Michigan: A Trip Home (September 2025)

Michigan was my home for the first 22 years of my life. All six of my brothers and sisters still live in Michigan. I’m the only sibling who moved away. My dad passed in November of 2022. My mom who is 89 lives in Lincoln Park, Michigan.

Don with his 89-year-old mother, Elaine Jacobs

We drove to Michigan to stay with my mom and to do a few things for her. While there we walked every day at Council Point Park in Lincoln Park, MI. This park has a 1.9 paved perimeter trail that borders the Ecorse River. We often see wildlife as we walk the trail. This time we saw black squirrels, geese, groundhogs, and a heron. Also, we went to Fraternal Order of Police Park in Wyandotte, MI to play pickleball on a couple of occasions.

Growing up in Detroit, Greenfield Village was ubiquitous. I visited on school field trips and church group activities. Later I attended with my wife and children. After my dad retired he went with us for a visit. Recently I brought my grandchildren. This time Tammie and I spent a few hours there riding the steam train, and seeing Edison's Menlo Park Lab, the Wright brothers house and bicycle shop, Ford's first car factory, and an English Stone Cottage that Henry Ford visited and liked so he had it shipped back to Greenfield Village. If you are ever in southeast Michigan, you should plan to see Greenfield Village and the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan.