Detroit: A City on the Rise: Entertainment

So instead of Belle Isle this week, the entertainment district is the focus this week.  What’s a good meal without entertainment right?  Well, you would be surprised as to what Detroit has to offer for entertainment.  Did you know that Detroit has the second largest theatre district in the country?  I bet that comes as a big surprise but actually it makes a lot of sense.

Detroit has the Fox Theatre, Fillmore Theatre, Detroit Opera House, Gem Theatre, Music Hall Center for the Performing Arts, Harmonie Club, Harmonie Centre, Greektown Casino Theatre, and City Theatre.  There are many more theatres located outside of Downtown that are still active and also some that are awaiting redevelopment, have been demolished, reused for a different purpose or are slated for demolition.

You can also consider the sports teams a part of the entertainment in the city too.  We have the Detroit Red Wings of the National Hockey League, Detroit Tigers of Major League Baseball and the Detroit Lions of the National Football League that all play downtown.

To start, the Fox Theatre is located on 2211 Woodward Ave. It opened in 1928 and was designed by C. Howard Crane.  It has a mix of many different architectural styles and is on the National Register of Historic Places.  It was the first movie palace in the world to have sound systems for films.  It is the largest theatre in Detroit with 5,048 seats and is also the largest surviving movie palace of the 1920s.  It also has a 10 story office building adjacent to the theatre that houses Olympia Entertainment, Illitch Holdings, and Little Caesars Pizza.  Olympia Entertainment also owns Joe Louis Arena, Comerica Park, City Theatre, and Hockeytown Café (Both adjacent to the Fox).  The Fox hosts plays of all kinds, musicals and shows.

The Detroit Red Wings currently play at Joe Louis Arena, located at 600 Civic Center Drive, directly next to Cobo Center and the Detroit River, on the edge of downtown.  It is currently owned and operated by Olympia Entertainment, owned by Mike Illitch, founder of Little Caesars Pizza.  Building began in 1977 and finished in 1979.  The first game was played on December 27, 1979.  It is the second oldest venue in the NHL still operating.  As of now Mike Illitch is looking to build a new arena for the Red Wings as “The Joe” becomes more outdated.

The Detroit Tigers play at Comerica Park, located directly across the street from the Fox Theatre at 2100 Woodward Ave.  The ballpark is an open-air stadium which means there is now roof and has a great view of Downtown.  Building began in 1997 and was finished in 2000.  The first game was played on April 11, 2000 and is owned by Illitch Holdings.

City Theatre is located inside The Hockeytown Café, directly next to the Fox Theatre and holds small plays.  It only has a capacity of 500 people and is located at 2301 Woodward Ave.  It opened in 2004 and hosts small concerts, comedy shows and small plays.  You can find all the information on all of these venues at www.olympiaentertainment.com

The Fillmore Theatre is located one block south of the Fox Theatre at 2115 Woodward Ave.  It was formerly known as the State Theatre, and before that the Palms Theatre before Live Nation bought the building and renamed it.  It was built in 1925 and has a capacity of 2,200 people.  It hosts concerts, shows and plays.  To find all the information on the Fillmore and shows that are playing go to Wikipedia and search The Fillmore Detroit.

For the other venues you can find their information here:  Detroit Opera House: www.michiganopera.org; Gem Theatre: www.gemtheatre.com and the Music Hall for the Performing Arts www.musichall.org.

Detroit has a great entertainment district and we have only scratched the surface of what is available downtown.  The fun is there for you, it may not be publicized as much as it should be or as well know, but I promise that if you go looking for it, you won’t be disappointed.  In next week’s issue we will look at the company of Quicken Loans, the owner Dan Gilbert and what he is doing to help revitalize the city and downtown.

Feel free to check out my other articles at http://michiganjournal.org/

Detroit: A City on the Rise: Grand Circus Park

One of the areas in Detroit that is seeing some great development, especially in the Downtown area, is Grand Circus Park.  One week after talking about the Somerset CityLoft and retail shopping in the downtown area; living in the city, the development of more businesses and a hotel are reshaping what used to be one of the larger theatre districts in the city.  Detroit still has the largest theatre district in the country, but the buildings around Grand Circus Park now have new life, or at least will have new life very soon.  A few of the buildings included in the revival of Grand Circus Park are the Broderick Tower, Madison Theatre Building, and the David Whitney Building (not to be confused with the Whitney Restaurant).

The Broderick Tower, once called the Eaton Tower is located on the corner of Woodward at 10 Witherell St.  It was built by Theodore Horation Eaton Jr., an importer and dealer in chemicals and dyes in 1926 and opened two years later.  The building stands 368 feet high encompassing 35 floors.  It was built to house offices for doctors, dentists, and businesses among many others.

