"Must See" Things To Do In Michigan

Most days, I am happily up to my ears with lists of things to do in Chelsea, Michigan. But what if we wanted to do something fun outside the city limits? [Gasp!]

Earlier this month, I posted a message on a local parenting board to inquire about "must see" things to do in Michigan. My brother and his family were visiting from California, and previously had only visited us for "the holidays", so I wanted to show them that Michigan isn't always cold and dark.

I have lived in southeastern Michigan my whole life, and in Washtenaw County since 1988. But I was still greatly impressed with this long list of suggestions for old favorites, and many places I had never heard of! Hope you find it useful as well.

Local Parents List of "Must See" Things To Do In Michigan

(NOTE: The original responses are included below, and were edited as needed. My own comments are the "Editor's Notes")

• Warren Dunes in Sawyer, MI right on Lake Michigan. It’s a state park so you will pay for the day or free if you have a sticker. It’s about 2.5 hours away, right off I-94. The dunes are fun to climb and the lake is nice, with a great beach. They also have a trail leading to mud pits. The kids love to go and play in the mud and walk back to the lake to wash it all off.
• If you want to stay close to home, don’t forget the Ann Arbor Hands On Museum.
  
• Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village - My kids have loved to
  go there over and over again. It's a great place for all ages. [Editor's note: I received more suggestions for the Henry Ford Museum than any other place!]
  
• There are lots of great parks close by: Kensington, Independence Lake, Rolling Hills, Hudson Mills. I love to go to Independence Lake on a hot day. It is perfect for kids within that age range, because it also has a nice splash zone.
• The Leslie Science Center should be fun, too.
  
• Cabela's - The mounted animals are pretty neat, as well as the fish tanks.
• Ask your visitors if they have apple orchards where they are. I think that apple picking season is just starting, and it’s fun for kids to go to an orchard and pick some apples.
• Downtown Detroit is fun as long as you don't get lost!. You could go to a Detroit Tigers game, see Ford Field, visit Greektown, etc.
• Of course, a day on the beach at Lake Michigan is beautiful any time. The lack of salt water may surprise the kids. South Haven, Saugatuck or Holland (Hoffmaster State Park) make for wonderful day trips to see Lake Michigan and feel like you are worlds away.
  
• I’d definitely say Sleeping Bear Dunes!
• We went to the Corner Brewery in Ypsilanti with [our of town guests] last night, and that was fun because you can take kids and it’s very relaxed, with board games and stuff.
• There’s the arboretum, checking out the University, etc.
• If they're going to be here on a Sat., the Southern MI RR is fun. It goes from Clinton to Tecumseh, then back. You get a nice look at agricultural countryside, walk around a typical small town, etc.
  
• Of course there are also the Zoos (Detroit Zoo, Binder Park Zoo in Battle Creek, Potter Park Zoo in Lansing and the Toledo Zoo is also within easy driving distance).
  
• The Detroit Science Center has a new exhibit called Fun Factory. It is sponsored by Great Lakes Steel and is supposed to be pretty cool.
• In Plymouth we have a very fun little restaurant in old village called The Caboose right by the train tracks that has corned beef sandwiches that are FAB (IMHO) minus the Zingerman's price tag! [Editor's note: price tag or no, Zingerman's is also a great place to bring guests!]
  
• The UM Botanical Garden is good – lots of native plants on the outside “Ethnobotanical” trail, garden area.
  
• Farmer’s markets – Chelsea, Ann Arbor or other local markets are a nice activity on a Saturday morning. Blueberry or raspberry picking might also be a nice outing for them.
  
• Canoeing or paddle boating on the Huron at Gallup Park.
  
• And there’s always the Historical Museum in Lansing.
• The 'Dinosaur Museum' in Ann Arbor (aka the Exhibit Museum of Natural History) - It's a great size for families. Not too big, not too small. Kids love the dinosaur bones!
  

Michigan Event Resources

• Michigan.gov website and the Michigan.org website
  
• GoCityKids
• Roadside America Online Guide to Offbeat Tourist Attractions!
• Manchester Community Calendar
• Michigan 2007 Fairs List
• Locate Festivals and Events around Michigan!
• Summer Activities in Washtenaw County
• Absolute Michigan – All Michigan All the Time
• “Things to Do In Chelsea” website [Editor's note: I love it when people recommend my own site to me!]

