Quilts at the Kalamazoo Valley Museum

I am spoiled. 

Every year my sister and I plan adventure’s for the other’s birthday.  Another birthday rolled around this past Monday.  According to the Oxford English Dictionary, I’m now the definition of “middle age”.  (< Thank you to Steve for letting me know this).  Not too bad…. I spent all last year saying I’m 45 already and it was a fabulous year so it’s OK to re-live it, right?

Early Monday morning my sister, Lorna, picked me up and headed off.  Destination unknown.  We are great in car trips – we can gab away the hours and love watching the world go by the car windows.  140 miles later we pulled into Kalamazoo.

I’ve got a gal… in Kalamazoo!

We spent the morning in the Kalamazoo Valley Museum: The Kalamazoo Valley Museum is a "hands-on" museum in Kalamazoo, Michigan. The museum is largely aimed at families, and focuses on science, technology, and history.

Although small, it had an impressive assortment of displays and programs (including the Challenger Learning Program and Evidence Found: Explorations in Archaeology).  They utilized their space phenomenally and the museum had a great flow about it.  

Truly hands-on – we had to try everything!  I regret I don’t have pictures from the hands-on weather exhibit – we were too busy playing!  But I did take pictures of us live in the newsroom!

One of the main features of the museum included the history of Kalamazoo.  It included Checker Cabs, Gibson guitars, and medical breakthroughs.   

And even though the museum had limited space, they did incorporate some very pretty scrap quilts in their Kalamazoo in the Union (Civil War) collection.  My favorite is the log cabin mourning quilt with the embroidered binding.  It really made me itch to pick-up embroidery needle.

Afterwards, we headed over to the Olde Penninsula Brewpub and Restaurant and off into the sunset for geocaching.  

Another amazing day in the record books!

Elisa and Lorna at "Big Red"
Holland State Park

Happy Birthday, Little Sister! Part 2

Because I had so many pictures, I decided to break this post up into two.  So, after lunch...

From there we had to boogie to get to the Guardian Building on time.  Pure Detroit, a shop in the mezzanine, is sponsoring a series of free tours throughout 2013 in celebration of their 15 years in Detroit.  Lorna and I enjoyed the skyscraper tour, guided by urban planner, Michael Boettcher. 

Guardian Building - Mezzanine

Michigan Mural - poor lighting

Michael escorted a half-dozen of us out to Campus Martius, through the First National Building, into the Compuware Building, through Campus Martius, over to the Ford Building, the Penobscot Building, the Buhl Building, and then along Jefferson Avenue.  We finished our tour back in the Guardian, 2 hours later

Michigan Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument in front of Compuware

Water Cascade at Compuware - water raining from above

Look up!

Compuware - external

Part of the tour group - Michael and Lorna in the middle

View of the ice rink in front of Detroit's Christmas tree.  According to Michael, this rink is larger than the one at Rockefeller Center.

Detroit's Christmas tree in front of the Guardian
Tree lighting is tomorrow

Close-up of Guardian Building

Guardian Building - Main Door

Ok, so why so many Indian motifs?  Most of these were built after World War I.  Up until then, the US's architecture style was greatly pilfered from the Europeans.  After the war (and all that killing of the Europeans) and after the discovery of King Tut's tomb, Egyptian and Native American motifs became the rage.  There are very few examples of the Egyptian style left in Detroit but many Native American examples.

Penobscot Building across the street

Inside the Penobscot

The Buhl Building

Relief on the Buhl Building

Michael told a really funny story here.  This statue is across the street from the 'Spirit of Detroit'.  After she was installed on Jefferson Avenue, some pranksters snuck out one night and painted green footsteps leading from Spirit to her!

 Giacomo Manzù's Passo di Danza bronze sculpture

Back to the Guardian

Lorna checking her messages

Happy Birthday girl!

2 of only 6 remaining Tiffany clocks in the world

Tiffany Clock in the Guardian

Last pose before we leave

The 2nd Tiffany clock - seen from lobby

It was the most fascinating tour about Detroit history, architecture and current direction  AND IT WAS FREE!  I'm just bummed that we found out about this at the END OF THE YEAR and missed so many!  But we will try to go back before it's over. They also offer the Guardian Building tour and the Fischer Theater.

Just as we finished our hot chocolates at Rowland's in the Guardian Building, the rain started as we walked back to our car.  From there, we headed home for Lorna's birthday celebrations that night.

Happy Birthday, Little Sister!

Thursday was my sister's birthday, and, as tradition would have it, we spent the day together.... exploring!  

This year I was stumped - I knew where I wanted to take her for lunch, but her original request (Henry Ford's Fair Lane) was under renovation.  After pinging my friends, we ended up with a very awesome day!

Birthday Girl!

Our day started with a tour of the Edsel and Eleanor Ford house on Lakeshore Road.  Stunning! The house was designed by Albert Kahn and resembled a Cotswald Cottage (an ENORMOUS cottage!) Built in 1929, the house is a series of British libraries, French salons, Chinese art with Ming vases.  We saw 2,000 year old china roosters, art donated to the DIA, personal pictures scattered throughout the room, and contemporary rooms quietly incorporating features from some of their cars.

Main Entrance

I was personally fascinated by the mixture of Asian art with French pieces and British paneling. From such diverse cultures and periods and, yet, it all blended so flawlessly.  As we took the tour early, we had the tour guide all to ourselves.  It was fabulous timing as they just started decorating for the holidays. 

Edsel and Eleanor Ford House

We were unable to take pictures inside the house, but we were given free range on the property.  We started at the Power House, walked along Lake Erie, over to the terraces, down to the pool and poolhouse.   

Lake Erie

Heading from the lake to the patio

External view of the French Salon used to receive guests

Close-up of the ivy

Back of the French salon leading to patio for dancing

West Wing of house

Turning away from the house we walked through the rose garden, the formal gardens, and around to Josephine's playhouse.  Josephine's playhouse was a 7th birthday gift from her grandmother, Clara Ford.  It cost Clara $15,000 to build, which was twice as much as it cost to build an average house at the time.

Josephine's Play House

Interesting story told by the tour guides.  The Fords knew the Lindberghs (who came from Detroit).  After the Lindbergh baby was kidnapped, security was tightened at the mansion.  The children's rooms were all interconnected to each other but the doors to the hall could all be locked by the governess.  For security reasons, Josephine could not sleep in her little playhouse.

We walked the grounds as crews were hanging millions of twinkling lights.  They offer candlelight tours and holiday grounds tours.  They also have a restaurant in the Visitor Center - it smelled SO good (they have French Dip!), but we had plans downtown.

Our next stop was an eatery on Woodward Avenue called Good Girls go to Paris Crepes.  We LOVE trying new Detroit restaurants, and so many of my friends recommended this place.  

Oh! So many choices!

It was packed - there were so many students today.  The place is the brainchild of a single lady - quite the character - who mans the griddle.  Lorna had the "Rose" and I had the "Jeanette".  We rounded off our meal with a crepe dessert called the "Katie".  I'm not kidding - I'm still craving that tart apple crepe with the salted-caramel topping.  

The Katie

To be continued.....