my Sis, her husband and one of my nephews... Kristen has a lot of family out west, but I'm sorry, that's just not the same thing as your own...I have a little family in UT, for which I am truly grateful, but my heart aches to be closer to my immediate family. I wish I knew my nephews a million times better... but already I've figured out that Zach has pretty good taste in music... so that's a god sign.

I'm excited for day 2... well 2.5