First 2012 Sail

I think this is a cove-side shot of a Rocky Neck restaurant.


We saw a bird fight, which you can almost make out below. Clearly a pool of bait fish or 'peanut bunker' was present near shore.





That's our Kiwi!


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Ren-Cen and Greektown

The Renaissance Center has always gone by the name Ren-Cen. It began its life as a hotel and high-end mall, but its interior was so confusing to navigate that retailers quickly stepped away. I had one or two meals in the top-level restaurant, with breathtaking, terrifying views of the river, downtown Detroit, and Windsor, Ontario (fear of heights). The building cluster now serves as GM headquarters.

On the left side of the street is Ford field, home of the Lions. On the right side is Comerica Park, home--since the heartbreaking destruction of Tiger Stadium--to the Detroit Tigers.


Nowadays, when one travels to Greektown, the free parking is in a casino parking deck. The walkway takes you along a church face (Greek Orthodox?), over the street.





We ate lunch in a Cajun place, bizarrely, as we love and miss the foods that we first had in Greektown.


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Location: Detroit

Gill and I stayed in this somewhat outdated but large, well equipped, suite hotel (Embassy Suites, Livonia). Below is the breakfast bar, included in the reasonable room rate, and as fully featured as it gets.




Below is the Motown museum, where Gill and I sang "Stop! In the Name of Love" in the very room, on the very floorboards, where the Supremes recorded it. It was fascinating to discover the Berry Gordy business model. A number of acts would record each song, which had already been created by a great team of musicians and songwriters. Then the acts would make a pitch to the Motown executives, laying out how and why their version would sell best.






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No July? Really?

I wish I could say why I have been less prone to blogging of late. Time is involved, certainly. I'm working full time for the first time in two years. My hours can be upwards of 45 each week. My fractured foot is a factor as well, and my feelings about that injury and its treatment. I get spitting mad to consider the wrong-headed protocols, weeks on crutches, conflicting advice, difficult rehab, et al., especially when it feels the same now as it ever did (that is, painful). I have been saving pictures for use in this blog. For example, I captured every stage of the garden this summer. I snapped pics of our scant few sails aboard Kiwi this year(each time I was aboard, my back--out of alignment after the crutches--gave me real grief, but I'm GLAD that we sailed anyway!). I took images of travels, not only Detroit (partially covered here) but also Virginia. I'll post what I can, as I can. It bothers me that on-blog I omitted July, the month when full-time work and several-times-a-week physical therapy did me in. July is the first month in my years of blogging when I was silent. I'm not sure that much is signified by that period of no communication, however, so: Let's just move on.

Clio and Ann Arbor

We toured old haunts today: Clio, where I spent the first nine years of life and where Gill spent all her pre-college years of U.S. education, and Ann Arbor, where Gillian attended the University of Michigan.

We met up with great and important old friends: Ann O'Dell, Gillian's closest friend during her primary school years; Joe Chase, part of the Swart-Chase-Gorman triumvirate of Welch Boulevard; and Al Larese, with whom we have met up every day.


Gill will have to say for herself what Al was to her, but for me: Al was a friend at the start of my journey, having only just left the home of my parents, headed out into the world. He worked for me and played with me, something he still has abundant capacity for (play, that is). Gillian found him on Facebook this year, and the weekend was very much geared toward reunion with Al (that's him, after dark, in Ann Arbor, with Gill).


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Lake Huron

I dropped Gill, who is traveling with me this weekend, off at her friend Mary's yesterday. Then I headed up to Saginaw Bay. I wanted to search for sea glass.

I had realized, too late, that I had not taken any of my mother's ashes from the urn at Helen's house. I had been engaged in conversation, sometimes near arguments, with my sisters about my hope to take some ashes to Mackinac. (Conversations not about ash depositing, but about the distance to Mackinac and ride-alongs.) We never really settled the issue, and I never collected the ashes.


I went to the Lake Huron bay hoping to find a spectacular chunk of glass. I did actually encounter a massive piece of red glass--so unburnished that I nearly cut myself on it. I should have removed it from the beach to protect the volleyball players, who were not in evidence. I wasn't thinking, I just buried it in the sand. I left with one misshapen, new-ish piece of white glass...but at least I found one!

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Halo Burger

I am in Michigan, from whence I came. And I really did need a Halo Burger.


The HB comes with ketchup, mustard, mayo, onion, tomato, lettuce, and pickles. I ordered mine minus the ketchup, adding olives. I ate it so quickly that I didn't remember to take its picture. I did snap my cheesy tater-tots, which I didn't fully consume, but couldn't resist buying.



My husband Victor registered a protest that Halo Burger unwisely flattens its patties during cooking, squeezing out juices and such. However, my husband Victor also likes grilled meats well done, so his inconsistencies on the point of meat juice void his input. So there.


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