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 -- Motor Muster at Greenfield Village

On Saturday, June 15, the Local Tourist, the Mrs., and the youngest of the children went to Greenfield Village for Motor Muster.  We were hopeful to hear some ragtime music which has been offered at Motor Muster in the past.  Instead, they were advertising 70's rock, but that happened later in the day so we missed that.

My goal was to find a 1966 Chevy Bel-Air or a 1964 Chevy Impala.  Those are the first cars I remember my Dad driving.  I remember the Bel-Air having a spring popping through the vinyl behind the driver.  I managed to not cut myself on it, even though I also remember my Dad often saying, "Stop kicking the seat!"  Still, I am almost certain that I was not responsible for the spring breaking and poking out.

Alas, neither the Bel-Air nor the Impala were on display.  Below is a fraction of the cars that were on display.