Today we left Walmart and drove to River Raisin National Battlefield Park, one of only four National Battlefield Parks in the US, and the only one that preserves a battlefield site from the war of 1812.  Here, American forces suffered a bitter defeat that ended with all but 30 of over 900 US troops either dead or captured.  For American soldiers in subsequent battles, “remember the raisin!” was their battle cry:

There were great dioramas in the visitor center:

To receive their Junior Ranger badges, the kids had to complete a Geocaching activity that involved using GPS to find plaques in the ground that gave coordinates to the next plaque:

The battlefield north of what used to be Frenchtown, where US militia forces battled British troops and their Indian allies:

The visitor center has a garden where crops from the war’s time period are grown:

There was also an extensive dress-up area:

The kids handed in their workbooks and received their badges:

We left the park and drove east to Cleveland, where we overnighted in the driveway of our friends Yaakov and Dalit and their kids, whom we haven’t seen in five years or so.  We stayed up much too late catching up!

See the trip map for today’s drive and our current location.