DIA to 8 Mile

With just one day in Detroit, we knew we had to make it count.  Arriving at the Detroit Institute of the Arts just after it opened, we explored the impressive collection but spent the most time in the amazing courtyard containing Diego Rivera's mural of Detroit, which he created right there in the museum.  Not only is the mural a testament to Detroit's history, but the space itself is just beautiful.

Daniel appreciates the touch of providing a portable stool to carry with you as you peruse the art

While Maddie studies the symbolism apparent in the painting

Absolutely stunning!

The iPad station provides insight into how Rivera made the mural

Next stop - Dearborn and the Ford Museum.  We stopped at the historic Dearborn Inn for lunch.  Designed and built by Ford himself, when he wanted a hotel closer to the airport, the hotel is incredibly charming, the food delicious, and the location - just down the block from the museum - perfect.

Apparently Ford believed that history in books was less than inspiring and also felt he had to prove something to those who doubted his intellect.  Therefore, he decided to create a living history textbook at this Dearborn property.  Initially I expected exhibits devoted only to cars but soon realized that the museum was filled with all measure of startling artifacts - from the limousine in which John Kennedy was assassinated to the chair in the theater where Lincoln last sat.  On a less depressing note, the bus where Rosa Parks refused to move sits within the museum, along with the courthouse, meticulously rebuilt in its new home, where Abraham Lincoln practiced law.

Our summer road trips made us the perfect audience for this exhibit

The Presidents' cars are outfitted with special steps for the secret service to stand upon

Dana spoke with one of the volunteers to learn how the museum managed to acquire these incredible pieces.  How did Illinois part with the courthouse or Alabama with the bus?  Apparently, Henry Ford cleaned up during the Great Depression, offering city after city a relative nominal sum (approximately $10,000) for each piece.  In a time of such economic uncertainty, they were happy to comply.  So... a four hour trek around the Ford museum and Greenfield Village accomplishes exactly what Ford hoped it would - you truly feel as if you are walking through one period of history after another.  It is a remarkable place.

The Rosa Parks' bus

Living history

The home of Noah Webster

Dana contemplates the space where Lincoln tried his cases

After devoting the day to museums, it was time to spend the evening exploring the two Detroit neighborhoods we knew through film - Grosse Pointe and 8 Mile.   While we had no luck recreating our Jeff Daniels' experience by locating John Cusack's child home, we did enjoy ogling the astounding mansions overlooking Lake Michigan.  Going from being the riff raff who couldn't get past the iron gates of one yacht club after another, we then became the outsiders who clearly didn't belong on the streets off of 8 Mile.  Blasting "Lose Yourself" from our speakers, we went off in search of Eminem's childhood home, even though Maddie read that it had been burned down (in a questionable manner?) after someone bought it with the intention of making it a museum.  It was just as well, as it's difficult to imagine many people making the journey to where the museum would have been located.  To do so, one has to drive past some menacing characters.  Of course, that added to our adventure.  Adding to our amusement was Siri's GPS voice, insisting again and again that we "Make a U-Turn" and return to the original course we had set before deciding on this detour.

A few of the lovely Grosse Pointe homes

And then... 8 Mile

The house next door

The lot where once Eminem's house stood

Returning home after our driving tour, we opted to park the car and keep it simple for dinner.  The Book Cadillac is located right across the street from the two warring "Coney" haunts, the more famous (and, we believed, deservedly so) Lafayette and its competitor American Coney.  Many people order two coneys as their meal, but we opted to order just one in order to walk next door and order another for comparison's sake.  At $2.50 a "coney" (a hot dog with mustard, onions and chili), this was also our cheapest meal of the trip (even after we visited both restaurants).

We're now all nestled into our comfy hotel room, watching the first Hunger Games on TV and getting ready to call it quits on the last day of our vacation.  Michigan gets high marks from our family, and we fully expect we will be back to this great "lake" state.