Eaton owned the building until David Broderick, who was an insurance broker, bought the tower in 1945 and renamed it after himself.  He created the Sky Top Club on the 33^rd floor as a private club to entertain guests and clients until his death in 1957.  The building would change ownership a couple of times between 1963 and 1976 until a family by the last name of Higgins bought the building and still have ownership today.

The Broderick Tower is a key building on the edge of Grand Circus Park leading toward the center of the city at Campus Martius, and it is currently being renovated into a mixed use building for residential living, retail, offices and restaurants.  The crew that is handling the restoration and renovation of the historic building is Motown Construction Partners L.P., which is led by Fred Beal, owner of J.C. Beal Construction, along with Kraemer Design Group, Strategic Energy Systems, Soils and Materials Engineers, and NTH Engineers.

The first four floors will contain retail, business offices and restaurants.  Floors 5-34 will be residential with high end apartments, lofts and suites at the top.  The renovation began with the financing secured in December of 2010, and the expected finish date of September 2012.  You can find all the information needed about the up and coming new Broderick Tower and www.brodericktower.com.

The Madison Theatre Building sits right next to the Broderick Tower at 1555 Broadway St., and is currently owned by Quicken Loans Chairman, Dan Gilbert.  He has a major prescience in the city since moving many of his employees from the Livonia offices, to downtown, but we will talk about that later in the month.  The building was built separately from the theatre itself and was designed by renowned architect C. Howard Crane, who also designed the Fox Theatre, Olympia Stadium, Fillmore (State Theatre), Detroit Opera House, and Orchestra Hall among others.

It was built in 1917 and had a capacity of 1,806 people.  The theatre had a great run as one of the best in the city, and was even the first theatre in Michigan to show a full-length talking picture 10 years after it opened.  The show was “The Jazz Singer,” and more than half a million people were able to see it within three months.  As the years wore on and more cinemas and movie theatres opened in the suburbs, the theatre district died and only a few remained.  Unfortunately, the theatre portion of the Madison building was not saved and demolished in 2000, with a surface level parking lot now sitting where the theatre once stood.

Luckily the office building portion was saved and the ground floor of the building has been in use since being bought by Lawson Reality in the early 21^st century.  Angelina’s Italian Bistro occupies the ground floor, Witherell St. side, while Stub Hub occupies the Broadway St. entrance.  The upper floors are now being renovated thanks to Quicken Loans, who purchased the building from Broadway Property Partners LLC; in early 2011 has plans to bring more employees downtown to work in the building.

Gilbert also has his first tenant signed to the building, Skidmore Studios, a graphic design company that plans to occupy 10,000 sq ft. of office space for 23 employees, who until recently had their offices in Royal Oak.  The building still has office space available and with Gilbert at the helm, the building should be filled quickly.  To learn more about the Madison Theatre Building, visit www.historicdetroit.org and search Madison Theatre Building.

The final building that is going to be key to the revival of Grand Circus Park is the David Whitney Building.  It is located at 1553 Woodward Ave. on the corner of Washington Blvd.  It was built in 1915 with 19 floors and renovated in 1959 all for office space.  It has a four story lobby and was named after the lumber baron of the area, David Whitney.  After rough times in the city, tenants abandoned the building and it has been empty since 2000.  Up until recently, there were no plans for renovation but with the recent boom of hotels and upscale apartments and lofts being renovated and built in the city, one group hopped on the bandwagon and thought of the Whitney Building as a great mixed use project.

Roxbury Group and Trans Inn Management both bought into the building, along with the Detroit Downtown Development Authority (DDDA), have plans to renovate the building into a high-end boutique hotel, along with retail, office space and residences.  The plan is to have the first floor as commercial use, second, third and fourth floor as retail, fifth and sixth floors as office space and the rest as hotel and residential.  Construction has yet to start, although is projected to start soon with the finished product completed by 2013.  To learn more about the David Whitney Building just go to www.wikipedia.org and search David Whitney Building.

All of three of these buildings will hold a special place in the development of Grand Circus Park and will hopefully start a new era that spurs more development around the downtown area.  In next week’s article, we will look at the Detroit Institute of Arts and Detroit Library and the development around that area.

Feel free to check out my other articles at http://michiganjournal.org/

Detroit: A City on the Rise: Westin Book Cadillac and Fort Shelby Hotels

For the third installment of the revitalization of Detroit, we will take a look at the Westin Book Cadillac and Fort Shelby Hotels.  As Detroit becomes a place that people want to go stay a day, night or weekend in, hotels are very important to the revival of Detroit.  The two hotels in the downtown area are the big players showing that Detroit does have people that want to stay in the city.

