what I did on vacation day 11

Today, Laurie and I, and special guest KC, toured Wildwood Nature Preserve near Toledo. This was the former 800-acre estate of the founder of Champion spark plugs, and a tour of his family manor is part of the package.

First we hit the trails- a maze of hiking and biking trails that we spent some 4 miles in.

(the Ottawa River)

They had benches that were paid for as memorials throughout the park. Of course, some memorials you don't want to show KC and I together...

There was a long boardwalk with great overlooks and some odd features...

(The tree is the odd one, BTW...)
( And these berries I can't find anything about...)

Now, let me take you into the Manor. The first picture I took (actually, Laurie took this one) was a room where the servants did nothing but arrainge flowers for the day. New ones EVERY day...

Then there was this AWESOME doll house. I was hoping the plaque came out better. What it says is it took 22 years to build; 18,000 little tiny bricks, mahogany floors, Marble fireplaces, and all electrical switches actually work!

The house pictured was the model, the George Wythe house in Williamsburg, VA (home of the university of William and Mary!)

This next room, the guide explained was the lady of the house's CLOSET...

The ROOM, mind you. The picture doesn't do it justice.

These next two pictures are of the formal garden, from a bedroom window...

Here's our guide, Angela, at the bar (which according to her was usually used to serve ice cream)...

This was downstairs near the game room, which had an indoor SHOOTING RANGE...

Then back into the red room with a 1940 tv/radio/record player...

And back upstairs to the glassed-in all-season patio...

And Finally, the living room with one of two original chandeliers...

And that was the end of the tour. Then we wound our way back down through the garden, into the trail, and back to the car.

We finished it off with a great meal at Calvinos, a nice hard to find Italian place downtown.