The Purple Rose of Chelsea

Driving through "the heartland" of Michigan to get from the NW corner of the state (think the pinky on your left hand) down to Detroit (at the base of your thumb), we had a relatively peaceful and uneventful day driving through beautiful farm country (mostly corn but the occasional wheat field that kept causing Dana to ask, "if you get out and stand in a field of wheat here, do we still have to go to Kansas?" despite knowing all too well the answer to that question ;).

After our last lovely morning in Traverse City, where the woman from whom I bought a TCFF (Traverse City Film Festival) tote bag and t-shirt recognized my earrings and asked where I had gotten them.  When I told her a little store in Mackinac Island, she not only knew the artist who created the earrings but also the store owner of Little Luxuries, the Mackinac shop.  Michigan is that kind of state.  She sent us off to explore Traverse City's version of that store - a shop filled with items made locally by Michigan artists called Secret Stash.  We tooled around the downtown for a bit longer, headed back to our hotel room for one last look at the Grand Traverse Bay and hit the road to Detroit (via Mount Pleasant, home of CMU, and Ann Arbor, home of University of Michigan).

The view of the Bay as the sun came up - so peaceful

and transparent

When we stopped at Max and Emily, a charming little cafe and our planned stop for gas and an afternoon snack (since we had a late, big and delicious breakfast), we noticed that Jeff Daniels, most recently (and best known to my children) from Newsroom, attended college at CMU and would be playing at a local music festival there on August 21st.  The framed news article of an appearance he made a few years ago at this same festival, along with the flyer announcing his upcoming appearance, caused us all to think even more admirably of this man who continues to make a point of visiting the state of his alma mater.

It was only as I read from our Moon book on Michigan about the charming little down of Chelsea, just outside of Ann Arbor, that I realized that Mr. Daniels still LIVES in Michigan.  In fact, he lives in Chelsea, where he opened his own "Purple Rose of Cairo," where, it turned out, he would be performing this weekend.  Of course, Dana thought, "I bet we can find his house," which led to an amusing discussion/debate about the privacy of public figures and what life must be like for an actor in a place such as Chelsea, Michigan as opposed to Beverly Hills, LA.  The discussion, I should mention, took place after Maddie had programed the address she found with relative ease into her phone and while we drove around Chelsea admiring the place and searching out Jeff Daniel's impressive, yet completely understated, lakeside home, where he lives with the wife he met in high school (both grew up in Michigan).  I will now make you complicit in our questionable activity by allowing you to look at the photos I took of said house ;)

The notion of Jeff and his wife (and, before they were grown, his three daughters) just casually strolling the streets of Chelsea made us all appreciate the choices made by famous people regarding how they live their lives.  For Daniels, there is no gate, no guard, just neighbors and a peaceful life in an unassuming town.  Made me love him that much more.  When we get home, we're showing the kids The Purple Rose of Cairo.

This one was taken with my zoom lens and would have been quite cool had he been standing there contemplating the lake, don't you think? :) (and, yes, I felt the most like a stalker/paparazzi while taking it)

T

The theater in Chelsea

We arrived in the wonderful college town of Ann Arbor around 5:30 and spent the next four hours or so exploring the wonderful downtown, driving around the college, while discussing with Daniel the various schools to which he might wish to apply and having a wonderful dinner at a bustling favorite spot of the locals called The Jolly Pumpkin.  Maddie's college friend, Drew, drove in from Toledo, Ohio to have dinner with Maddie, so we were without our girl for much of our spin through Ann Arbor, but we all once again marveled how much easier it is for people who live in any state other than Florida to get from one place to another.   It took Drew about the same amount of time to drive from Toledo to Ann Arbor as it takes us to drive to see Clay, Alex, Sophia and Fiona! :)

One of the many cool bookstores in downtown Ann Arbor, where anyone can sit at the typewriter, type a line and add it the wall above.

An ordinary street corner artist?

We made it to our historic Book Cadillac (now managed by Westin) by 10:00 and enjoyed an overview of the city from our perch on the 23rd floor.  Now we're off to Dearborn to explore the famed Ford museum.  Today is our last full day of vacation, and we intend to make the most of it.

Until tomorrow....