avocado8

Hi Mom and Lisa

We finished up day 3 with a drive out to a Whole Foods in Troy, during which we learned the significance of the title of the movie about Eminem's life, 8 Mile. The streets are essentially mile markers, so there's a 7 Mile and a 9 Mile and so on (Whole Foods was at 14 Mile). It wasn't a grammar error on Eminem's part to leave off an 's'; apparently 8 Mile was a dividing line between neighborhoods for him growing up. Anyway, I think the fact that the streets are numbered by miles rather than blocks kind of emphasizes one of the observations we've made since arriving: namely, that the city seems too big for the number of people in it. It's beautiful, probably more beautiful than anyone outside of Michigan has been led to believe, but it's vast, and it's empty. We thought the emptiness was a factor of arriving on a Sunday, when all downtown business districts are empty. But even once the work week started, the city never filled up. I kind of wish more people and companies knew how nice it was here, because Detroit could accommodate so many more businesses and residents.

After our Whole Foods resupply, we had a picnic in the room, and then I took the Beaner swimming (he swam, I watched and tried to finish a NYT review of the book Wild, by Cheryl Strayed in between answering "hey mom, watch this!" shouts). I ended up being so eager to read Wild after finishing the library book I brought with me that I downloaded it to my Kindle app on the iPad. Reading on the iPad, with its backlit screen, meant I could turn off the bedside lamp that the Beaner complained kept him awake, but it's hard on the eyes in a dark room. The book grabbed me from the first page, however, and totally lived up to its glowing review, so I persevered.

Days 4 (yesterday) and 5 (today) were relatively quiet. Yesterday morning Al called the number we had for the GM assembly plant tour in Flint, but he got a recording that said they no longer offer tours to groups of fewer than 20. (He wasn't sure it would be worth driving the 80 minutes north to Flint anyway, but I was interested in seeing how the town had changed—or not—since Michael Moore filmed Roger and Me there so many years ago, and I thought it might be a good spot for photography, so he agreed to check into it.) We were disappointed, but there were still things on our agenda.

We took the elevator up to the 5th floor of the Millender Center, of which our hotel is a part, and caught the People Mover—Detroit's automated elevated train (like the one at Disney World, only enclosed like a subway train). We took the People Mover in a loop around the downtown area, spotted a few cool places to take photos (but didn't get out to actually take them because it started to rain while we were on the train), and then disembarked at the Ren Center, one stop short of a full loop. The area with the GM cars in it was open, so the Beaner and I climbed in a bunch of them (I liked the Volt; the Beaner preferred the Impala), and the nice man at the info desk gave the Beaner a Camaro convertible Hot Wheels car. The Beaner declared it "not as much fun as the Auto Show" because all you could do was get in the cars. (The Auto Show also involves "watching things, comparing things, and BUYING things.")

Next stop: Canada. Since it was raining, we decided to get in the car and drive through the tunnel (toll: $4) to Windsor, ON. Al wanted some Canadian Tylenol (their back pain formulation has more effective meds in it that are left out of the US version because in the US we have Drug Issues), and I wanted to soak up the Canadiana and see the waterfront gardens. We had an unremarkable lunch, during which it started to pour, and then drove north along the river to see the pretty homes (the river view was somewhat obscured by the rain). Some of the houses reminded me of Aunt Anna's place on Lake Ontario. From there we just cut to the chase and went to the Real Canadian Superstore (kind of like a Walmart Supercenter) and bought a few things. It cleared up while we were inside, and was sunny by the time we made it back down near the tunnel. Al lost track of the tunnel signs, so we ended back on Riverside Drive, onto which I headed south this time (I knew there was also a bridge south of the tunnel). We got to admire the tulips and the sculpture gardens on our way to the bridge, and then we got to attempt to convince a stern border patrol guard that we'd come all the way from Philadelphia to "hang out" for a couple hours in Canada (NO SIR WE DO NOT HAVE ANY CONTRABAND TYLENOL BACK PAIN® IN OUR VEHICLE).

When we got back to the hotel Al took a nap and the Beaner played while I went back out to take photos of the cool things I'd seen from the People Mover that morning. I got off about a third of the way around the loop and then ended up following the elevated tracks on foot through the various neighborhoods until I made it back to the hotel.

Al took the Beaner swimming while I continued reading Wild, and then they ordered room service while I ate from our bag of snacks. By the time the Beaner went to bed, Al was worrying that we had run out of things to do here, and that all the things left on his list were in Canton, OH rather than here. This created a dilemma, because we'd agreed that I would get a ticket to a Red Wings game on Thursday night (it was too expensive to get 3 tickets for a night game that the Beaner wouldn't appreciate anyway when we considered it weeks ago, but I had some extra spending money left over at the end of March, and there was a single seat available 10 rows from the glass when I checked on Monday, so I snagged it). This meant that we couldn't leave earlier than planned unless I could sell my ticket or was willing to eat the cost (considerable). Al said we could discuss it in the morning.

While the Beaner and Al were at breakfast this morning, I got up and showered, then started looking into selling my ticket on StubHub. They came back as I was trying to figure out if I could save my ticket as a PDF and upload it to the StubHub site from an iPad, or whether I'd have to go down to the business center. The Beaner asked what I was doing and I explained about trying to sell my ticket so we could check out tomorrow. He didn't want to leave tomorrow; as far as he was concerned, there were still things to do here, SUCH AS SWIMMING. He wanted to stay until Friday. I decided to see if we could go to Flint after all. I called and got the same voicemail Al did, which gave the name and email address of the woman to contact if I had a group of 20 or more. I emailed her and asked if by any wild chance there was already a group tour scheduled for this week that we could join. She called me back an hour later and said YES, there was: she could add us to a tour that was scheduled for 9:45am tomorrow. She was very enthusiastic about my "don't take no for an answer" approach. :-) So tomorrow we will be getting up early and driving to Flint to see GMC 2500HDs and Chevy Silverados being made.

In the hour between email and callback, I continued reading Wild while Al napped and the Beaner played. After the tour arrangements were made, I took the Beaner down to the pool, where Al joined us 30 minutes later. He actually got in, and after a few too many, "hey mom, watch me and dad!" interruptions, I went back to the room to finish reading Wild. I did, and I highly recommend it.

Once they had cleaned up we drove over to John K. King Used & Rare Books, a four-story warehouse filled with, yep, used and rare books. We spent about an hour in the stacks, reading and taking photos, then went to a Barnes & Noble in the suburbs to find a book the Beaner wanted and John King didn't have (but also as a means of seeing more of the area). It really is very beautiful here; I wondered as I drove whether I'd appreciate the sunny spring day as much in Philly or New Jersey, and the answer is probably yes, but Michigan's spread-outness helps you see each tree and the expanse of blue sky between the examples of interesting architecture.

The plan was to try again to eat at the Brazilian steakhouse we'd been turned away from on Monday, but after stopping at a different Whole Foods for snacks, the plan changed: the Beaner wanted another hotel room picnic. I was not opposed, so we got dinner and breakfast items (since there will be no time for buffet in the morning) and headed back to the hotel. I've been pecking at this email in between eating, taking photos out the window, and and listening to Larry the Cable Guy on the History Channel ever since. Will send another update tomorrow or Friday.

Love you,
Lori

Sent from autocorrect-happy and hand-cramping iPad