The Kleiber Family Timeline

Category: Parks

Visits to parks

  • A Trip to Petoskey Michigan

    Dad had businessup north at Vanderbilt MI and took the opportunity to visit a friend and drop of some St. Albert aprons and such that he had picked up when St. Alberts was closing (they had a garage sale). Dad’s friend Jim M gave Dad a little tour of the coastline park which had its own clock tower sort of similar to back to the future, except there was not a court house attached to it. The weather was pretty brutal and the roads were not exactly in the best shape since it was the heart of the winter season when Dad made the trip.

    Anyhow it had been a while since Dad was anywhere except work and it was nice to see a different city as the pandemic is really putting a hit on travel in Michigan. (more…)

  • Liberty Park 2018

    Our journey to the Statue of Liberty both begins and ends at Liberty Park where an old train station is used for tickets to the boats that take you to Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty. We had a long walk to get here as the place was very busy and we figure we parked about a mile away. We caught the 3:30 ferry from here (after going through security) and returned around 6pm. On exiting we visited the 911 memorial which has two parallel walls with the names of all those souls lost that horrible day. When looking directly at the memorial it creates an illusion of hose the NY skyline must have looked from that location before 911. At the front are twisted metal from the fallen towers on display which really brings the reality of the tragedy home.

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  • Liberty Island 2018

    What a thrill it always is to see the Statue of Liberty on a beautiful day in August. While it was a bit hot, it made the cool breeze coming across the Hudson river that much better as we walked around the giant colossus and trying to get the perfect selfie with a structure so big (many of those selfies are in the gallery of this post). After our walk around the statue we took a break in a nice shady area of the park and James bought us all water which made for a perfect family moment. After relaxing in the park drinking our water we made our way to the souvenir stand where James got a hat, Mom got a T shirt, and Dad got a sweatshirt all featuring the statue of liberty!

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  • Hines Drive Christmas Lightfest 2017

    Its been awhile since we went to the light fest at Hines Park, but on this day the conditions were perfect. 1st you need a while blanket of snow but 2nd, it has to be no more than an inch or two or the drive to becomes difficult. This day was perfect and was confirmed by the thousands of cars we saw going through. James had a blast and really enjoyed the “time tunnel” concept which dropped us off in a prehistoric time of dinosaurs. Mom and Dad enjoyed the Santa training center where reindeers are trained to fly by running up a ramp, jumping, and coming down softly in a parachute. Everyone enjoyed seeing the life size bumble putting the star on the tree. The Hines Park Light fest features more than 47 giant animated displays and more than one million lights; it is the Midwest’s largest and longest light show. The complete Light fest route is over four miles of Hines Drive.

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  • Mackinaw Island 2017

    It was a wee bit chilly on the boat ride to and from Mackinaw city, but we survived and then bought Mackinaw sweaters on the island. James and Dad went through the Mirror Maze and completed it, then followed up with a visit to the haunted house where James survived terrifying creatures of the night. Mom loved the shopping and we all met up to go down to the rock beach and attempt to skip stones. Like the city, new stores replace old every year and this year was no different, with the Magic shop next to the haunted house gone. One thing that was really different was seeing a cruise ship docked at Mackinaw City, seems an 11 day cruise of the Great Lakes was taking place which started in Chicago, how fun would that be!

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  • Chasing a Rainbow at a Softball Game 2014

    James and Dad went to the park (despite a slight rain) to watch some of Dad’s friends play softball at Levigood (spelling??? The park outside Divine Child high school) park in Dearborn Heights. James spent most of the time playing in the park nearby, but was on hand when the game went into extra innings. The game went into extra inning and (unfortunately) Dad’s friends lost in the extra innings. All the same it was a fun visit for both James and Dad, who used to play softball not that long ago.

    On the way home we were treated to a rainbow hovering over Dearborn Heights. James decided he wanted to chase it down so we continued past Dearborn Heights into Taylor but the rainbow continued to elude us, going more and more South the close we came to it. Although we came close, we never did catch up to the rainbow.

    Finally the rainbow disappeared altogether and James and Dad returned home from a fun afternoon in “the heights”.

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  • Dinosaur World Kentucky 2014

    After Granpa Landis funeral we had a long drive back to Michigan, but we felt James needed an emotional break so we took him to one of his favorite places on earth, Dinosaur World in Kentucky.

    James was very unselfish this trip and spent his money buying souvenirs for his classmates back in Michigan. The gift shop specializes in educational material for kids, including dinosaur books, models, toys, fossils, games, postcards, and dinosaur movies. All these things help children learn about the prehistoric past that we all share. Dinosaurs must be the most fascinating animals that ever walked the earth and you can certainly understand why kids gravitate to them so. James made sure each of his classmates got at least one souvenir from Dinosaur World.

    All things considered James held up pretty well, but he was much more quiet with his enthusiasm on this visit than past ones, and who could blame him.

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  • Dinosaur World Kentucky 2013

    Although we stopped at Dinosaur World on the way down to Nashville, the weather was so wet we knew we could not possibly go through the park so we decided to stop on the return trip from Nashville on a much more pleasant day.

    Dad and James went through the park and then we met Mom in the gift store. The picture to the left shows James in the center of the park where there are herds of huge dinosaurs (Brachiosaurus I think, although I think they used to be Brontosaurus like Dino in the Flintstones).

    James wanted to do something different this year and have a picture taken at every single exhibit in the park (his logic being that we cannot tell whats new unless we know whats old), so let the tour being.

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  • Liberty Park 2012

    To visit Ellis Island and Liberty Island (aka Statue of Liberty) we had to take a ferry from Liberty Park which is located in New Jersey.

    At this location is a monument to the World Trade Center and (as you can see in the picture to the left) if you take a picture of it head on it recreates the New York Skyline with the Twin Towers. In front of this are a couple beams from the wreckage of the towers. I had heard about this display already because an atheist group says it is in the shape of a cross and should be removed since it is a religious symbol. Believe me, when I saw this the last thing I associated it with was a crucifix or any religion.

    James did his own honor to the fallen by striking up a “Liberty” pose with souvenirs he had purchased from Liberty Island.

    Once we got home, James went a grabbed an encyclopedia from his room and put batteries in his “torch” flashlight and asked us to take one last picture of him in his Statue of Liberty pose before he went to sleep.

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  • Mackinaw Island 2012

    The highlight of our Northern Michigan adventure is always the trip to Mackinaw Island. Arriving at the island on the earliest ferry is our general routine, by 8:30am we are deep in the State park where we visit Skull Cave, the 3 graveyards, and Arch rock. There are many other great spots on the island but these three we always do first, then go and search the island for other adventure.

    After spending the morning in the woods we then move toward the city for lunch. This year there was a tour of the Governors mansion which we attended so now we can say we were inside the Governors mansion, if only for a few minutes. After shopping for a bit James and I went through the haunted house and Mary shopped for T-shirts. On the boat ride home we sat on the upper level and enjoyed the high speed “breeze” created by the boat and the beautiful day.

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