Michigan Trip, Day 5

18 August 2013

We were at Greenfield Village basically from opening to closing! It was glorious. Perfect weather, so Mr. K did not have to wear shoes, and no one was chilly or overheated. Woohoo.

Dad had twisted his ankle the night before, so for the day he rented a scooter. We told him he looked like Dr. Nefario from Despicable Me.

We had planned to take the train to the back of the village and work our way forward, but the wait for the next one was too long—we had a long list of things to do! This ended up happening repeatedly and we never actually took the train. Ah well.

We walked all the way back to the Daggett Farmhouse, one of my favorite stops. Kay did excellent momentum pulling to get there. We stopped off at the Logan County Courthouse, where Abraham Lincoln once practiced law. We'd seen the outside but never the inside, and the door was open so we went in to learn more about it. When we came outside, I noticed that Kaline's liquid bandaid had all worn off and his ear looked pretty good! I was still super careful with it and the bandaid has since been reapplied, because he shook his head too hard and I could tell it wasn't going to hold. Maybe it will once the hair grows back?

Once we went inside the farmhouse, we had a lot of things to work on! The fire inside was crackling merrily as usual—the Daggett Farmhouse presenters cook their meals there and much of their food comes from the garden in the back. It's so cool that it's still at least kind of a working farm. But the open flame scared the crap out of Kaline (not literally) who had no clue what the heck it was. He froze, hackles up, and gave a little wuff.

The presenters were super nice and supportive about me working Kaline through it. We went outside to calm down, first of all. Did some easy commands (sit, touch, stand). Once he was a bit calmer and more focused, we went back inside. He was still not happy about the flames but I took him as far away from them as I could to sneak past and get him into the kitchen area. There, he chilled out nicely. I let all the presenters say hi to him and pet him because he also seemed unsettled by their period dress.

We met a guy, also in period garb, outside splitting wood. Kaline warmed up to him nicely, after being a little unsure at first. Then we spent a long time at the candle-making demo. The two ladies there were very informative and very happy to help Kaline with his aversion to period dress. One even took off her straw bonnet so he could make a closer inspection. He really relaxed after that interaction. Yay.

One of the lovely, super helpful dog-loving candle makers.

Next we went to the beautiful Cotswold Cottage for tea and scones, something that is never an option when we go in chilly October. There were tables set up in the side yard with little umbrellas over them, and flowers all around. English gardens are awesome. Kaline chilled out next to my chair for the most part (till we got him up for a wee photo shoot—Mom can't resist the combo of gorgeous flowers and dogs). I got a pot of hot English Breakfast tea in a tea cozy, with a full honey bear on the table just for me. The scones with jam and clotted cream were to die for.

We came back to the Town Hall for a fun Gershwin medley performance, during which Kaline warmed my feet. The parents went to ride the carousel while Kaline and I waited in vain at the town hall for the baseball parade to begin. (Dammit.) After that, Dad went to watch the game, while Mom, Kaline and I went off on our own.

Town Hall.

Greenfield Village Omnibus.

 We ended up at Liberty Craft Works again, where I was actually able to watch and very much enjoy the pottery demonstrations. Kaline also met a tiny little girl who was so cute and polite I let her pet him and love him up. He'd been doing so well all day I thought he deserved a reward.

A little later, we met back up with Dad and decided to ride the Model T even though there was a really long line. Kaline did pretty well in line except when he accidentally did a tail clamp on one of the chains that marked the line's serpentine. Did some blocking, some lying down with all the humans blocking for him. We ended up in basically a Model T woody, known as a hack. Kaline was a little nervous at first because of how loudly the gears shifted and how much vibration there was, but soon he settled into a down at my feet.

On the Model T ... Kaline is hard to see but he's there!

After our ride we explored the Miller School, another building we'd never been in since it's rarely open to the public. The man at the door advised that there was a tiny steam engine inside, so I'd be ready to work Kaline through it if it bothered him, but he totally didn't care. Just flopped on the floor while Dad and I talked to one of the presenters about steam engines and the war for Toledo (Michigan “lost” but got the Upper Peninsula, full of copper and other awesome things. Ohio got ... Toledo.)

Kaline and I with my favorite poster. Bennett Park is where the Tigers played before they had Navin Field/Briggs Stadium/Tiger Stadium.

Itty bitty steam engine.

We checked out the World's Fair exhibit in the actual museum, but it wasn't that exciting, unfortunately. Even Mom agrees that the best special exhibit we've ever seen there was the baseball one put on by the Hall of Fame in 2006 (I think). None of the others have even come close, though we never did get to see the Titanic one. I bet that one was pretty cool.

Momentum pull FTW!!

Dinner was yummy, and when I was feeling particularly tense and anxious, Kaline got up and laid his head in my lap for a while. Both my parents commented on how excellently he'd done on the trip. Sure, he was a little annoying in his teenager way when off duty, but during his working time, he was pretty much everything you could possibly ask from a nearly 16-month-old pup. Very professional.