Canal, Solar House, Windmill, Fireworks -- Celebrating Independence Day

July 2: we visited Delphi Canal Festival and learned how schools were run in rural areas in 1800s. It very much resembled what we saw in the "Little House on the Prairie" movie series. We learned how bricks were made. Joy bought one red brick home. We learned how glass jewels were made and how yarns were made. It was a fun trip. (Delphi is a small town about 30 minute's drive away from where we live). There used to be a functional Canal that went all the up to Lake Erie.

In the evening, we went to Purdue Campus to visit the Solar House. It is very interesting to see what a future house might look like. The Solar House tour only lasted about 30 minutes. The coolest part I learned is that you can turn on and off all your solar-powered devices in your home with a computer online application.

Then we went to a little town 30 miles north of where we live called "Fowler" or "the Windmill Town".
We were looking for the recycling station to see a blade of deserted Windmill. (My coworker gave me this information). We were lost and a police came to guide us there. The kids were amazed to see the real size of a blade. It is humongous.

7/5: All 5 of us went to watch Independence Day Firework over the walk-over bridge. I am very glad that Jianliang went with us. Joy took some picture of the fireworks. It turned out to be like some kind of painting.