Saturday, July 14, 2012

Michigan Part 3 | Visiting Billy & MSU

We finally got to Lansing, Michigan around lunch time on Friday and met up with Billy, Ronny’s cousin, who is a grad student at Michigan State.
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He took us to this great little restaurant that was also a tuba museum. :)DSC02541DSC02539

After lunch, Billy took us to the community garden where he has a plot.
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Then we ventured over to the Michigan State campus. I suppose I got used to all of the purple at K-State, but there seems to be so much Spartan green everywhere on campus!DSC02546

We first went to the Dairy Store….priorities. They have so many varieties of ice cream – many of them other land grant university flavors. These were probably my favorites although I had to eat the mint chip ice cream…my favorite.DSC02557

In the same building as the Dairy Store is Billy’s grad school office.
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Here Ronny is standing by Grandpa Pope’s livestock judging coach whom his dad, Ronald, was named after, thus Ronny being named after.
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These pillars are a memorial of where the livestock judging pavilion once stood where both Grandpa Pope and his brother, Art, judged livestock.
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A drive through campus, Billy showed us the stadium and “Sparty”.DSC02577DSC02573DSC02571

Billy was a very good tour guide. :)
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Of course we also had to find the AGR and KAT houses.DSC02568DSC02566

We took some time to tour the state capitol building. It had a beautiful rotunda and glass floors.
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In the newer animal science pavilion, there was a nice display of those who had contributed to Michigan State agriculture and their accomplishments. This picture shows Grandpa Pope’s livestock judging team (he is in the center).
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The second man from the right is Uncle Art.
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On the Wall of Fame, the Pope family are the only family who were recognized together and not as individuals. Clockwise from left to right is Grandpa Pope, Uncle Art and Great Grandpa Pope. These boys are very proud of their family.
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We spent the rest of the evening relaxing and trying to stay cool – it was a record-setting 103 degrees. We spent some time at the Lansing Lake and listening to a somewhat red-dirt country band!
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Then we ventured over to DeWitt (where Olympic gymnast Jordan Wieber is from – watch for her in the upcoming Olympics!) to see the famous Sweetie-licious pie shop. This shop has been recognized on the Food Network several times and Linda’s pies have received numerous first places in the National Pie Championships.We got the Rhubarb Custard pie and it was divine! 
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However, probably the highlight of the evening was gong to Karaoke at Crunchy’s and seeing the legend, Dennis, perform. :)
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