Day 20

Well, considering the time - I think that Amy won't be writing about our visit to her alma mater today.

We left Grand Rapids at 6:30 a.m. and drove down to Chicago - aiming to get to the Education Department breakfast at 9:30 a.m. Little did we remember that the time change would give us an extra hour...and so we were early (now isn't that a shocker?!) Don't worry, we arrived at 10 a.m. as we decided to stop over at a friend's house...and well, you know how it goes.


We met quite a few of Amy's old classmates - most of whom were named Amy. Kinda crazy, if you ask me. We saw the campus...had some lunch...saw some more campus...got the class picture (around 50+ people) on the steps of the Billy Graham Museum and sadly, no photo to show for that (though it might be in the next Wheaton publication). After that, had dinner & hung out with good friends.


Tomorrow is a day of rest...then a few more visits with friends and back home we go on Wednesday!

Hangin' with good friends at Wheaton for the day!

The family in the heaven room of the Billy Graham museum.

I'm at Mommy's college!

Day 19

As we went to my Alma Mater today - it was my turn to journal!

We headed over to Calvin in the morning and visited the Nature Preserve after picking up our Alumni packet. Sadly, we forgot our camera at home and so, we missed taking a few pictures of nature-things. Then we headed over to visit my friend Todd's work and saw his office and learned more about what he did in computer engineering. We headed back to Calvin and I showed the family where I used to live, take classes, etc. We went back to the house and the kids hung out for a while...then we headed back to Calvin for the Block Party. As it was raining it turned more into a "food free-for-all" and many Calvin students enjoyed free pizza or tacos from the local businesses supplying the food. We managed to get some food for the kids and visit with 4 other couples from the 1994 era at Calvin and enjoyed watching our 15+ kids playing around in varying capacities. We were amazed at the size of the fieldhouse (indoor pool, track, and multiple gyms) and even did some running with the kids. After that, back home and preparing for the trip to Chicago in the early AM for Amy's 15 year reunion stuff.

Scott

Here we all ar...lots of kids...a few alumni!

The kids had a blast at the indoor track - of all places.

Ryan, my Calvin-friendly son...we took a quick snapshot at the Calvin sign before heading home.

Day 18

Today was a light day as our U.S. History trip activities have come to a close. Amy and I have our 15 year reunions at Calvin & Wheaton...and we plan to show the kids around each of our campuses Friday/Saturday.

Day 17

Today we went to Greenfield Village in Michigan. It is a village where they moved houses to it. There are real slave quarters. There are some cabins where some inventors and some famous people lived like the Wright Brothers, Henry Ford, and George Washington Carver. He learned how to make things out of peanuts like peanut butter. There was a freed former slave house that had newspaper covering their walls to help cover the cracks between the wood so it wouldn’t be so cold. Thomas Edison was the inventor who made the lightbulb work. We saw his laboratory. He also made the phonograh and we got to see how it worked but we couldn’t really understand what the words said. We went to a glass blower who had to blow the glass into a certain size. The glassblower had these pinchers that he used when the glass was really hot and he made pumpkins, bottles, tree ornament pickles all out of glass. Then we went to a tavern. We ate 19th century food. We ate squash, a croquette, and we ate some noodles that were covered with bread crumbs and had a special sauce.
Good night!
Brendan


The pottery guy made some interesting urns!

The food was quite tasty - and just like food in the 1800s!

Thomas Edison's office - cool!

Day 16

Today we did quite a bit of driving. We were going to go to Uncle Tom’s Cabin but we missed the exit. So we went to a Museum that was about slaves. There we watched a video about the slaves and the people who settled in Buxton, Ontario. After the video we walked around and saw the tools that they brought with them and lots of things that were used to punish the slaves if they ran away. One of those things was a collar that had big spike-things on them with little chains on them so if the slave tried to run away again, they would be caught because of the noise.
Buxton was a place where slaves were free and a man named Reverend King owned 9,000 acres. He had rules like – you had to have a picket fence around the front of your house, your house had to be a certain amount of feet from the road, and your house had to have at least 4 rooms in it but no less. We saw a house that a former slave had made and it was a single man who had passed it down to other people.
Then we went to a barn that had an apple cider press that made apple cider. Also, we saw a machine that separated grain from the chaff.
Then we went to a school house that 14 African Canadians attended and 2 white students in the first year and as the years went on, there were more white people than African Canadians. It was a Christian school and one of the regular schools had to shut down because they did not have enough students. In the school cloak rooms, the girls had to come in on the left side and the boys on the right. One teacher had to teach up to 9 grades. When you got to 7th grade, you went to high school. When you finished 9th grade you went to college.
The assistant curator’s name is in the acknowledgements of the Elijah of Buxton book that I read. I suggest you read it!
Allison


One of the ball & chains on display - this was before the slaves were free and living in Canada.

This man's ancestors came to Buxton, Ontario - he is in the acknowledgements of the book that Allison read - Elijah of Buxton (great read!)

Apple Cider press (Amy would like one of these - ha ha)

The school house - original building!

Day 15

Today we went to Ontario and saw Niagara Falls. We went into a boat and went close to Niagara Falls. There were all sorts of minerals in the water. After that we went back to see the falls again on land. We went to the Rainforest Café and had a lot of fun. Then we walked back to the museum outside the IMAX and read about the people that went over the falls. Lots of them died going over. We learned about a boy named Roger got swept away with only a bathing suit and a life jacket and survived the fall and the Maid of the Mist (boat) picked him up. He was only 7 years old!
We went to the Laura Secord house and learned about the war of 1812. She helped the British. We got back to our hotel and went swimming and I found $3.10 on a chair. Then we went to IHOP for dinner.
Now we are going to watch “I Love Lucy” and eat popcorn.
Ryan


The U.S. side of the falls...

Some originals at the Rain Forest Cafe

Maid of the Mist - more mist than Falls.

Niagara at night - cool colours. Big mist in the middle...

Day 14

Well, today was pretty uneventful - driving over 8 hours from Boston to Niagara Falls...just a few pitstops and fall colours. Enjoy, nonetheless. We'll have a kid reporter tomorrow on our adventures as we dip into Canada for less than 48 hours...

One just can't capture the fall colours of Boston - we tried!

I don't know why we thought this so cute...but Kaleigh was so happy to play Allison's Nintendo...

Finally arrived in Ontario...around 8pm (EST)...