We stayed at a Hampton Inn near the campus. Scott had already arrived and was checked into Hubbard Hall. Unfortunately, most of the activities were set up on the other end of campus near the stadium. But I think Scott enjoyed staying in one of the dorm rooms and surviving on dorm food for a week. Each kid had their own room key and meal ticket, so they could come and go as they needed.
Scott had spent the weekend driving on the chartered bus with a day stopover at Cedar Point.
On Monday, Scott's group left at 5am from Cedar Point to check in around 830am at campus. The first day mostly involved orientation and an opening ceremony. Most of the ceremonies have big fires on stage. We met up with SCott to drop off a fan(no ac in the dorm rooms). Tom and I spent our afternoon walking and shopping along Grand River with a pitcher of beer and nachos at one of our favorite mexican restaurants for dinner.
On Tuesday Scott missed his afternoon track competition. He could not get to the event on time-too far away and the campus buses are extremely slow(too many scouts). We were busy trying to help him find his events and schedule via computer and cell phone as the campus wide program was glitched. He hooked up with a local Maryland troop and seemed to be enjoying the whole experience(ie pizza party at midnite). Meanwhile, we decided to visit Frankenmuth for the day. We started our morning with a quick tour through the Frankenmuth brewery-built in 1862 after the germans settled in the area. The brewery was built right after the church went up! Good choice. We enjoyed brats and onion rings on the patio overlooking the river and then some souvenir shopping, including taste testing at our favorite Traverse City Whiskey co. Tom also dropped me off to wander through Bronners Christmas store before heading back to ELansing.
Weds morning SCott seemed to get the hang of his schedule. He managed to compete in a Mario Kart video competition and made it into the finals. He also traveled to Lake Lansing for some kayaking and his attempt at log rolling. (not his best event). But glad he tried it! Meanwhile, we drove to Kalamazoo to visit the campus of Western Mich U. They have an amazing engineering program and we thought we would scope it out for SCott. We dropped into the admissions office and especially enjoyed our tour of the Engineering campus which is actually separate from the rest of the school. Tom and I were surprised at just how large the campus really is. We spent the night in Kalamazoo and saw the new Mr Holmes movie at a Movie Tavern in downtown Kzoo where you order dinner with your show.
On Thursday I talked Tom into driving over to South Haven located on Lake Michigan. I was surprised how similar the town was to Charlevoix. And we arrived at the start of the Blueberry Festival! We spent the afternoon souvenir and antique shopping, strolling along the pier and eating lunch(blueberry themed meals) at a local restaurant. I then talked Tom into waiting for me to take a dip in Lake Michigan at the beach with warm water and lots of sand! Naturally we could not leave without picking up a blueberry pie at a local farm stand. Scott competed in his second round of Mario Kart and made it through 3 rounds. He also enjoyed a large helping of MSU ice cream!
On Friday we headed back to MSU to pick up Scott. He was pretty much done after lunch, so after we got our MSU ice cream, we packed him up. We decided to give him a ride back to Maryland rather than him taking the bus. That way we were able to schedule him a tour of the Western Mich U campus on Saturday morning, including the engineering program. We had some time to tour Lansing before heading to our hotel in the evening. We visited Potter Park zoo for the first time and stopped into a a new Distillery in East Lansing to trial their whiskey and gin. We spent the night in Marshall, MI and on Saturday morning headed over to Western Mich. U.
I had made reservations for a campus tour. The place was packed! At least 60 or more people were scheduled for the orientation and tour which lasted several hours. They even gave us lunch in the dining hall! We could not believe how big the campus was and how hilly. Afterwards we headed over to the engineering campus. Their engineering school is so big it has its own campus about 10 mins away. Tom and I had scoped it out earlier int he week and were very excited about the entire program. Scott was also thrilled with the huge engineering facility and all the labs and programs they offer. Scott seems to be best suited for the Manufacturing Engineering program. And Western allows out of state students to attend school for a year and then apply for residency with in state rates. MSU makes students live in state for 1 year without taking classes and then allows students to apply for residency. WMU also has scholarships for out of state students. We even picked up a Broncos Tshirt for Scott to wear during his tour!
After our visit, we headed towards Detroit to stop in on our friends Dan and Laura. Laura was busy supervising her Polish Dance troupe at the pierogi festival. We caught the end of their program at the church in downtown Detroit and then headed into town for dinner. We had to share the space with all the Detroit Tiger fans. They were celebrating Mexican night and their uniforms read "Tigres". We caught part of the game on tv in the restaurant and then Laura gave us a quick tour of Downtown Detroit. They are busy putting in a train/trolley system. Not sure who is going to use it at this point, but maybe it will help give Detroit a new look. Along with the new Red Wings Hockey stadium going up on Woodward next to Ford Field and the Tiger Stadium. And we had a drive around Wayne State University which also has an excellent engineering program. We had to start back to Maryland that evening since we needed to pick up Cookie early from our neighbors on Sunday. We drove to PA that night and then home on Sunday.
Frankenmuth Distillery
Lake Michigan Lighthouse
WMU Engineering campus
Downtown Detroit
Dinner with Dan and Laura Hejza
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