What a morning!

Maia's down for her midday nap after a very exciting morning. She woke up at her usual time (about 8:00 AM), and we were out of the house and downtown by 9:00 or so. After parking our car on State St., we walked to the Espresso Royale coffee shop right off campus. We were able to snag what I consider the best seats in Ann Arbor: the window tables at Espresso. After about 45 minutes of people watching and book reading, we went back down State St. in the other direction to visit the newly-reopened University of Michigan Museum of Art. We've been watching this construction project unfold for months, and Maia's been eagerly anticipating her chance to get into the new museum. Some of her thoughts on the collection: any works which depicted kids were top notch, some of the Southeast Asian sculptures were "a little bit scary," and the bust of George Washington wasn't worth a second look.

We explored the museum for about an hour, and then got back into the car to go meet Brian for lunch at our usual spot, Ahmo's. Enjoying their lunch just a couple of tables over were a group of Ann Arbor firefighters, and their truck was parked in the lot outside. So, of course, Maia charmed them right away and said hello, and she was honored to get a "Junior Firefighter" badge from her friendly local firefighters (who are probably used to toddlers staring at them while they're trying to eat lunch).

We decided to look at the truck out in the parking lot, and at that moment another fireman was arriving to join his colleagues. He walked up to Maia and offered her a personal tour of the truck, complete with some time sitting in the driver's seat, pushing various dashboard buttons, trying on a big helmet (which I called a "hat" and Maia corrected me with "helmet, Mama!"), and looking at all the equiptment in the various storage places. Maia was thrilled, and she left the whole experience with a coloring book, a kid-sized helmet, and a big "Thank you!" for the firefighters on AAFD Engine #4. :)

Here's a photo I got on my iPhone:

From Fire Truck