So our next big thing in the week between Christmas and New Year's was Crossroads Village. We had hoped to get there when the snow was still on the ground, so had to go sooner than later because after the lot of snow we got for Christmas things warmed right up. So we went the first day we could get tickets for the train ride, which I want to say was Thursday the 29th. Something like that, anyway.
We set out later than we would have liked. This was the fault of work, the first time we had something seriously cramped because of it. I had to stay at work until 4:30 pm, and with getting long underwear on and getting out to the car and driving through the early bits of rush hour traffic we wouldn't get there until nearer 6:00 than usual. Under normal circumstances we'd have left at like 4:00 and got there a little after 5:00 and just had forever to wander around.
I made a mistake a few days before, when we booked our train ride. I suggested the ride that started 6:30 pm, as giving us time to do stuff before and after. But, with our getting to the place at 6 pm, and the mock village closing at 8 pm, this meant we had almost no time at the village itself. We could do the most important things --- get two rides on the carousel, and one ride on the Ferris wheel outside --- and get some hot chocolate and, better, kettle corn. But we had almost no time for wandering around the village and we didn't get into any of the buildings, not even the gift shop. Last year I found Arthur Scott Bailey novels for sale there; what might I have found this year?
Still, like I say, we got to the most important things. The train ride, through the array of illuminations, was the most important. They had what sounded like a new person doing the spiel of what each light fixture was and what its lore was, based on how uncertain he sounded and the couple of times that he missed a cue or a line somewhere. It was fun to hear someone getting their on-the-job training, and if it's odd to have that happen on one of the last operating nights of the season, well, I suppose he should be in better form when things resume next November. Also they played music the full length of the ride; last year or two they'd cut out their practice of novelty songs on the return leg. And we got rides on the Ferris wheel, their boast of it being the fastest in Michigan prompting ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bunnyhugger to grouse about how, if you know Michigan carousels that's not much of a claim. No, but most people don't have an idea what the range of carousel speeds in Michigan is. It could probably put in a claim to ``fastest carousel in the Midwest except maybe for Cedar Downs'', although the qualifier might be too hard to explain.
We also got a nice Ferris wheel ride, although lost one of bunnyhugger's camera lenses there. Not even on the ride, but getting off of it, and while it was night it's not like there were a lot of places it could have gone. It's just sitting there on the un-mowed, muddy lawn, somewhere.
We did get on the last carousel ride of the night, always a delight. But they were so quick to turn the lights off --- they didn't even wait for us to get outside the ride fence --- that we forgot to buy any of the things spotted at the rummage sale as maybe-worth-picking-up, as possible trophy decorations for future Silver Balls tournaments.
I should have suggested we take the 7:30 train, which would have got back about twenty minutes or so after the rest of the village closed. We'd have gotten time to walk around the village some, or look in the gift shop, or maybe go into any of the buildings besides the carousel and the cafeteria. Still, a too-short visit is far better than no visit, a thing always worth remembering when an event is less special than you wanted.
We're up to Christmas on my photo roll, so get ready for a bunch of pictures of lights and wrapping!
Our downstairs tree, decorated nicely as seen on Christmas Day, a rare event for us. ... You can tell me, do you think it's quite level?
And the upstairs tree, in our nice little corner for this sort of thing. Note the carousel topper; it rotates!
Looking at the upper section of the upstairs tree. There's a nice coati plush, one of bunnyhugger's, on the bookshelf beside.
This tree was done entirely in Nation's Treasures flash-printed brass ornaments and doesn't that look great?
The archway to the front door with the colored lights we use in the Christmas season. Afterwards we switch them out with white lights for the end of winter.
And the upper reaches of our downstairs tree, with the ribbon tied on top when we weren't sure the carousel could be made to fit its leader.
Trivia: The maps of the Atlas Maior, published between 1659 and 1672, based on work by Willem Blaeu (died 1638) and finished by his son Joan, contained the first cartographic reference to ``New Amsterdam'', capital of ``New Netherland''. Source: On The Map: A Mind-Expanding Exploration of the Way the World Looks, Simon Garfield.
Currently Reading: A History of The World's Airlines, R E G Davies.
