Greenfield Village

We left the cottage in Saugatuck at 6:00 a.m. and drove to Dearborn, Michigan. We stopped at the Comfort Inn in Taylor, Michigan and checked in and got our tickets to Greenfield Village and the Henry Ford Museum. We arrived at Greenfield Village at about 10:00 a.m. and started walking around. When we got through the entrance we went left and visited Railroad Junction first. They have an old railroad roundhouse with a couple of steam engines, a railroad turntable and Smith's Creek Depot. There is an old working steam engine that circles the village. We walked by the working farms, Firestone Station and Farm, William Ford Barn, the wagon shop and carriage barn then into the craftworks area. We saw them make glass vases in the glass shop, the old Stony Creek and Tripp Sawmills, the carding and weaving and pottery shops. The old printing shop and Armington & Sims Machine Shop then we walked pass the Carousel over to the Main Street area and waited for the clock to move at Noon on the Sir John Bennett Sweet Shop. The boys had custards and we sat by the Thomas Edison statue. We then walked over to the Edison at Work area and walked through his laboratories. There was a group of high school teachers that were there for a week and on a private tour that we had a chance to listen in on. We toured the Menlo Park Laboratory and saw how the first phonograph worked and the first light bulbs. After the Edison at Work area we walked through the Ackley Covered Bridge and into the Porches and Parlos Section. We stopped at the Susquehanna Plantation and saw a excellent presentation re-enacted by "slaves." We then toured the Susquehanna Plantation, Plympton Family Home, Daggett Farmhouse, Noah Webster's Home, Robert Frost's Home, Edison's Homestead, Burbank Store, Hermitage Slave Quarters, Mattox Family Home, William Holmes McGuffey's Home, George Washington Carver's Home, Adams and Chapman Family Homes and the Charles Steinmetz Cabin. We finished up on Main Street and saw the Orville and Wilbur Wright's re-enactment of arriving home after their first flight. We walked through the J.R. Jones General Store, Scotch Settlement School, Heinz House, Wright Cycle Shop and Home, The Hearse Shed. We finished up at the Miller School, Model T Loading Dock, Old Ford Motor Company Building and Ford Home. It was a nice cool day and the village was not crowded. We left a little after 4:00 p.m. and drove to Red Lobster for dinner. After dinner we went back to the Comfort Inn and swam in the hotel pool for a little over an hour. We had it to ourselves for most of the time. A great day.

http://www.hfmgv.org/village/default.asp