Road Tripping: The Michigan Edition

Days after my friends left, another Cornell friend came to visit. Last year we met in Chicago; this year she came to see me; maybe next year I’ll go see her. We had plans to go on a road trip, but first we spent a couple days in Michigan. First, we got more use out of my Ford Museum membership by making the rounds through the museum and Greenfield Village. Besides all the usual spiels, we got printed copies of the Declaration of Independence, caught most of the Wright brothers’ (+sister Katharine) first flight at Kitty Hawk retelling, saw wool being carded, and heard Edison’s recording device. Inside, we walked through most of the planes/trains/cars/assorted farm equipment, but spent more time in the historical With Liberty & Justice for All exhibit, which covers independence, the Civil War, Woman’s Suffrage¹, and the Civil Rights movement.

Clockwise from top L: Wright Brothers' house, Wright Brothers' bicycle shop,

Rose Parks bus, Hot dog car

After dinner, we returned to Greenfield Village, this time for music and fireworks. When we were in Ithaca, we used to be able to watch city fireworks from the slope. It wasn’t the official viewing location, and you had to be okay with having some of the fireworks blocked by West Campus, but it was kind of fun to share in the unofficial experience on campus with other students. As far as I can tell, Ann Arbor doesn’t do fireworks for the Fourth of July. The Detroit Symphony Orchestra, however, partners with Greenfield Village to do an outdoor concert ending with fireworks accompanied by music. It sounded like it could be good, so I got tickets. The weather had possible thunderstorms in the forecast all evening, but the rain held off, and they only cancel for lightning, no refunds, so we went back to the village. As we found a spot on one side of the lawn, it started pouring.

DSO concert at Greenfield Village

Of course it did. They didn’t evacuate the premises, so we put on raincoats, huddled under umbrellas, and waited it out. After the rain delay, we got to listen to an abbreviated concert. Honestly, you go to outdoor concerts for the experience, not for a quality musical experience. Even the combined dulcet tones of a hundred musicians blaring away don’t carry well outside. There were speakers, so we could still hear, but a lawn in the rain is no acoustically architectured concert hall. They started out with “The Star-Spangled Banner,” which I first played in seventh grade for a PawSox game in Rhode Island and last played three years ago in Schoellkopf Field for a lacrosse game at Cornell. They played the overture from Candide (Bernstein, played it last fall in band), some jazz, skipped Copland’s “Variations on a Shaker Melody” (“Simple Gifts,” most probably), played the Army/Coast Guard/Marines/Air Force/Navy service songs (played most of these in ninth grade at Memorial Day parades), John Williams, more jazz, and ended with (not shockingly enough) the 1812 Overture. During the fireworks, there was more music – think patriotic tunes along the lines of “God Bless the U.S.A.” Although the rain threw things off a bit, the experience was still worth it. We managed to get out without too much trouble, even after forgetting where we left the car, and were only slightly damp.

The next morning, our destination of choice was the Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park. I’d been once with my parents on our way back to Ann Arbor from Chicago after my brother’s graduation. It’s a couple hours from Ann Arbor, but it’s somewhat different from a typical art or natural history museum, so I think it’s worth visiting. They have lots of plants, some conservatories, a new Japanese garden, and dozens of sculptures amidst the paths and trees. The sculptures range from abstract figures and blocks to metal people, horses, birds, other animals, and giant shovels. Everything’s generally arranged in a big loop, so it’s pretty easy to navigate. We made a round, had lunch, and took a quick walk around the Japanese garden before heading out.

Clockwise from top L: Giant horse, crashed UFO, giant neuron, parallelepiped

Since we’d driven the couple hours across the state, we figured we’d drive a little more to the western side of the state to see Lake Michigan. With the help of Google, we found Hoffmaster State Park and the lake. There was a small beach area but it was pretty crowded and we didn’t have any beach things, so we walked along the shore for a bit to enjoy the sand, water, and views. Before driving all the way back across the state, we climbed up to an overlook for a view of the lake. Then it was three hours in the car on some wonderfully paved highways (read: terribly paved) back to Ann Arbor where I packed for the start of our road trip the next day.

Lake Michigan, Hoffmaster State Park

¹The one thing I was absolutely supposed to learn and remember from US History II was that women gained the right to vote from the fifteenth² amendment to the Constitution.

²Just kidding. It’s the nineteenth³ amendment.

³For real this time.