The Westin Book Cadillac Hotel is located on 1114 Washington Blvd. and Michigan Ave. and originally opened in 1924 as the world’s largest hotel at the time.  It stands 349 feet with 29 floors.  It opened with 1,136 guest rooms, three dining rooms, three ballrooms and a very spacious lobby.  It was designed by Louis Kamper and cost $14 million to build.  It would undergo renovations throughout its history and many name and ownership changes until it was renovated from 2006-2008 opening back officially in October of 2008.

With the recent renovations, the hotel now has 455 guest rooms and 67 condominium suites.  It also has a newly renovated Grand Ballroom (now called the Venetian Ballroom), a new three story addition with an 11,000 square foot ballroom, a pool, hot-tub, fitness center, spa, and additional conference space.

Former New York Yankee great Lou Gehrig stayed in the hotel with the Yankee team in 1939 and had an argument with manager Joe McCarthy in the lobby the day before a game.  He told McCarthy to sit him for the game in which he did, ending his 2,130 consecutive games started streak.  Gehrig also fainted on the grand staircase which would lead to his diagnosis of ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) or Lou Gehrig’s disease.

The Fort Shelby Hotel otherwise known as the DoubleTree Guest Suites Fort Shelby/Detroit Downtown is located on 525 West Lafayette Blvd. and First St. in Downtown Detroit.  It opened in 1916 as 10 stories, 450 guest room hotel known as the Fort Shelby Hotel, designed by Schmidt, Garden & Martin architects of Chicago.  The hotel was so successful that they built a 27 story, 450 guest room addition in 1927 in what was supposed to be the first of two, but the Great Depression halted the second addition.

The building changed ownership and names just like the Book Cadillac until finally being purchased and renovated in the spring of 2007 by RSC & Associates Inc., Hobbs + Black Associates Inc., L.S. Brinker, and Mccarthy & Smith INC. and finished in December of 2008.  It now has 203 guest rooms and 56 apartments.  It also has a 21,000 square foot conference center with two ballrooms and 17 breakout rooms.

You can check out the Book Cadillac Hotel at www.bookcadillacwestin.com and the Fort Shelby Hotel by searching Fort Shelby Hotel on Google and clicking on the first link.  Both hotels also have some great bars and restaurants.  The Book Cadillac has Michael Symon’s Roast Grill (very expensive, professional attire), The Boulevard Room overlooking Washington Blvd, The Motor Bar, Westin Book Cadillac Coffee, and the 24grille.  The Boulevard Room is open daily for breakfast and lunch, the Roast Grill is open Monday-Saturday serving dinner, and the Motor Bar is open daily serving lunch, dinner and cocktails.  The WBC Coffee is open daily for breakfast, and the 24grille is open daily for lunch and dinner as well as a fully stocked bar.

The DoubleTree Fort Shelby Hotel is smaller but has a great restaurant and bar.  The Finn & Porter Restaurant and Round Bar are located inside the hotel just off of Lafayette and Bear Claw Coffee, in between the apartment and hotel entrance.  All three restaurants are open daily.  The Finn & Porter Restaurant is open for breakfast and dinner while Bear Claw Coffee is open for breakfast and lunch, while the bar area of Finn & Porter also serves lunch and dinner but focuses mainly on the fine wines and cocktails.  You can find all restaurants under the dining options on their respective websites.

The occupancy rates for the Metro Detroit area is the best ever in the past four years.  The region now has a 67.7% occupancy rate, a 6.7% increase from last year and is only increasing.  The recent successes of both hotels are prompting other companies and businesses to look into purchasing other downtown buildings to convert them into high-rise apartments and hotels.  We will talk about that next week with the revitalization of Grand Circus Park and the Broderick Tower and David Whitney Building.

Feel free to check out my other articles at http://michiganjournal.org/

Detroit: A City on the Rise: Somerset CityLoft

Last week’s article was about the history of Detroit and how it was founded, what happened throughout the years and what made the city what it is today.  This week we are going to talk about the brand new Somerset CityLoft store in the heart of Downtown Detroit.  The store is located at 1441 Woodward Ave. and 1443 Woodward Ave. with the brand new addition next door.  The CityLoft is a compilation of stores inside what used to be “Merchant’s Row.”

Merchant’s Row is basically over 30 buildings, built back in the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries.  The buildings were designed to have first floor retail and the upper floors as office space.  By the early 1920’s it was the most active shopping district in the country and the corner of Woodward and State St. was the busiest pedestrian crossing in the United States in 1925.  The shopping district was anchored by some big name stores that you may actually recognize.  Vernor’s, Sanders Confectionary (Ice Cream), F.W. Woolworth Co. (Now Foot Locker) and Hudson’s (Now Macy’s), lined Merchant’s row and definitely were the flagship stores.  Though all of these companies are now gone from Downtown, including the old Hudson’s building which was demolished in 1998, Somerset is helping to bring retail back to the city.

