Playing tourists and other fun stuff...

July 22 – Day off!  Yeaaaaa.

Once we finally got moving today and a load of laundry out of the way, we headed into Muskegon with a loose plan in mind.  We finalized by starting at the Carousel Cinema.  We arrived just in time to catch the viewing of “Mama Mia”.  We really enjoyed it and there were not many people in the theatre for us to annoy with singing along.  The first one was better but this one we didn’t see much of Meryl Streep, which was good and Pierce Brosnan didn’t do a much singing! 

Firehouse exhibit

After checking the tour schedule of the Hume and Hackley

Depression house kitchen

Homes, we headed there next .  We did the quick tour on our own of the Fire House and a Depression Era house before going on the houses tour. From the outside the styles are very similar, but inside they are totally different.  Both were built from 1887 to 1889.  The interiors are very different.  The Hackley house interior inside has every kind of wood cut in the area with elaborate Victorian carvings extensively throughout the house.  Everything is hand carved.  The exterior has a coach drive where the Hackleys enter their carriage without walking far or getting wet.  Check out the photos in my album for these houses. 

Example of the wood carving in Hackley

The Hume house has more open rooms and space as it was designed for a family with 7 children.  It has much less elaborate carvings and we liked it much better.  There are 9 bedrooms, some for the extra live in help and the rest for family.  The 3^rd floor has 2 bedrooms and a huge playroom, complete with pool table for the kids.  Hume was a little less rich and with all the kids to plan for he was more conservative with his house.  

Behind the houses crossing both lots is the barn.

Hackley fireplace

  There is a dividing wall right on the property line so one half belonged to each family.  The men who cared for the horses and drove the families each had an apartment upstairs in the barn. 

The men made their fortunes in lumber.  When they realized they would eventually run out in Michigan they started mills out west. So the sons that worked for them moved west and gradually the number of descendants decreased and the homes were sold, the Hume house became a day care.  They have been perfectly renovated and it’s an ongoing project.  A worthwhile stop if you visit the area!

Hackley, barn, Hume and Bill's truck

By now we were pretty hungry and enjoyed a delicious lunch/dinner at the Handsome Hobo, compliments of Kam.  There are 2 restaurants next door to each other owned and run by the same people so we chose this one over The Hobo Tavern.  We each had a dinner combo, which was 2 meats and 2 sides.  I had lake perch and ribs and Bill had lake perch and a filet.  All VERY good!  I brought my ribs home for later.

Meijers was on the way home and we first fed our cans and bottles into the recycle machines and earned $15.70 this week for them.  We did our shopping, had an ice cream and headed home.

No further eating for me tonight as I stayed full.  Actually, I had a glass of wine and it wiped me out.  I fell asleep on the recliner and slept until 11, then I got up and ready for bed and read an hour.  I guess I really needed the sleep.