And Us?
Partly because the weather was so crazy (hot, humid, cold, thunderstorms... we had it all!), and partly because the kids kept begging to go again and again, we spent more time than anticipated at the TreeHouse. I think we went 4 or 5 times in less than 2 weeks. Not that I'm complaining. Any time I can sit back and drink good coffee and let the kids have a blast is just fine with me!

We had a fantastic dinner --as always!-- at the Common Grill for my birthday. We visited Mike's Deli and Zou Zou's for more good food and coffee. We went to the Chelsea Fair twice (once for shows and animal viewing, and the other for rides and eats) and had our annual Parade Day celebration. We went to the 'Dinosaur Museum' in Ann Arbor. Another big event was going to the Huckleberry Railroad to take a ride with Thomas the Train. But most of all, the kids spent hours and hours and hours playing legos, pirates, dress-up, swinging and making mud-pies in the backyard. We watched some movies, played some cards. Enjoyed my husband's fabulous grilling skills and sat on the back deck.

The "Must See" things for families to do in Chelsea that we missed? Just a few...

• Timbertown
• Tour of Jiffy Mix (my nephew loves to see how things are made!)
• Visit to Chelsea Teddy Bear Factory
• Sounds and Sights on Thursday Nights
  

Needless to say, despite a lot of negativity about our lovely state these past months, Michigan is a great place to live and a fun place to visit.

Kids who like to break things

Back in the early 1980s, I went to my little brother's room and found him sitting hunched over his desk looking either very busy or very much in trouble. I sneaked closer and saw he had a screwdriver in hand and his radio in a million pieces. (This is the part when my brother says, "Actually, it was only 258 pieces.")

I exclaimed, "What did you DO!?! You'll never get it back together again!" Without looking up he replied, "So?" I asked him WHY in the world he would do such a thing to a perfectly good radio, and he said simply: "I wanted to see how it worked." That 8 year old boy grew up to be a disgustingly successful software engineer in the heart of Silicon Valley.

Today, I read an article about a 17 year old from New Jersey who hacked the iPhone so it would work on other networks. Despite the number of hours I spend in front of a computer, my life is surprisingly gadget-free, so this iPhone update doesn't really interest me. But I did get a kick out of reading his blog. If you start from the first post, you see that he begins the process by taking apart this expensive toy with a guitar pick, with bits and parts all over his desk. After about the 8th post, I have no idea what he is talking about. But apparently, he traded this summer project for a brand new car and is now 'retiring' to start his college career. Good for him!

In the end, it makes me feel a little less edgy when my four year old son disassembles things (I call it 'breaking') to see what is inside. Now, if only I could find a good reason that he dips any food into any condiment. Waffles and ketchup anyone?

Links:

• Teen Trades Hacked iPhone for New Car (Yahoo News article)

• Finding JTAG on the iPhone - Blog

Tuesday Morning's Lunar Eclipse

If you're awake in the early hours on Tuesday, watch the sky for our second lunar eclipse of the year.

• Read more on Yahoo News: Viewer's Guide: Tuesday Morning's Lunar Eclipse

Unwelcome visitors are finally gone

This past week, we had some very unpleasant visitors at our home. They ate too much, destroyed my property and were oh-so-very ... GREEN. Neon green to be exact.

Oh, The Devastation
In a mere day or two, the guests to whom I'm referring devastated the lovely, fruitful tomato plants I had growing on our deck. I noticed it on Saturday, while enjoying a summer evening with friends and family. As I admired my potted garden, I noticed a few stalks looked a little bare. On closer inspection, I saw that MANY of the stalks looked completely bare. As my 6 year old nephew would say, "What THE...?!?"

Having dealt with deer eating tomato plants in our backyard garden the last two years, I thought I'd be smart and put them on the deck this time. But now... more damage? Would a deer really climb up the deck stairs to eat a tomato plant? I wasn't sure what was worse, the plant being damaged or the thought of deer on my deck.

My husband missed this dinner-time drama, and went out later that night to inspect the plants. He returned with two plump green caterpillars and said, "I found your deer." We looked on the Internet to learn more about these strange creatures.

What THE...?!?
This is what we've learned and observed.

• They are called tomato horn worms (see the sinister looking horn on his back end?) or tobacco worms. Did you know tomato and tobacco plants are related? Both are part of the nightshade family. [Cool website link: www.whatsthatbug.com/tomato.html]
  


• Tomato Horn Worms are not worms at all, but caterpillars that will eventually turn into a very large moth, lay eggs and make more caterpillars. [Another informative link about Tomato Worms: organicgardensite.com]
  


• The recommended way to get rid of them in small gardens is to pick them off. This is challenging because they blend in so well, and hide under the leaves during the daylight hours when it gets hot.


• They look very much like the star of Eric Carle's famous children's book, The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Makes me wonder if this happened to his tomato plants, too. Because I can totally see how this voracious creature could eat through one apple, two oranges, three strawberries, a slice of salami, a piece of cake... etc.

Not again!
Unfortunately, I went out to check my tomatoes Sunday morning and found they had once again been attacked. The plants were in really bad shape, and lost about half of their foliage. I found three more tomato worms.

I clipped off the mostly bare stalk and a caterpillar along with it -- I wasn't gonna touch that thing! -- put it in on a paper plate and brought it in to show the kids. It was an interesting and somewhat entertaining morning, as we watched the caterpillar munch on the leaves, take a poo, and inch around looking for more to eat. But I'm still mad.

As of Monday afternoon, the plants are at status quo. Which hopefully means we found all of the accused.

What About My Treasures?
Now, what about the harvest? After getting rid of the green visitors, I am trying to remain optimistic that we will enjoy a few more home grown tomatoes. There are quite a few green ones, so I hope they will ripen properly. There is little hope of new tomatoes growing though.

I am no farmer, but I do enjoy gardening. But after three years of having disappointing crops of tomatoes and other vegetables due to unseasonably cold weather, deer eating vegetables down to the nubs, and now caterpillars stripping plants clean, I'm about ready to give up. There is always Chelsea's Farmers Market, right?

Back to our regularly scheduled programs

I really did try to take 2 weeks off from work and responsibilities while my family was visiting, but only succeeded to varying degrees. The down side of running your own business and making yourself responsible for keeping a community website up to date is that you can't just walk out of your office, turn off the cell phone and let someone else worry about it while you're gone.

So, I put out all the big fires and let the rest wait. Until Sunday afternoon at about 4 p.m. when I started getting this guilty panicky feeling about the piles on my desk.

I have much to share about community happenings, personal tidbits and the Things To Do In Chelsea website updates. But this one thing will have to wait until after the Monday morning coffee. See you then!

Citizen concerns addressed by city on website

The City of Chelsea has posted a Chelsea City Q&A (PDF link) paper on their website. Citizen concerns are discussed regarding water quality, residential taxes and city budgets issues.

The city website is located at city-chelsea.org and the specific Q&A article is found on the News page.

A birthday diversion

Seriously, I do try to keep this blog on topic, discussing things to do and see in Chelsea, Michigan. But today is my birthday, and I thoroughly enjoyed wasting some of my morning time doing this:

Can't resist? Simpsonsize yourself or your family at SimpsonizeMe.com.

Thanks to LunaPierCook for the link!

It's all about the packaging

I subscribe to an RSS Feed from LiveScience.com, and one article in particular caught my eye this morning:

• Kids Prefer Meals in Fast-Food Wrappers (LiveScience.com, 8/7/07)

The article states that in a side by side comparison, whether or not the food itself IS from McDonalds, kids tend to choose the food in the McD packaging. For example, given the choice of (A) grocery store chicken nuggets in a McDonald's box, vs. (B) actual McDonald's nuggets on a plate, kids are more likely to choose A.

As a graphic artist and website designer, this comes as no surprise to me. Most people would choose a company with a good looking website and brand marketing over one without. Why? Better packaging. And the gut feeling that if a company cares about their image, then they must care about the quality of their work as well. Depending on the company, this may or may not be true, but it's more of a subtext than a correlation.

McDonald's has this down to a science. So why not use this information as a strategy to get kids to eat healthier foods? Perhaps we could find some some fun food-safe paper to wrap up lunches in, for example. Even junk food you make at home is healthier than junk food at a fast food restaurant. Compare:

• Chicken McNuggets®: White boneless chicken, water, food starch-modified, salt, chicken flavor (autolyzed yeast extract, salt, wheat starch, natural flavoring (botanical source), safflower oil, dextrose, citric acid, rosemary), sodium phosphates, seasoning (canola oil, mono- and diglycerides, natural extractives of rosemary). Battered and breaded with: water, enriched flour (bleached wheat flour, niacin, reduced iron, thiamin mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), yellow corn flour, food starch-modified, salt, leavening (baking soda, sodium acid pyrophosphate, sodium aluminum phosphate, monocalcium phosphate, calcium lactate), spices, wheat starch, whey, corn starch. Prepared in vegetable oil ((may contain one of the following: Canola oil, corn oil, soybean oil, hydrogenated soybean oil, partially hydrogenated soybean oil, partially hydrogenated corn oil with TBHQ and citric acid added to preserve freshness), dimethylpolysiloxane added as an antifoaming agent). (click for source)


• Trader Joe's Chicken Drummettes: chicken breast, water, butter flavor (maltodextrin, modified cream from cow's milk), sea salt, spice extractives, cotton seed oil. (Source: I called the Trader Joe's in Ann Arbor and one of the employees was kind enough to get a box and read me the ingredients. I think we must have missed the breading ingredients, so I will call back and update the list soon.)
  

Should the packaging matter? Maybe not, but humans have evolved and thrived for a long time by choosing the more attractive foods for survival.

The whole thing reminds me of the old Eddie Murphy stand up routine from Raw (Warning! Rated R language in this You Tube clip) where he begs his mom to take him to McDonalds and she makes him a hamburger at home instead.

What should a 4 year old know? Preschools in Chelsea

My son is 4 and starting preschool in the fall. As the first weeks of August came and went, I've begun the "School is starting in a month" panic. Quick, kiddo! Learn to read the alphabet, tie your shoes, put on mittens, raise your hand, write your name! Shoot... do we need to know upper AND lowercase letter?! C'mon! We need new shoes, clothes, a trip to the dentist, backpacks, a haircut, paperwork from the pediatrician. ........

Instead of jumping to action, I sat down in front of my computer and typed in the Google search box: What should a 4 year old know before starting preschool? Here are the links I bookmarked:

• What should a 4 year old know? This article reminded me that it's not academics that are important, but a loving, fun, imaginative environment.


• I also appreciated the bulleted lists of curriculum standards for various grade levels found on the World Book website. I don't necessarily agree with every item, but it's a good place to start.

Preschools in Chelsea
We are lucky to have some very good preschool options in Chelsea. My daughter attended Chelsea Community Education preschool. They currently offer both a traditional and Reggio Emilia curriculum. I also know many parents who are happy with the Chelsea Co-op preschool, as well as the Lambs of Our Savior preschool. These three are the ones I have listed on the Things To Do In Chelsea's Places to Learn page. If you know of others, let me know and I'd be happy to add them to the list.

The Chelsea Co-op preschool has a very nice message to parents on their website, and talks about ways to help kids adjust to a new preschool school.

Back to our regularly schedule panic?
All in all, I stopped my panic and realized that I'll be fine... er, I mean he will be fine.

August thunderstorm shuts down Main St.

One of the coolest things about living in Michigan is the impressive thunderstorms. Last night we had a doozy, and not only did it provide a much needed drink for our plants and trees, it also led to a portrait of Small Town USA (aka Chelsea, Michigan).

It was a torrential rain, and I went out on front porch to check it out. I noticed the vehicles on Main St. had stopped, and I wondered if the road had flooded. I looked east and saw it wasn't floods, but a gigantic branch -- more like half of a tree -- that had fallen across the road.

The cloud burst only lasted a few minutes, but we lost power. I dare guess it was because of the half a tree that had hit the pole across the street. Of course, with no TV, computers, or other electronic distractions, neighbors had little else to do than come out of the woodwork to see what was going on.

I don't think I have seen that many people on Main St. since last year's parade. The kids stomped in puddles, we chit chatted and made jokes about "how many firetrucks it takes..." , walked over to see how the numerous emergency personnel were handling the situation. (Firemen with chainsaws.... that's all the entertainment my 4 year old son would ever need!)

We all mocked ourselves about whether this big excitement would be on the 11 o'clock news or on the front page of this week's Chelsea Standard. Perhaps not, but I'm just thankful the tree fell into the road and not onto someone's house. And it was nice be outside on a summer evening laughing with friends and neighbors. The electricity came back on within the hour, the traffic resumed, and we all returned to our little plugged-in homes.

And if you happened to notice... I was the dork taking pictures for my blog.

A walk down memory lane... from the freezer?

Don't tell my 'shut-off-the-lights!' husband or the 'save-the-planet' police, but sometimes on hot muggy days I find good excuses to stand in front of the freezer for just a moment longer than is really necessary. (Oh c'mon, you do it too, don't you?) On this particular August day, it is not so hot as it is just plain sticky, so I decided to clean out the freezer.