Somerset along with Cadillac, Quicken Loans, and Bank of America help put this together and bring the stores downtown.  They opened up for only one weekend a month that started in late July and turned into the last weekend of the month.  July 28, 29, and 30 were the dates it was first open and there was an overwhelming response.  American Coney Island provided a small pop up stand for anyone wanting to buy some Coney island hot dogs right outside CityLoft, Cadillac had a tent set up for karaoke, there was a place to do Yoga, the models in the windows were live people and there was even a doorman with a top hat opening the door for you when you wanted to go in or out.  Over 1000 people attended the opening weekend of the CityLoft, surpassing expectations by a long shot.

Cadillac provided and still does provide a shuttle service on Thursday and Friday from 11am-7pm to and from the following locations: Coleman A. Young Municipal Center, Compuware Building, One Woodward, Renaissance Center, DTE Energy, Westin Book Cadillac and the Fillmore Theatre.  On Saturday, the following buildings have shuttle service from 10am-4pm: MGM Grand Detroit Casino, Motor City Casino, Atheneum Hotel, The Fillmore Theatre, Renaissance Center, Westin Book Cadillac, and the Boston Edison Neighborhood at Voight Park.

The shuttle service provided by Cadillac is something that not only helps with parking but gives a shopper an experience to ride in a Cadillac around Detroit.  There is also a Valet service at CityLoft if you want to use that as well.  The opening of the CityLoft had 38 stores initially, but in a smaller context.  The building cannot hold 38 stores so they had mini-stores.  The CityLoft is not meant to be a permanent location either; it was put in place to see what the retail scene could look like in the future.

The stores that are located inside CityLoft come directly from the Somerset Collection in Troy.  Anne Fontaine, Baby Gap, Bare Escentuals, Basler, Betsey Johnson, Brookstone, Eddie Bauer, Eileen Fisher, GAP, Godiva, Gymboree, Henri Bendel, Intermix, Johnston & Murphy, Kate Spade, LEGO, lululemon athletica, Marmi, Max Marma, Max Studio, Michael Kors, Montblanc, Neiman Marcus, Origins, Restoration Hardware, Saks Fifth Avenue, St. Croix, Swarovski, Sweet Factory, Tappers Diamonds and Fine Jewelry, The Art of Shaving, The Capital Grille, The Coach Store, The Detroit Shoppe, The North Face, Tommy Bahama, Tumi, and Vera Bradley are all the original stores that started out inside CityLoft.

The stores that will be joining the ones above for the final weekend are: Au Courant Optical, Brooks Brothers, Lily Pulitzer, Paradise Pen, Pottery Barn, Saks, and Sur La Table.  Around 40 or more stores will be represented in the final week with a few mentioned in the original opening not attending such as Nieman Marcus.  The expectation is high for the final week and with the awesome response so far, the possibility of the CityLoft staying Downtown, maybe not in the same building but somewhere in Detroit would help spur retail development all over Downtown.

The final weekend for Somerset CityLoft is September 29, 30 and October 1.  The same shuttle stops mentioned above will be there for your convenience as well as a new stop at the 12^th Detroit Police Precinct at 7 Mile and Woodward Ave.  The CityLoft has not only given Detroit and shoppers across the Metro area a great place to shop and have fun, but it has given Detroit some hope that retail can and will survive in the city.  If you can get down there sometime next weekend I would highly recommend it.  In next week’s article we will talk about the history and revival of the Westin Book-Cadillac Hotel and Fort Shelby Hotel and Apartment Buildings and what they are doing to spur the development of other hotels around the Downtown area.

Feel free to check out my other articles at http://michiganjournal.org/

Detroit: A City on the Rise

The history of Detroit is key to the future of the city and especially Inside Detroit.  Every week here on Inside Detroit there will be a different post about the revival of the city, different things to do and see, historic buildings and places, the history and what made the city what it is today. The inaugural topic this week is about the history of Detroit and how the city became what it is today.

The City of Detroit was founded in 1701 by Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac, a French explorer while traveling up the Detroit River. He named the city after the body of water he was traveling on, which in French means “the strait.” The city would become a key port city for the French, British and Americans throughout its history. It was also an important military city as it was just across the river from Canada which the French first held until the British took over after the American Revolution. The city would change hands multiple times from the French to the British to the Americans back to the British and the Americans once more.

Detroit did fall to fire, just like Chicago, in 1805 which destroyed nearly the whole city. Augustus Woodward would be commissioned to redesign the layout of the city as he was the Chief Justice of the Michigan Territory. He laid the city out in a baroque styled radial fashion, with traffic circles to help with the flow of traffic. Only part of his plan worked out, but as you can tell now it looks like the spokes of a wheel with the streets of Jefferson, Michigan, Grand River, Woodward and Gratiot all panning out in different directions.

