JFK's Dallas limousine (with added top)

magine visiting the actual home and inventing grounds of Edison and the Wright Brothers. Or how about standing within inches from the car in which JFK was shot or the opera seat where Lincoln was assassinated.

This adult wonderland exists barely a four-hour drive from Toronto. It is the Henry Ford Museum/Greenfield Village complex in Dearborn, Michigan. You might say I sort of found myself there. So much of what we take for granted today comes to life in this museum complex dedicated to the human evolution through technology. My car-loving 68-year-old father would experience more emotional thrills here than he would in many of the famous museums of Europe.

The American way
The state of Michigan encourages introspection. The Upper Peninsula (the American version of Sault Ste-Marie) is as wild and pristine as Northern Ontario shores. It is a land of wolves and deep thoughts.

A Model T that went around the world

Some Michigan towns acquired their mystical fame in the poetry of middle America. Places like Saginaw, Flint, Muskegon, Grand Rapids, Lansing are remembered forever in novels about the American way. Other Michigan towns are now tourist and retirement havens – towns like Monroe, between Detroit and the Ohio border, where golfing and the warmth of Lake Erie can easily become a way of life.

Detroit itself is experiencing a slow but steady renaissance. While this is not a cute city with bike paths lined with trees and flowers, Detroit is a fascinating urban story with interesting areas that include Rivertown, Greektown, Belle Isle, as well as its theatre and museum districts.

Unforgettable sights await you such as the Renaissance Centre's observation deck, at the Fox Theatre where art deco is at its flashy best, at the Detroit Institute of Arts, and in the Motown Historical Museum, a homey-touchy-feely cult-like place for anybody who loves pop music.

Detroit boasts a new baseball stadium for its Tigers, the favourite ball team of most Ontario residents living west of London. Here, the Toronto Blue Jays will face the Tigers at this US$66 million Comerica Park for the first time on May 26-27-28 and June 12-13-14 (log on to detroittigers.com).

Although the word 'Michigan' does not seem to convey any emotional baggage, its sites deeply touched me. Michigan highlights are usually not the result of government grants and strategic plans; they are more the handiwork of the forces of nature and of the ingenuity of the human spirit.

Michigan's tourism treasure, the Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village, embodies the work and ingenuity of that human spirit. A few hours are just not enough; you need two days to do it justice.

The Henry Ford Museum is not a car museum, nor is it a Ford Company museum. Rather it is a museum created in 1929 by Mr. Ford as a place where people could learn how their ancestors lived and worked in the past. A deep respect for hard work and effort is present in every corner of the huge 30-hectare complex.

Another part of the complex, Greenfield Village, vaguely resembles Ontario's Upper Canada Village. However, the homes do not come from a single, preserved village. Rather, they were selected and moved from hundreds, sometimes thousands, of kilometres away thanks to the strong will and deep pockets of Henry Ford. It is a quiet, action-oriented area, where fascinating 19th-century baseball games take place and teachers in one-room schoolhouses ring a bell to announce that school is in session.

VIA trains travel the Toronto-Windsor corridor several times a day. Downtown Detroit is easily accessible by transit from Windsor. Canadian Airlines/Air Canada also offer daily non-stop service between Toronto and Detroit. For more information on the Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village, call (313) 271-2455 or visit www.hfmgv.org.

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