Standing in the midst of the blissfully cold air billowing around me, I organized all the bread products on one side, all the frozen vegetables and cold packs together and got to the very back corners to check the dates on frozen meals from days gone past. It was a walk down memory lane.

In June 2006, we made key lime pie from scratch. I can't remember the occasion, but I remember the process. Do you know how many of those tiny @#$%& key limes it takes to get a 1/2 cup of juice? My hands were tired from squeezing the limes, so Mike took over. (Note to self... use regular limes next time.) Me and the kids moved on to smashing graham crackers in a big ziploc bag with the rolling pin. It was fun! We ended up having a little too much fun, and therefore too many graham cracker crumbs, which I found in the freezer today. (And tossed.)

• Key Lime Pie Recipe (Note: if your key lime pie recipe calls for anything with a "Kraft" label, it is not really key lime pie!! I'll let ya get away with a ready made crust, but it's not quite as good.)

Now this one is embarrassing. In 2004 (gulp), I was in the midst of a big health goal to lose 50 lbs by my birthday in August -- and I did! During that time, I made a lot of healthy, hearty soups with plenty of veggies and beans. Today, I found an old container of soup in the freezer dated 3/24/04. Um ... yeah, so tossed that one too.

• Good Healthy Soup (I vary my own recipe depending on ingredients on hand, but this version is very similar to the way I make it.)

More recently, in February of this year, I was feeling a little dragged down health-wise and wanted to kick start my healthy habits again. I opted to eat a vegetarian diet for one month. I had been a vegetarian for years in my 20s, so it wasn't new to me. So, while most of my diet was fresh veggies, beans, and other good stuff, I also had a few convenience foods such as Boca burgers and veggie crumbles. Some of those are still left in the freezer. They're still good, right?

I've realized over the years as a 'household manager' that even though it makes sense to stock up on frozen vegetables and meat when it goes on sale at Polly's or Meijer, fairly often we throw away the unused freezer-burnt items months or years later. My family seems to eat healthiest and most frugally when we buy about 6 days of groceries at a time, use that 7th day as an excuse for ordering pizza, and then go shopping again. Less waste, more options.

Now, with a nicely organized freezer, I vow to not let it get that way again. From now on, I will make sure that the freezer doesn't get overpacked with food and will only keep frozen foods for the appropriate life of the item and.... oh... nevermind! If I do that, then I won't have an excuse to stand in front of the cold freezer on a muggy August day.

Busy, busy girl

I admit it. I'm guilty of the biggest blogging mistake there is... not keeping my posts current. As much as I love keeping up with all my local online responsibilities, I have also been busy trying to get our house in shape for a 2-week visit with family from out of town. We have a three bedroom house, and are expecting the population here to double from 4 to 8 people. Needless to say, it's a challenge!

The week has been full of fun activities as well. We had a great time at SummerFest over the weekend, and I played amateur photographer and took lots of photos for next year's website. (Did I mention I'm the webmaster for www.chelseafestivals.com?) Fortunately, the SummerFest committee also hired local photographer Kim Dosey to take photos. The challenge of taking decent pictures in a dark tent, in bright sunlight or of active, live performances was a bit confounding to my poor little camera and my lack of formal training. :)

We have been attending the weekly Sounds & Sights on Thursday Nights. Tonight we are planning to bring a picnic dinner and have it on the lovely green lawn of the McKune Memorial Library as we watch Like Water Drum & Dance perform. If you haven't yet seen one of their performances, I would highly recommend you go check them out. They are fantastic, and so much fun to watch.

Speaking of Like Water Drum & Dance, yesterday my kids took a class at Tree of Life Studio. Love that place. This was the first time I have enrolled the children in a class there, and I can't say enough nice things about their teacher, Jen (pictured here at SummerFest) who is also the co-owner of the studio. I will have to post a separate topic on them one of these days. My daughter is also attending an art camp this week at the Chelsea Center for the Arts, which has been a lot of fun for her.

In the midst of all this, I am up to my ears in totally revamping the Things To Do In Chelsea website. I'm so excited about the changes that are underway! Everything will be more streamlined, automated and interactive. For those of you (like me) who forget which events are taking place on which days, you'll soon be able to have the current events arrive straight to your mailbox each week. For those of you who are part of groups who hold events, you'll be able to use an interactive form to submit and edit your own events. Pretty cool stuff. However it does take away from my blogging time... for now.

Happy August! Now might be time for a rerun of Things To Do In Chelsea when it's HOT!