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My mom called yesterday and My Uncle Leonard (actually great uncle) passed away at 81 years old.  He was my grandpa Langmeyer’s last living sibling.  He was a very good man with a big heart and will be missed terribly.  The funeral is tomorrow here in Rochester Hills (he lived in West Branch, Michigan).  That’s really it.  Just wanted to let you all know.

Well this weekend is the second in our unending list of weekends that we have planned this month Peter’s folks Susan and Thomas flew in on Friday afternoon and are staying with us until Saturday the 19th. It’s nice to have them here. They got in around noon on Friday, and Pete had the day off to pick them up from the airport and hang with them, which I know they love! On my way home from work on Friday, I stopped off a Trader Joe’s (my favorite place) and picked up Korean Short Ribs, Vegetable Fried Rice and Gyoza (Chicken) for dinner. Pete grilled the ribs, and I cooked the rice, and steamed the Gyoza. We had a wonderful dinner with Pete’s folks out on the patio with a nice bottle of $3 buck Chuck (from a previous trip to Trader Joes)! It was a beautiful night.

On Saturday, we all got up and going. We had dinner at Kabob Grill (which has wonderful Lebanese food). And then traveled onto Dearborn, Michigan to The Henry Ford Museum (which we didn’t go to). Instead, since the weather wasn’t going to cooperate with anything else (rain) we went on the Rouge River Factory Tour. It was very interesting. The starting point is outside of The Henry Ford Museum. You take about a 5-10 minutes shuttle ride (where they show you an introductory video) to the Factory. Once there you enter Stage One. Which is a short video on the rise of Henry Ford; his childhood, the beginning of ford (after 2 failed attempts) and his subsequent success. The Rouge River Factory is where they build the Ford F-150’s (which of course aren’t in production currently). Then you move onto Stage 2. Here they have a multi-sensory production, where you follow the creation of a Ford F-150. It’s really interesting. There are 7 or 9 HUGE screens in an octagonal type room. There is also music (which was composed by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra), and “smells” to get you into things. Your seat completely swivels around. All in all, a really neat experience. From there, you take an elevator up to the Observation deck. From here you can see the living room. This plant has some really neat environmental items built in to assist in being a more “clean” “green” company. The living roof is covered in Succulents, which help to clean up the air around the plant. They have MULTIPLE skylights built into each section of the plant to assist in providing natural light when possible. They also have multiple solar panels to assist in the energy conservation as well. They also have what is called porous pavement. I thought this was really neat. They are working on helping to clean up the Rouge River (which of course they added the pollution to in the first place) and one of the steps is to filter out any contaminants in runoff before it hits the Rouge. The porous pavement is constructed in an almost honeycomb pattern, with sand and such to filter the rain/water run off before it hits the Rouge. From here you take an elevator down to the factory floor. When the factory is running you get the opportunity to view the line workers and how this factory operates. As it’s not running right now, we were only able to view videos along the way and see the silent floor. But it was fascinating nonetheless. Then from here, you go back to the ground floor which is called the Legacy floor and you can see a small progression of the vehicles from the Model T on down to the Ford F-150 (I believe that were created at this plant). It was really interesting. We were only able to take pictures on the observation deck and on the Legacy floor…and you can see those below. After that, we headed back to Rochester Hills and had dinner at Rochester Mills, which is the local brewery and restaurant. It’s fantastic, and easily one of our favorite places to eat!

Rouge River Factory-7/12/08

On Sunday, we awoke and cooked breakfast at the house. Then we left and headed back to Dearborn Michigan, this time to Greenfield Village (which is in the same area as The Henry Ford Museum and The Rouge River Factory). Greenfield Village was constructed in (I believe) 1929 by Henry Ford. It is a walk through time. There are settlements from the 1890’s, where they are still growing crops. Buildings, built as they were. There is a tinsmith, a Print Shop, Pottery Shop, Wool Shop, Saw Mill, Glass Blowing Shop there as well. There is a section on Machinery, and even Model T Rides (which were fun). There is a Main Street area that has the Wright Brother’s Cycle Shop and Home, a Millinery, Post Office, General Store. There is a section dedicated to Thomas Edison. Henry Ford, was a great friend and admirer of Thomas Edison. He built exact replicas of his Menlo Park, NJ workshop on site. When Greenfield Village opened in 1929, Edison was on hand for the opening. He was quoted as saying that Henry Ford got 98% of his Menlo Park complex correct. When asked what he did wrong, Edison said, it was never THIS clean. There is also a chair there that Edison sat in when he was there for the opening. Henry Ford had the chair nailed to the floor to the exact spot and it has been there ever since. A couple of years ago, they had to replace the floor, and couldn’t get the chair up. So they built the new floor around it. There is a TON here, and we missed some of it. We also rode the Edison Steam Engine (which goes around the park). That was really fun and really relaxing. We headed back after the Village closed and had dinner in Rochester Hills at Kubla Khan, which for those that live in Evansville is a cross between Nagasaki and Jaya’s. Really good Asian food.

Green Field Village-7/13/08

Then I went to bed! What a fun weekend, I wonder what the rest of the week will hold?!?!