the trip that didn't go

Ahoy,

Last year over labor day weekend, we went to Chicago. I had this big plan for a family road trip to Toronto, but my mom wasn't being helpful with her requests, and my brother started new work, and the RRS got sick. Such good timing. This year, I thought I'd go ahead and just plan it to Michigan just for A and I. We started out going first to Ann Arbor, where we stayed at an airbnb near campus. It was forecasted to rain, and rain it did. A said he had never seen so much rain, most epic storm of his life. What a milestone. It started pouring immediately after we paid for parking at the garden. A was a trooper and took off his shoes and socks to walk around the garden paths, which all happened to be grassy. The garden looked pretty big, but we hustled out of there after about an hour and a half. On the way out we saw sprinklers simultaneously going off while it was raining. More water than all of the east coast.

We spent a day at the Henry Ford Museum. A day. It was open for 8 hours, and we spent 8 hours there. And it was definitely not enough time. It's a lot like Disneyland because you spend all day walking around looking at attractions. Apparently Henry Ford was buying anything folks were selling back then. Edison's workshop and house, Wright brothers' store and house, Robert Frost, Noah Webster, plantation/slave owner ranch, George Washington Carver's house, and so many more. All these old houses he had had moved to his property. It was amazing to step back in time like that. We ended up with less than 2 hours in the museum. Why is it I always feel like we are just running through a museum trying to look at everything as the clock ticks down to closing time?

We stopped in Detroit for a hot second because the RRS is a pansy. I'm not sure about his street cred a lot of the times. We got mini burgers at a hipster place and saw an old art deco building. Detroit used to be the NYC of the midwest until manufacturing and industry in the States declined. You can tell it used to be grand. So much of Detroit has become run down and abandoned that it is now ripe for hipsters to invade. I look forward to that process. It will be an incredibly interesting case study.

We met up with my mom and brother in Grand Rapids, MI, the 2nd largest city in Michigan. Perhaps it was because we were there on a weekend, but it seemed like a much quieter, smaller town than I was expecting for 2nd biggest. The highlight was the garden, one of the biggest in the area and well curated. It was an incredibly hot day. What else is new?

Our last stop was St. Joseph, MI, a happening little beach town on the other side of Lake Michigan. There were a lot of people out probably because it was a holiday weekend. We walked through, walked by the beach, picked up some ice cream, and continued our journey back to Chicago. Chicago is still my favorite place on Earth.

finally homebound,
jt