This morning was a really rough one, but it's not worth getting into. The skies in Monroe were hazy with smoke from
Canadian wildfires. It kind of felt like home, honestly. At least the temperature was a bit lower than days past, and
the air quality was good enough that we could breathe fine. We started at a vietnam war memorial right near the hospital
where they had 2 different Huey helicopters.
We drove into Detroit proper and into an absolutely MASSIVE complex called "the Henry Ford". It's split into 4 different
sections or events - a museum, a village, a factory tour, and a giant movie screen. The factory tour would have been
really cool to see, but they weren't in active production today because it was Sunday. We had originally planned to do
the museum and the village, but time got away from us and we only did the museum. Which is probably good, because the
village is 90 ACRES and I don't know if all of the little legs could have handled it.
The museum was enormous and was about far more than just Henry Ford, although he was a pretty common theme. It seemed to be about pretty much anything historic even closely connected to transportation. There were exhibits about manufacturing, trains, camping, racing, cars, airplanes, women's suffrage, and the civil rights movement. There was a ton of really cool stuff here, including the first vehicle that Henry Ford ever created, an early Bugatti, the actual bus that Rosa Parks refused to move back on, and more. But it wasn't just things to look at - it was also interactive. They had little mockups of early airplane interiors, an opportunity for 4 people to be a race pit crew, a little build-your-own-car race - so much cool stuff. Like I mentioned, we spent WAY too much time in here, so we wound up cutting the rest of the place out. This museum was a little pricey, but very worthwhile, for grownups and kids, for gear heads and history buffs. Would definitely recommend! Some pictures below:
We finally got in the car and on the road at about 2pm and ate sandwiches in the car. We made our way through the tunnel from Detroit to Windsor, Ontario and that took FOREVER. I don't actually know how long the tunnel is, but I don't think it could have been more than a mile or so. However, we spent almost an hour in that tunnel and in the line to cross the border. The border agent was funny, she seemed really interested in the trip, wanting to see where we've been, what we were planning to do next, and she wanted to see the map. I realize it's her job to find out why people are coming into Canada and make sure things are on the up-and-up but it seemed different. Maybe it was just routine, I dunno. Anyway, she waved us through and we were back on our way.
One of the ways we've been able to make the trip work is by reducing our costs where we can, and committing to making sandwixhes for lunch every day is one of the ways we do that. Pairing that with hotel breakfasts and we're really only needing to buy one meal out every day, which is nice. Today, we pulled into a Baskin Robbins parking lot for some ice cream to celebrate my birthday. We decided to eat outside because it wasn't very hot out and there was a little breeze so it felt nixce. Almost as soon as we got outside, everyone's ice cream started melting. Watching "K" and "T" eat their ice cream was hilarious. "K" wound up with a small puddle of melted ice cream on her hand and on the ground at her feet, but "T" somehow managed to get his neon green ice cream all over both hands (and arms - up to his elbows!), his shirt, his shorts, his mouth, his EYES, and his hair. It was hilarious.
Finally, we rolled into a suburb of Toronto and got some Thai food for dinner before pulling into the driveway of our airbnb. This was a massive house that rented out the full basement. This was the second time that we got a bedroom for the boys, a bedroom for the girls, a bedroom for us and "C". "K" was up working on laundry all night again to keep us stocked with clean clothes!