The 1800s many different styles of buildings arose in the city, with lots of different architecture. The city began to grow and played an important part in the Civil War. Campus Martius, Latin for “Field of Mars,” the basic center of the city, became the meeting center as many citizens enlisted right after the war started and was a place for speeches and rallies during and after the war. By the early 20th century, the automobile had been invented and Henry Ford perfected the assembly line to create mass production of the automobile thus creating the influx of immigrants to the city to work in the factories. The automobile would change the face of the city and literally make the city what it is today. As the population began to grow, so did the city. Buildings began to rise up in the skyline, and more and more people began to live downtown or in outer areas where are the work was.

World War II came around and with all the automobile plants in and around the city, the military capitalized on all the manufacturing in the city with Detroit producing many of the war materials used overseas. In fact, they produced so much of the equipment, vehicles, ammunition that it got the nickname: “The Arsenal of Democracy.” The city then became huge, the largest city in Michigan, in fact peaked as the 4th largest city in the country at one point, and its largest population came in the 1950s. Then the decline began with segregation growing all around the United States especially in the south and in Detroit. The 1960s rolled around and a term: “white flight” became a norm as many Caucasian Americans fled the city as more African-Americans came into Detroit to live and work.

The Riots of 1967 really played a big role in Detroit’s history and we still haven’t recovered from it. Basically, police raided an after-hours bar, called a “Blind Pig” and pretty soon everyone that was there was African-American which caused a huge disturbance and riots began for 5 days straight and didn’t stop. Governor George Romney at the time had a great relationship with then President Lyndon B. Johnson, which fell apart during the riots. The National Guard was called in to help control the violence and many buildings were burned. Of all the casualties from the riots, only 43 people died, 7,200 arrests were made and over 2,000 buildings were burned. It was the second largest riot in the country’s history, only to the New York City Draft Riots during the Civil War in the 1860s. The decline of Detroit only went faster after the riots as “white flight” became more prominent.

The 1970s brought a worse economy to Detroit with the gasoline crisis that really hurt the auto industry as more and more people and businesses moved out of the city. The Renaissance Center, which sits right on the river and is now currently the home to General Motors and Blue Cross Blue Shield, was built in the late 1970s in hopes of having a so called “renaissance” in the city. In 1980, the Republican National Convention was hosted by Detroit, nominating Ronald Reagan for the Presidential bid, which of course he went on to win. Many vacant structures were demolished in the 1980s in hopes of bringing redevelopment to the city, which of course never came.

The 1990s was where Detroit started to be revived at a very slow pace. One Detroit Center was built, in a Neo-Gothic style to give the skyline of Detroit a different look, becoming the second tallest building in the city. Casinos would be built such as Greektown, MGM Grand and MotorCity Casino to spur development. The Lions came back into the city, along with the Tigers getting a new home, right next to each other. Finally, Campus Martius was re-done and the scene in the new century helped Detroit really get back on its feet. The history of Detroit is long and great and we must learn from mistakes before we rebuild and reinvent ourselves. In the next article we will talk about the Somerset CityLoft on Woodward, in Downtown Detroit.

Feel free to check out my other articles at http://michiganjournal.org/

Welcome Home to me.

Well, I’m back to Detroit after a 2 week road trip out to California and back.

5,145 miles, split into 7 days of driving, 2 days staying with family in Texas, 1 night spent staying with family in Illinois, 2 nights camping under the starts in a cute little tent, 1 night spent in Vegas, 5 nights in California for Elite Track Nationals, 1 night spent a little outside of LA reliving memories from my past.

Photo montage -

I brought with me over a dozen Detroit shirts, to see if anyone would comment on them.  Unfortunately no.  I didn’t push my being from Detroit, but I also just hoped people would notice.  The communications director for USA Cycling did ask me why I didn’t bring him gumbo from Fishbones in Detroit, but it was in response to me being from Detroit, not from the shirt.

While it was super nice to get a way for a while, I felt like I needed a vacation from my vacation when I got home.  After driving in a car for 5 days your body gets a little tired and cranky and nothing sounds good, especially coming back and knowing that you have so much to catch up on.  So we got home Friday night, unpacked, went to bed. Martin had to work at 7am on Saturday morning, and I had a ton of work to catch up on, so I spent 6 hours editing photos, started writing an editorial, catching up on emails I hadn’t looked at in 2 weeks. And then I got a phone call.

