February 17th - 19th
It has been over a month and a half since we have hit the road and we were ready for a long road trip. One of the things that would have been on my bucket list, if I had a bucket list, would be to go see a hockey game at
The Joe. This was the last year for hockey in this arena so we had to find a weekend to make it happen with one of the only other Red Wing fans we know, Audrey!
Thankfully we were able to convince Eric that Detroit and sports would be fun. Much to Eric's surprise neither disappointed!
In typical #Castrotravels form, the trip up wasn't without random food and stops. This time we found a
Tudor's Biscuit World and a super cool
Colorful Buddhist Temple.
It was about the time where we were walking around Watlao Buddhamamakaram when we received our first distress text from Eric & Audrey on the west coast. There flight had been delayed due to weather.
We tried not to think about the possibility of them not making it by distracting ourselves with more random stops at
Graeter's Ice Cream for an ice cream lunch, a photo op with some lego ladies and a stop for a picture at a huge duck boot.
Once we made it to Detroit, we knew we needed to stop for Red Wings gear. We couldn't show up at the game without wearing the appropriate attire. After a little shopping, we got word from Eric & Audrey that they were one a flight east! We were so excited and since we had about 4 hours to waste, we headed to dinner at
Vic's Casual Dining outside the city.
We were so excited when we finally got the text from Eric & Audrey that they had arrived. It took us no time to get them from the airport, check into our sweet hotel and find the closest place still opened for dinner,
Hot Taco. This place was awesome!!
We ended the evening with very quick drinks at the
Rusted Crow as we got there 20 or 30 minutes before they closed.
The next morning was beautiful so we set off on foot to find breakfast. After a few fails with sit down breakfast places with WAY too long of waits, we found
Detroit Institute of Bagels. This place was great, it was nice enough that we sat outside, eat and catch up on life.
On our walk back, we were even able to find graffiti!
There wasn't a lot of time before we needed to get moving towards The Joe for the game. We all got dressed in our red and headed over to the game. It was a pretty surreal experience to be able to climb the steps to The Joe and walk around the arena before the game started.
Once inside, we completely understood why it was time for an upgrade. But none of that mattered cause we were there and it was so fun and about 3,000 degrees at the top of the stands where our seats were.
And the Red Wings didn't disappoint. Even though they were having a down year, they put on a show for us. The game when into overtime and ended with the Red Wings winning in a shoot out! THE PLACE WENT NUTS!!
Everyone was on such a high the rest of the day. We had so much fun walking around downtown after the game and checked out all the local must sees.
We were even asked to jump into formal wedding pictures as we were passing by.
As dusk fell, we quickly made our way to the
Heidelberg Project. This area was right up or alley for many reasons. The recycled art was so fun and creative and we love how they have used this to bring people to the area in such a positive way. We were a little disappointed that we were not there earlier to head a little more of the history and talk to the people that help run it but we had a great time running around in the evening trying to take pictures of everything.
On our way out, we met Tim Burke of the
Detroit Industrial Gallery that happens to be on the same block as the Heidelburg Project. He shared with us his history in the area and there was clearly some bad blood between the two. But his art was really impressive and it was nice to talk to someone from the area to hear a prospective of things.
That evening we found a great area of downtown that was filled with great bars and restaurants. We headed to
Slow's Bar BQ. It was there that we finally figured out Detroit.
We have decided that Detroit is this hidden gem full of art, foodie restaurants, super nice people, great sports city hiding behind a less then stellar past. We believe the people of Detroit we continuing to promote their pass hiccups in an effort to keep all the tourists out so they can keep this fabulous city to themselves.
The rest of the night we spent walking around downtown enjoying the weather and the sights and more graffiti at
The Belt. It really is a great city.
And a trip to Detroit isn't complete for me until I get pictures outside of
Comerica Park!
Sunday morning we didn't have a lot of time before Eric & Audrey needed to be at the airport and we needed to get on the road home but we couldn't leave Detroit until we visited what Detroit use to corner the market on, cars. So that morning, we visited the
Henry Ford Museum.
This museum was jam packed full of great things. I feel like we only saw the tip of the iceberg but what we did see was so interesting and at some times pretty heavy.
For me, the highlights had to be the
Dymaxion House,
Oscar Meyer Wienermobile,
Rosa Parks bus,
the car JFK was shot in.
There is no doubt that we will have to revisit this museum another time to check out all the other areas we didn't have time to explore.
It was sad to have to say good-bye to Eric & Audrey but it was such a great weekend and in a city that we all fell in love with. We can not wait to plan our return trip to Detroit!
