The Henry Ford

Niki and I took the kids on an adventure this afternoon to The Henry Ford, a truly spectacular museum in Dearborn, Michigan.  The Henry Ford is about 12 acres under roof of trains, planes, automobiles, 19th and 20th century technology, furniture, farm equipment, etc.  A note about these pictures - the lighting in the museum is fantastic, but makes it very difficult to get good pictures with out a specialty flash on the Nikon.  Plus, I took a lot more pictures of stuff than the kids.

On the way in, the first thing we saw is one of the original Weinermobiles.  There was also a couch that looked like a hot bun with pillows that looked like condiments right next to it.  I did not get a picture of it, but there will be more about that later.

The museum is well laid out, with lots of room between the exhibits.  Niki and I let the kids lead us around.  The kids made a beeline to the planes.  Here is a DC-3.

There was a barnstormer display.  Peter stopped to chat with one of the spectators.

The kids led us to the trucks . . .

To the trains (this is a Canadian snowplow that attached to the front of a steam engine) . . .

To an Allegheny locomotive . . .

To the Lionel model train exhibit . . .  The museum sprinkled play places for kids throughout the displays.  Next to this Lionel model train exhibit (which was right next to the Allegheny locomotive) was a lego station.  This was great for kids our age - they could look at displays, then play with toys related to the toys nearby . . .

Back to the cars - the kids found a 1984 Plymouth Voyager - predecessor to the Big Red Van.

There was a automobile travel display - including reconstructions of hotel rooms from the past, motorhomes, trailers, and this little VW bus.

Holiday Inn sign . . .

Old-school pop-up trailer . . .

We visited the racing car display.  I know that we live in the age of "Xtreme sports."  That's wrong.  The early race car drivers were certifiable - more on that later.  I dug these racing goggles.

Mom, Charlie, and Peter admired a Ford GT40.

This is a belly-tank lakester.  Back in the day, hot rodders would build these out of aircraft belly-tanks (belly-tanks are disposable gas tanks - a fighter jet would drop the belly-tank when it got to its destination).    If I came home at night and told Niki "I found this old belly-tank.  It used to be a gas tank for an airplane.  I'm gonna build it into a racecar and then see how fast I can make it go," she would slap me.

This is one of Henry Ford's 999 racers.  I believe this is the one that he personally achieved 91 MPH with on a frozen Lake St. Clair.  Can you imagine how terrifying that would be?

Craig Breedlove stuffed 4 Chrysler 426 V8s into this rig and proceeded to set a land speed record on the salt flats.

Charlotte found this salmon and grey 1955 Chevy.

A Brass Era Model T.

There is a sizable collection of Lincoln Presidential limos.

Niki and Peter found this pre-fab lunch restaurant (which is operating as a restaurant on the museum floor, just as it did in Massachusetts in the '40s).   

The kids led us back to the airplanes.  There was a fuselage mocked up to look like a DC-3,a  Ford Tripower, and an early Boeing.  Charlotte is ready to take off in her DC-3 seat.  I didn't get a picture, but the Ford Tripower part of the fuselage had wicker chairs for the passengers to sit in.

Back to the cars - the Mustang concept car . . .

And an "exploded" Model T, showing all the parts . . .

There is a sizable furniture and housewares section that we skirted.  Here is an exploded chair.

It was about this time that we lost Charlotte.  We sat down to take a break, and Charlotte disappeared.  After a mildly panicked search, I found her.  She walked over to me, not upset at all, took my hand, and said "I got lost.  I wanted to play in the hot dog."  Turns out she made a beeline for the Weinermobile to play with the hot dog couch.  Then, we sat in a combine harvester.

I did not get a picture of it, but we toured the Dymaxion House, the kids looked a a number of dollhouses, then played in this one . . . 

We're looking forward to returning - and to hit Greenfield Village once it warms up around here.