My friend Liz called, she said she missed me and she found an Oktoberfest party to rival any we had seen in Germany.  I immediately said yes, I had missed Liz while away, and also missed drinking really good beer with her, it’s one of the things we do best when together (well beer and crafting).  So she came and picked me up, and drove me to the Rathskeller Dakota Inn, on John R. and McNichols.  If you’ve never been you should really check it out, it’s been open for over 30 years, family owned and operated. All the women wear dirndl’s, the beers are cold and tasty, the food is as  authentic as I’ve had since leaving Germany.  There were some men in Lederhosen, the band was to start playing around 8, but we had to leave as we were sitting at a table where some other people had reservations. So we didn’t stop the Detroit Okoberbest party, we just moved it along.

We went to Motor City Brewing Works, who has crafted an Oktoberfest beer, and sells it in a mas beir mug (that’s 1 liter of beer).  We sat on the roof of MCBW and drank our beers, chatted with Zach the bartender about life and Detroit, Zach being one of my favorites at MCBW (not that any of them are bad, I’ve just known Zach for a long time).  As a matter of fact, I had forgotten, but Martin and I went to Motor City Brewing Works when we came home on Friday for dinner. We had no food at home and wanted something delicious, and after 2 weeks on the road, nothing sounds better than brick oven pizza and hand crafted beer. Anyways, Liz went back to her house, as she lives not to far away, but in the opposite direction of me and Martin and I walked the 8 blocks from MCBW to our home.

(Sidenote – I spent a few minutes wondering whether to call it our house or our home.  But I feel, since I’ve lived there for 4 years, and Martin has owned it for 7, that it is our home, and not just a house we live in. And that is an important distinction, that many of you may have just read over without any thought, but I had to put some thought into writing it.)

Anyways, it was an amazing way to come back to the city. Going to a new bar I’ve heard lots about but had never gone to.  And then going to my home away from home, Motor City Brewing Works.  And then going back to the place I call home.

Being back in the Welcome Center is nice, I feel a little out of the loop with what’s going on, but I will soon be back in the swing of things. So stop in when you’re around downtown, I’d love to know what you’ve been up to the past 2 weeks, what’s changed, how things are going, and what your upcoming plans are…  There’s so much going on in Detroit right now.  Gooo Tigers!

~Erika

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Inside Detroit

Road Trip – t-shirts

So I sort of forgot to mention in the last post about the shirts… I started this trip planning on wearing Detroit shirts every day hoping to run into people who had something to say about Detroit.  So far no real luck, besides a man at the oil change place who wanted to talk Lions and a waiter who noticed Blaine’s Michigan State t-shirt.  But below I have posted all of the shirts I’ve been wearing as well as a write up of the past few days.

Enjoy.

Day 6 Let the racing begin.

We woke up at 7am, got ready, went downstairs to the continental breakfast, the 3 of us ate waffles and drank juice. I’m not sure if I’ve said it at this point or not. But somewhere in Arkansas I realized that I had a cold and will probably never recover. I’m coughing like it’s my job and can’t breathe… It’s really cool since I’m hanging out with a bunch of guys who want to be national champions, nothing like feeling bad about breathing! But anyways, I spent the day at the Home Depot Center Velodrome in Carson CA. It’s a pretty amazing facility but what it lacks is spectators. It turns out that not many people, it seems, know about velodrome racing. So day 1 there was the half of the omnium races. An omnium is basically a mixture of all the races, and who ever wins the most of these 6 races, wins the omnium. There was a omnium flying lap, which means you ride 3 laps gaining speed, and then they time the last lap. Then the points race, which is a longer race, with sprints every 10 laps or so, and the guy who ends with the most points wins. Then we went to lunch, ate at Panera, Martin bet Blaine an iPod Touch that he couldn’t catch a peg legged bird. He couldn’t. Then we came back to the Home Depot Center and the guys raced in another points race and then in an Elimination race. The elimination race is where every other lap the last man across the line gets removed from the race, sort of like musical chairs. It’s pretty exciting. There were women’s races too, they do all the same races as the men, it’s cool to see. Then we went to El Pollo Inka for dinner, and had some Peruvian spit fire rotisserie chicken. Then back to the hotel for showers and bed.

Day 7 – Racing continues

Breakfast as continentally as yesterday. Today we experimented with chocolate and regular waffles. They don’t taste very different. Racing started an hour earlier today at 9am. Toady, I think is the longest day. Scratch race heats, for the scratch race, not the Omnium Scratch Race. The Omnium Pursuit – which is where one guy starts on one side of the track, another guy starts on the other side, and they basically chase each other for the distance of 20 laps or something ridiculous like that. Then the omnium scratch race. Then the regular scratch race final. Then the omnium kilo – which is where you race as flat out fast as you can for one kilometer. It’s nuts. There were some other races in there like the team sprint, 3 laps, 3 people, each taking one lap as fast as they can. It’s pretty crazy, those sprinters are amazing. We had lunch at Tummy Stuffers, a chain that boasts 101 sandwiches, but to Blaine’s dismay they didn’t have any chicken sandwiches. We decided for dinner we would have chain restaurant food, so we picked California Pizza Kitchen, and finally someone commented on a shirt, unfortunately it was on Blaine’s Michigan State Shirt. They waiter asked where he was from, how long we were staying, where Martin and I were from, and told us that his brother worked for State. We went to Yogurtland for desert, had some frozen yogurt, and then went back home, it was already 11pm, a long and tiring day.

