Motor City BroGo – 2nd Gear

When I first suggested The Henry Ford Museum to my brother, I was not sure he would want to go since he is not a car fan.  But the full museum name is: The Henry Ford – Museum of American Innovation which indicates it is not just about cars and so my brother was willing to go.  Wednesday, our first full day together, we set off arriving about 10:00 in the morning on a bright sunny day.

Rather than taking a large map that I would have to carry around throughout the museum, I took a photo of it.

You can see it covers quite a variety of innovations.

When we came in the main entrance, just to the right was a procession of presidential limousines, all Lincoln models.  Our eyes were immediately drawn to the one President Kennedy rode in for the last time on that fateful day in Dallas…

…and continued through to the 1939 model that FDR rode in.

I have to admit that just having been in Dallas last summer and walking around the Dealey Plaza where the shots were fired nearly 60 years ago, it felt a bit eerie to stand right next to the car and imagine the Kennedys sitting on those very seats.

You might wonder how these limos, four in all, ended up in the museum, but all these cars were leased to the White House and when the leases expired, the cars were returned to the Ford Motor Company which then gifted them to the museum.

We next explored the large train collection the museum has before rounding the corner and finding restored Lionel trains running on an extensive multi-level track, an exhibit I did not see with my son 20 years ago.

And yes, if you spotted it, that is interestingly an Oscar Myer Weiner mobile running along the tracks (more on that later).

We then came across another new exhibit, a huge Hallmark Christmas ornament display room.

I was particularly taken by this exhibit as I have been continually collecting these Hallmark ornaments ever since my wife and I got married in 1979.  It was fun to look through the display cases year by year to see how many of mine were in the museum.  I was especially pleased when I came across my daughter’s first Christmas ornament which we bought the year of her birth, now 41 years ago.

By this time, we felt it was time to eat but instead of a vintage fast-food restaurant…

…the museum had Lamy’s, a 1940’s diner.

Once we were satiated and after we had explored some early Ford cars, we came across a unique exhibit, Henry’s first engine.

It is referred to as the “Kitchen Sink Engine” because as the plaque indicates…

…he clamped it down to the kitchen sink on Christmas Eve while not yet 2-month-old son Edsel was asleep in another room (more on the engine in another post).

There was also an airplane exhibit which included an early DC-3, the plane that revolutionized passenger air travel, alongside the Wright Flyer that started it all here in the US at Kitty Hawk, NC in 1903.

In the “With Liberty and Justice For All” exhibit, a most surprising discovery was the chair in which President Lincoln sat at the Ford Theatre.

In fact, there were so many things that we viewed, space does not even allow a recounting of them all. From classic furniture…

…to dollhouses…

…to a 1950s era Oscar Meyer Wienermobile.

We could not believe that it was almost 4:00 PM when we walked past the last display.  In total, we had spent six hours at the museum and there were still some areas that we skipped.  It had been 20 years since I had been to this museum and there had been a number of additions and improvements made in that time.  If you are ever in the area, I would highly encourage you to make a visit.

After a busy day, we of course had to check out the original craft brewery in Dearborn and quench our thirst with a flight of beers.

We had a chance to reflect on our fun day and all the amazing things that we had seen as well as talk about things we had been doing since we last got together.

When my brother was doing some of his research for our trip, he discovered that there was one food item we definitely needed to try—Detroit Style Pizza!  We were both familiar with Chicago and New York and a few other pizza styles but neither of us had heard of Detroit-style.  And conveniently, one of the originals was just down the street.

Having had a fairly light lunch, we were ready for a big dinner.  The pizza came in 4- or 8-square sizes.  We decided to get an 8-square but have it two different ones.  We had never even seen what one looked like before, so we took it all in when it arrived.

I think the best way I would describe it is a thinner version of a Chicago-style.  Still thick but just not as thick as a deep dish Chicago-style with which I was familiar.  We each ate half of each pizza thus getting to sample two examples.

Needless to say, when we returned to our hotel and got ready for bed, we were still full from our dinner.

     To be continued…