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02/14/2003 Archived Entry: "Michigan Love Trip"
I'm late posting anything today, because -- I'm in Michigan! Jack suggested on Wednesday that I come out for a few days and visit him, and it turned out that there was a cheap flight available on Thursday. We spent the night in Ann Arbor and did a lot of siteseeing today in Detroit. I wasn't very impressed with Greektown (one block of Greek restaurants and a big casino), but the Detroit Institute of Arts had a bunch of good stuff -- the only bigger collection I've ever seen was when I was growing up in DC and visited the National Gallery of Art over the years. And the Dymaxion House (required Flash) at the Henry Ford Museum was definitely worth the money if you are Buckminster Fuller fans, which we are. What a nice Valentine's Day!
Replies: 4 comments
Sadly, it's not hard to find "rough blocks" in Detroit. The house my mother grew up in no longer exists; it was burned down a few years ago after being used as a crackhouse for a number of years. The last time I saw the house her grandparents lived in, it was terribly run down, and the orchard they had planted on the lot they owned next door had been replaced with an aluminum box that looked like it belonged in the suburbs, not in this neighborhood of 80 year old narrow 3-story-tall brownstones. Oh, and the aluminum box had already been abandoned, like half the other houses in the neighborhood. That was almost 20 years ago; I shudder to think what that neighborhood looks like now. The house my father grew up in is in much better shape, but the city still impinges. My cousin used to have a house about two blocks away from my dad's old house, and told me that on summer nights with the windows open, he could regularly hear gunshots in the distance.
Posted by ralph @ 02/15/2003 03:28 PM PST
How nice! Sounds like you're having a great time :)
Posted by deb @ 02/15/2003 03:23 AM PST
We also took a very crowded bus from the DIA to halfway to Greektown. We got off early because Jack was looking at the map in a tourist magazine and got confused when we passed Orchestra Hall (he thought it was the Opera House). We walked down some pretty rough blocks! Fortunately it was mild weather for Detroit in winter -- high twenties and not much wind.
Posted by Anita @ 02/15/2003 01:48 AM PST
Jeez, it sounds like you've hit damned near everything there is to see in Detroit in a single day.... :-)
I have to agree, the Art Institute is wonderful. I spent a lot of time there as a kid. I didn't have time to visit it last time I was in Detroit, although I saw it from the Detroit Public Library just down the street.
Enjoy your trip!
Posted by ralph @ 02/15/2003 01:12 AM PST