This was our first visit to the State Fair since it moved from Detroit to Novi and while the fair was great, when compared with the old fair grounds in Detroit it came up a little lacking. The old fair grounds was simply gigantic and you could spend hours just in one building. The old festival had many many vendors but the new one probably had a few dozen that you could go through in about a half hour.

As festivals go it was great, its just when compared with the old State Fair it comes up short, mostly because of space both outdoors and indoors.

James went on several rides and enjoyed all the festivities so it was a worthwhile venture. Plenty of rides for sure but again the old fair grounds had more.

Still, a great experience and very worthwhile.
Continue reading “2023 Michigan State Fair” →

The annual Blues festival in Marshall Michigan took place this day and we were in attendance for the festivities. The 2023 Marshall Blues Festival is a FREE family-oriented music and entertainment festival sponsored by the Marshall Downtown Development Authority. Rain or Shine. Full slate of Blues music with a cash bar beer tent along with plenty of food along the street. This is also the home of the American Museum of Magic so we usually stop off and make a visit to support this historic museum, along with several antique shops that are also located in the festival area. We saw 2 bands while we were there, Tony Thompson & Friends and Dann the Band Feat. The music was awesome and a great time was had by all.
Continue reading “2023 Marshall Blues Festival” →

James volunteered to do some work for the VIP camp booth at the Lincoln Park festival so we took advantage of the opportunity and spent a little time at the Festival. James helps the weekend before when he and others from VIP camp police the entire park so that it is clean for the festival.

Once the festival starts VIP camp has a booth there where they do fund raising for the camp which is why James showed up today to put his one hour of work in.

After his work time was over, the family enjoyed the Festival and spent some time checking out all the exhibits. Continue reading “Lincoln Park Festival 2022” →

We had tickets to the Friday show at the Abbott Magic Get Together and while the event has some of the best magicians in the world during their convention (IE Lance Burton, Mac King), we wanted to see the Friday show because it was an old fashion magic spook show. Starting way back during the Great Depression, magicians would do a magic show before the midnight showing of a B rated horror flick. The magic show always concluded with a black out, where all the lights in the theatre go out and spooks of all manner begin running about the theatre.

The magicians doing the show were world famous magicians John Bundy and Morgan, and it was the first time there was a spook show at Abbotts since World War 2 when Bill Neff did a show in a huge tent.

A great time was had by all. Continue reading “Abbott’s Magic Get Together 2022” →

This was our first trip to the Marshall Blues Festival since the pandemic. We started the visit by watching a magic show in the American Museum of Magic. Mom visited the many gift and antique shops on main street (which was blocked off for the festival). We did notice the crowd was not a large as the pre-pandemic crowds, but there was a chance of rain in the forecast and that might have turned some people off.

James and Dad made a quick visit to Colon while Mom was shopping and picked up a book on spook shows from the magic shop. It was actually a proof that was going to the museum.

We returned and met up with Mom at a small restaurant on main street where we enjoyed beverages, then we continued back to Jackson and ate at our favorite Mexican restaurant there. A very nice day for all. Continue reading “Marshall Blues Festival 2022” →

Our first family concert since the pandemic was at the Magic Bag in Ferndale where we saw two great Blues/Rock bands live. The first band was GA-20 which is a band from Boston and was simply awesome. The second was J.D. Simo who had a definite Stevie Ray Vaughn, Robin Trower style guitar.

After the concert, Mary and James got a chance to meet the band members, buy CD’s and T-shirts (which they autographed), and get their pictures taken with the band members. They were all great and a great time was held by all.

I should mention that this was the first time we had to actually provide proof of vaccination for anything.

Continue reading “Concert At Magic Bag in Ferndale 2021” →

We visited the “Made in Michigan Market” which was held in Canterbury Village. This was the first time I ever saw the Canterbury Village parking lot full, with additional parking across the street. Fortunately we were lucky and got a good spot as someone was pulling out. Lots of interesting booths and we decided to sign up with home delivery for the Free Press as they gave us Kroger gift cards to do so. It should be fun for James to get a morning paper to read as we think he will enjoy it. Mom got a free umbrella for signing up too, its design was based on the comic section of the Free Press.

One sad note, we found out the Department 56 store was closed, we purchased many of our Halloween display ceramics there and it will be missed.

After we left Canterbury we visited Great Lakes Crossing which is only a few miles away, a good time was had by all.

Continue reading “Made In Michigan Market at Canterbury Village 2019” →

Big festival in Lincoln Park with tons of rides, midways, and even a small petting zoo. James visited to support his VIP camp and bought some lottery tickets at the VIP Camp booth. James participated in the Police frisbee throw and won a frisbee, he also got a free water bottle at one of the booths so he was very happy about that. Later we visited the petting zoo and were totally impressed by two turtles that they had there (there were other animals but the turtles were pretty cool). On the way home we stopped at Sears, then picked up lunch at Wendy’s, all in all a very fun time.

Continue reading “Lincoln Park Days Festival 2018” →

Plymouth is a fun place to be year round, but it has several reasons for making a winter trek out that way. Not only do they do the ice sculpture in January, but they have the Walk of Trees Festival in December! Tree’s are decorated for the holidays by various persons and company’s and they line the walk way of Kellogg Park in downtown Plymouth. James and his family visited there this day (the trees are constantly lit so if you have a dreary cloudy day they will surely brighten up your day) and had a blast visiting the shops and seeing the trees. James got a miniature Eiffel tower for his French class, Mom got chocolate covered potato chips, and Dad got a realistic battery operated candle that works for both Christmas and Halloween.

After leaving Plymouth we stopped off at one of Mom’s favorite shops, the Town Peddler where James had his picture taken in their new photo op area. To top off the day’s activities we stopped in to see how Aunt Peg was doing. All and all a very active and fun day, although it was a little cold outside in the park.

Continue reading “Plymouth Christmas Tree Festival 2017” →