Moving out of Michigan -- What I Will Miss

What I will miss about Novi 

A number of years ago, I attended the farewell dinner for a pastor who was leaving the area.  I had asked him, “What will you miss about your city?  And you can’t say ‘the people.’’  That’s too easy and too obvious.  It is for me, too.

So, what will I miss about living in Novi and in Michigan in general?

I will miss Greenfield Village at the Henry Ford.  We had a membership there for years, including the all-you-can-ride package.  So, in addition, I will miss the Model-T rides we took as often as we could.

I will miss going to Frankenmuth, walking through Bronner’s Christmas Wonderland, and having a large German meal at the Bavarian Inn.  Sauerbraten was my meal of choice, along with a mandatory side order of Bavarian red cabbage.  Those meals did not happen often, but they were always glorious!

Honorable mention on the German meal was Metzger’s in Ann Arbor.  Also very good.

I will miss going into downtown Detroit to enjoy some world-class architecture.  The Guardian Building and the Fisher Building are amazing.  I will miss the Detroit Institute of Arts.  I wish I could have gotten downtown more often to enjoy more of it.  We never did get to the restored train station or to the Book Tower.  We got to the Riverwalk a few times.  There were also many restaurants and pubs that would have been nice to get to, but time and money stood in the way.

I will miss attending concerts by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and productions at the Fisher and Fox Theaters. 

I will miss Mexican meals at Border Cantina (although, they closed a few months before we left).  I will miss Saturday morning breakfast at the Early Bird restaurant in Northville, only recently discovered by us.  I will miss Tim Hortons and Guernsey’s ice cream.

I will miss Meijer being only two miles down the road.  I will miss the dedication of the people at Firestone on Haggerty Road in Northville.  (When they know you by name when you walk in, is that bad or good?  At least they did not have my phone number memorized.)

I will miss the Michigan state parks.  I will miss Traverse City, Sleeping Bear Dunes, and the Mackinac Bridge.  I will miss Laura’s and my recent end-of-summer trips to Port Huron where we watched Great Lakes freighters float under the Blue Water Bridge.

Although I will miss many things about Michigan, I am looking forward to discovering many things to love about Lake City and Minnesota.  Of course, it will be the people that I will learn to love the most.  And that is easy and obvious to say.

Local Tourist: The Fisher Building, Detroit

The Local Tourist has been busy the last few weeks, checking out various attractions in the local area.  Such trips are made when opportunities present themselves, and for various reasons, there has been time for several of these opportunities.  Best of all, many of these opportunities have been cheap or free.

On Saturday, March 16, the Local Tourist went to the Fisher Building and took a free tour which is run by Pure Detroit.  The tour was excellent (Do it!  Did I mention it is FREE?) and covered the history and the most vivid and beautiful parts of the Fisher Building.  The Fisher Building is called Detroit's largest piece of art.  It lives up to the name.  Sadly, finances prohibited the original design of the building from being completed, which would have meant two more towers similar to the one below.  The middle tower was designed to be 60 stories, flanked by two 30 story towers.  Only one of those 30 story towers ended up being built.  The Great Depression halted further construction.

WJR likes to boast that they broadcast from "the golden tower of the Fisher Building."  It originally had gold leafing on the peak of the tower, but during World War II, it was covered so that it would not present itself as a target to an enemy attack.  Once the black covering (I think they said asphalt) was removed, the damage to the gold leafing resulted in its removal.  It was replaced with the green terra cotta which is still there.  You can see a little bit of it on the picture below.

Here are a few photos from the Fisher Building.  If you go, prepare to look up a lot!

This is one of several images embossed in brass on the elevator doors.

This seal was walked on for decades by the public who entered the Fisher Building.
The starburst design features the various kinds of marble and stone used in the construction of the building.
The tour guide said there are plans to restore/replace the brass design which is worn more than this photo suggests.

Downtown Detroit from the 26th floor of the Fisher Building.

Broadway in Detroit -- The Play That Goes Wrong

Last night, Laura and I went to the Fisher Theater in Detroit to see "The Play That Goes Wrong."  It is part of the Broadway in Detroit series.  I was hopeful for an entertaining, clever, funny play, and I was not disappointed.  A lot of thought went into the play -- writing, production, set design, and so on.  Even the program had biographies that were fabricated to match the characters who were in the play.  They were actors, portraying actors, who were acting in a play.  Well ... go see it.  You have until February 24 in Detroit.

Here's a preview:

Local Tourist -- The Fisher Building, Detroit

The Local Tourist had visited the Fisher Building a year ago, but here is a nice article about the Fisher Building from the Detroit Free Press.

It is a beautiful building and is worth a look if you are in town.

The article is here.

Local Tourist -- Fisher Building and Ford Field

The Local Tourist was back out in Detroit today.  A late start forced us to axe a few things off of our itinerary.  The Detroit Historical Museum (FREE!) will have to await a future visit.  We also had to be sure we were back home to pick up working kids from their jobs, so we could not really afford to get on too late into the afternoon.

Our first stop was to see the Fisher Building on Grand Blvd.  Occasionally, Pure Detroit offers free tours of this building and the Guardian Building, but not today.  We took our own brief, self-guided tour, along with a stop in the Pure Detroit shop.  The Fisher Building is called the Largest Piece of Art in Detroit, and it is magnificent!  Some photos.

Then we went to the 1:00 PM tour of Ford Field.  Though we had been there before, we figure the tour would give us some access to parts we don't get to.  We also learned about some of the ingenious steps that were taken in the building of Ford Field.  I thought one of the most brilliant and cool things they did was for the club seating.  The chairs in the box seats are from the Ford Explorer, and the higher end club seating uses chairs from the Lincoln Navigator.  Both were very comfortable, but far outside my price range on game days.  I also thought the concourse on what used to be Adams Street is especially cool as they made the concessions area look like a streetscape.  If you like stadium tours, go to visit Ford Field.  Some photos.

Proof that it has happened!