What a great way to kick off my forced week of vacation (GM annual summer shutdown). I spent this past weekend paling around with Dan Cochrane and Debbie Pittman of Cedarville University fame. Dan was in from Baltimore visiting a mutual friend of ours. Well mutual friend may not be the correct term for someone I hadn't seen in seven years, but I'll say that after spending three days with the two of them, she's now back on the mutual friend list. And don't worry Debbie, I don't think you'll leave that list soon, now that we know the two of each other only live about 3o minutes apart! We took in 4th of July activites on Saturday at
The Henry Ford.
The Detroit Symphany Orchestra was giving an outdoor concert, with fireworks following, and it was an absolutely outstanding event. I had never seen fireworks set to a live orchestra which made them all the better. I also saw one of the most impressive renditions of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow", sung by a performer who was only 11 years old. Absolutely amazing, she also sang several other songs and if it wasn't for her "young girl" voice you could never tell she was just a kid.
Sunday we headed into Ann Arbor and took in the sights and sounds of the University of Michigan. Debbie knew some cool spots and we visited their law library, which was one of the most impressive library structures I have ever seen. We ended the evening with an awesome meal at a place called
Zanzibar, and at the end realized we were the last people left, and the place had closed an hour and a half earlier.
Monday was my day to shine as we headed into Detroit. I absolutely love showing people the city and trying to turn preconceived notions around. Detroit as most of you know doesn't exactly have what I would call a stellar reputation.
Heck, it doesn't even have a good reputation with locals here. I find though, when you point out the things the city has to offer your heart can start to turn a little for it. We even asked Dan at the end of the day if we had changed his view of the city, and he said we had. Success! Ended up touring some cool buildings, city parks,
John K. King Used and Rare Books,
which has over 1 million used books in his store, and hit up the
Heidelberg Project, which is one of my favorite things to show people from out of town. The
Heidelberg Project is a neighborhood where a gentelman has basically turned into an artistic display. He uses various objects in yards/houses and creates some vary stunning visual displays. My personal favorite is his interpretation of Noahs Ark. I'll leave you with a couple good action shots of me eating an eclair at a local bakery in Detroits Greektown District. Looking forward to the week ahead as I'm heading back to mom and dads for a couple of days and then off to
Chris and Chrissy's in Indianapolis.
What a great way to kick off my forced week of vacation (GM annual summer shutdown). I spent this past weekend paling around with Dan Cochrane and Debbie Pittman of Cedarville University fame. Dan was in from Baltimore visiting a mutual friend of ours. Well mutual friend may not be the correct term for someone I hadn't seen in seven years, but I'll say that after spending three days with the two of them, she's now back on the mutual friend list. And don't worry Debbie, I don't think you'll leave that list soon, now that we know the two of each other only live about 3o minutes apart! We took in 4th of July activites on Saturday at The Henry Ford. 
The Detroit Symphany Orchestra was giving an outdoor concert, with fireworks following, and it was an absolutely outstanding event. I had never seen fireworks set to a live orchestra which made them all the better. I also saw one of the most impressive renditions of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow", sung by a performer who was only 11 years old. Absolutely amazing, she also sang several other songs and if it wasn't for her "young girl" voice you could never tell she was just a kid.
Sunday we headed into Ann Arbor and took in the sights and sounds of the University of Michigan. Debbie knew some cool spots and we visited their law library, which was one of the most impressive library structures I have ever seen. We ended the evening with an awesome meal at a place called Zanzibar, and at the end realized we were the last people left, and the place had closed an hour and a half earlier.
Monday was my day to shine as we headed into Detroit. I absolutely love showing people the city and trying to turn preconceived notions around. Detroit as most of you know doesn't exactly have what I would call a stellar reputation. 
Heck, it doesn't even have a good reputation with locals here. I find though, when you point out the things the city has to offer your heart can start to turn a little for it. We even asked Dan at the end of the day if we had changed his view of the city, and he said we had. Success! Ended up touring some cool buildings, city parks, John K. King Used and Rare Books, 
which has over 1 million used books in his store, and hit up the
Heidelberg Project, which is one of my favorite things to show people from out of town. The Heidelberg Project is a neighborhood where a gentelman has basically turned into an artistic display. He uses various objects in yards/houses and creates some vary stunning visual displays. My personal favorite is his interpretation of Noahs Ark. I'll leave you with a couple good action shots of me eating an eclair at a local bakery in Detroits Greektown District. Looking forward to the week ahead as I'm heading back to mom and dads for a couple of days and then off to Chris and Chrissy's in Indianapolis. 