Day 8 – Short day?

Today Martin and Blaine only have one race, it’s a team pursuit, so they partnered with Andy and Derek, a few guys we know from Minnesota to complete their 4 person team. This race, is 12 laps, you have a team of 4, and you go as fast as you can each man taking a lap turn at the front. They’ve spent a fair amount of time swapping numbers, gears, handlebars and warming up/cooling down. It’s amazing the amount of time bike racing takes up, since you’re normal time on the track is between 1 minute and 30 minutes. Today there are a bunch of sprint races and paraplegic races. It should be really neat to watch and photograph.

Road Trip – Day 4 and day 5 – Let the road trip begin

We left Dallas at 7am, knowing that Google Maps said it was a 24 hour drive from Dallas to LAX, and we had to be at LAX at 10am the next morning so Logan could catch his flight back to Detroit. He has class on Wednesday and Thursday, which is why our road trip was from Friday – Tuesday. So we got up showered, ate, packed, and left at 7am. Stopped for gas right after we left.

And then boom on the road, nothing particularly amazing happened all day. We drove all the way to Amarillo, stopped for a burger with jalapeno’s at Whataburger. Went to Walmart to pick up a pillow and some snacks, then got back on the road.

Our next stop was to the gift shop in New Mexico. This particular gift shop had billboard for 5 miles before the shop, so we decided that we just had to stop. The clerk asked where we were going, but not where we came from, maybe it’s because my shirt said Detroit and Logan’s had Michigan on it. But 4 dreamcatchers and a cow skull later we were back on the road. Driving across New Mexico in the day time was pretty great. Last year when Logan and I made this trip we drove across it in the dark in order to get to the Grand Canyon. This year we skipped the Grand Canyon to spend 2 days with family.

We stopped in Grant New Mexico for dinner, the only place that looked open was a Pizza Hut, so it wasn’t the sit down nice dinner we had been dreaming about. After that long in a car nice, slow food sounds good. Pizza and more soda don’t. But it’s what we could get so that’s what we did.

Then we kept driving.

Stopped somewhere near the boarder to fill up again and go to the bathroom. Then started the drive through Arizona. The sunset in the mountains was pretty amazing.

Logan drove most of Arizona. We listened to a book on tape that was fairly rambly but kept us entertained. We had been making good time, since our stops were minimal and our dinner was short. So about 20 miles from the CA boarder we stopped and took a 3 hour nap. It was great, something about sleeping in a car on a road trip makes it a road trip. Road trips for me are sort of like a great childhood memory. We lived in CA and would make the trip every other summer to Dallas to see my mom’s family, then up to IL to see my dad’s family, then back to CA. So for me road trips leave my stomach feeling a little like Christmas, the anticipation of what happens when you wake up, butterflies in your stomach, and the heart pounding feeling when you open your eyes. So at 3am, while Logan was mostly still asleep I started to drive again. We went through the agricultural checkpoint at the CA boarder, we didn’t have fruit, just junk food.

Then we stopped for gas, an appalling $4.40 a gallon, maybe I haven’t been writing down what we’ve been paying for gas across the country, but it was well under $3.50. So we just put in enough gas to get us into LA, assuming this was just a road trip gas hike. So Logan slept a little more, I drove. He eventually woke up and we planned out our IHOP breakfast. We stopped at 7am at the IHOP in Rancho Cucamonga, had some pancakes, hashbrowns, eggs, meat and OJ. Took our time, but left by 8.

Then we drove to LAX. Traffic was backed up, but since there was two of us, we took the carpool lane and that made the trip a little faster. We reached LAX at 9:15 or so. Logan went in and printed his boarding pass. Then came back and packed all of his stuff. He left for his gate at 10. I sat in the car in the airport parking lot until 11:45 listening to some more of our book on tape. At 11:45 I went and walked to go and find Martin, his plane landed at LAX at 11:45, I found him. We hugged and walked back to the car, it felt nice to walk a little. We went to the Velodrome but registration wasn’t open yet, so we found a little Mexican food restaurant, the Burnt Tortilla, and ate lunch. Went to the hotel and checked in. I took a shower after what seemed like an eternity of not showering. And then finally took a nap. Blaine sent me a text at 6:30 that said he had landed, he wasn’t supposed to land until 7:30, so we rushed out the door to go pick him up. Went to a little Italian place that Martin and I found last year and all had ravioli for dinner. Blaine – spinach, Martin – meat, me – cheese. Then we went home, unpacked a little more, hung out and then we all went to bed. Ohh, I forgot the best part – our hotel room.

