YES! Today we had to set alarms and head to a specific destination – We are back in my vacation comfort zone – LOL! We spent today at The Henry Ford Museum and Ford Rogue Factory (where they produce the F150s).

The Museum itself is beautiful. Henry Ford was extremely patriotic and wanted the offices to look like Independence Hall… Mission accomplished!

The cars in the museum were pretty famous too… although I’m afraid Ford may have a fascination with attempted presidential assassinations since they have the Presidential Limo that took Reagan from outside the Washington Hilton to the hospital, and the Kennedy Limo from Texas.

They had HUGE Locomotive engines…

And the Camper from On The Road with Charles Kuralt.

Tons of retro pictures from the days of family road trips..

Insert gallery of McDonalds/neon

We also got to tour of the F150 Rogue Plant – sorry no pictures for proprietary reasons – but trust me the factory was so amazing! There was only a skeleton crew there due to shipping issues. We saw tons and tons of Ford F150s on the lots – none of which can be delivered since they cannot get their microchips in from overseas. The factory was running at 1/3 capacity – 1st shift works one week, 2nd shift works the next, and 3rd shift works the next week. Usually, a Ford F150 rolls off the line every 53 seconds, and after what we saw today – I can see why. It is about as efficient as you get.

They have even started having “living roofs” plants which help reduce pollution, increase oxygen, and use rainwater to prevent runoff.

They even have their own beekeeper on sight!

Back in the museum, we decided to have lunch at Mom’s Cafe, and save our money for a nice dinner tonight… The boys tried their hands at simulator racing… lets just say, I’m glad we’ve still got some time to work on their driving skills. Yikes!

Then we tried our hand at building our own racers…

Michael got a little info on the history of drivers education… maybe we should have read this before letting him try the racing simulator.

Leo tried his hand at the Green Screen celebrating the launch of MTV

And Michael was amazed at the sheer number of exhibits in this museum. (It was a lot of info)

YES! We found some MATH!

And Mike Brown for the tractors!

We also learned that there is a Henry Form Academy. It is grades 9-12 of students selected by application and then a lottery.

And back to Ohio we go!

And with some travel on the interstate, we are in Cleveland for the night. We wanted a good steakhouse – but didn’t to pay a kidney for it. The hotel recommended the Blue Point Grill. WOW! The food and the service were fantastic. Just as we were about to order dessert, our waitress, Evelyn, brought us this flourless chocolate torte as a gift. She said it was so nice to see a family have dinner, talk and stay off phone/electronics.

So far, Cleveland has been pretty great!

We topped off the night with some swimming, and now fighting sleep to finish typing this!