Martin and I had the same room last year, I can’t remember how we found it, but it’s amazing. For $100 a night we stay in a 2 story room. The downstairs has a full kitchen (oven, full sized fridge, cabinets and counter with barstools), a coat closet, a living room with a fireplace, AC, a room with a queen sized bed, TV and a bathroom. Then if you go upstairs to the loft there is a queen bed, TV, and a full bathroom. It’s amazing! I love it. So we gave the upstairs to Blaine. And that completes days 4 and 5 of the trip.

Road Trip – Day 3

So today again there was no real road tripping.  We woke up at the crack of sunshine – around 7am. I slept on the couch in the living room, there were people everywhere so my cousin Presley, aunt and I watched SNL last night and Presley fell asleep on the dog bed.

Had breakfast – leftover breakfast burrito’s and jalepeno hotdogs wrapped in croissant. Both of my aunts, my grandparents, both cousins, uncle, Logan, and 4 dogs were all still here.  At some point I went upstairs to watch my other cousin Reece play Madden 2012 and read a book about Marketing (why wouldn’t you want to on your vacation).  Around 10 Presley painted my toe nails with 2 colors, a crackle overcoat and sparkles over that (they look awesome).  Then Logan, Dina, Presley, Reece and I all went to the store and to lunch.  We went to Target to pick up a dry erase board so Logan can finish practicing for his anatomy test when he flies back to Detroit on Tuesday.  While there we ran into a woman passing out Dr. Pepper samples.

This is how the conversation went. Logan “Erika, take my picture with her for your blog.” me “ok”

Logan, “Hello, Can I take my photo with you? I’m not from Texas, I’m from Michigan (points to his DownWithDetroit shirt), and Dr. Pepper is my favorite thing, and no one in Michigan appreciates it, I’d never get free samples there.”

Lady, “Well ok, this is our new Dr. Pepper 10, only 10 calories!”

Logan “See Dr. Pepper, making it even easier for me to like it!”

Lady, “Should I hand it to you or something?”

Logan “Yeah, that sounds good.”  Pause and look for photo.

He says thank you, and we turn to leave, she calls after him “You should move to Texas, it’s better here” in her cute southern drawl.  ”I’m thinking about it for sure” he says back.

Then we take off to go to Mexican food at my favorite mexican food restaurant in the Dallas area, Blue Goose.

As always it was amazing, good food, hilarious conversation, outdoor seating. Logan eating taco’s in one bite.

We shopped around a little after lunch to walk off some of the mexican food.  Then we came home, hung around a little more, watched the end of the Lions game!  Way to go Lions!  Watched a movie, played cards, ate a homemade dinner of ribs and potato salad.  I decided to blog tonight so I don’t have to do it in the morning.

Tomorrow we’re leaving at 7am to make the 24 hour drive from Dallas to LAX. We need to be at LAX by 10:30am, Logan’s flight leaves at noon on Tuesday, Martin flies into LAX at 11:45 on Tuesday morning.  I’m swapping them at the airport, maybe going to the Warner Brothers Studio for lunch, then picking up Blaine at the airport, checking in to the hotel.  There is pretty much the blog for the next 3 days… But I can assure you that the photos from the next 3 days will make the blogs a lot cooler.  I’m not sure if I’ll be able to find WiFi tomorrow to blog, but I’ll try. New Mexico and Arizona are amazing states to drive in.  Prettiest sun rises and sun sets you’ve ever seen.

Well now we’re skyping with my mom, other brother and dogs so I’m going to sign off.  We’ll have some more stories about driving soon…

Ohh, And I’m wearing my Down with Detroit shirt today too.

And now I’ll go skype and eat some Blue Bell Ice Cream… it’s also my favorite.

Road Trip – Day 2

So day two involved Logan and I not driving at all.  We left a day early so that we could stay 2 days with family, so we woke up at 8, went to watch our 8 year old cousin play football.

We pretty much spent the day swimming,

eating and hanging out with family. My uncle makes the best steaks I’ve ever had, so we ended up having my mom’s whole extended family over and eating steaks.  It was a great way to end the day.

I wore this Detroit shirt

and talked to my aunt’s neighbors about Detroit a little but not much since they seemed more interested in football.

All and all a quiet day, not driving feels nice.

Today holds more of the same, except it will hold more mexican food.

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