Detroit 3-16-2019

Today Emily & Mark our cousins are taking us downtown Detroit to the Eastern Farmers Market, this is another must see if in Detroit. Detroit has had a bad reputation as a city in decline but now it’s having a comeback. The Eastern Farmers Market is on the edge of downtown and it is bustling today with all kinds of vendors, we literally ate our way through. Shinola is an old brand revived, their signature clocks are all over town with one in the Eastern Farmers Market. I have put links under each picture to send you to that vendors website. After the Market we head downtown and the city is definitely in a renaissance. Very few empty store fronts and restaurants abound. Emily & Mark take us to a hallmark of downtown with a very interesting back story. Lafayette Coney Island has a diehard customer base and 50 feet down the street is American Coney Island where you will not find the same customers as Detroit has drawn the line you are either a Lafayette or an American customer. Our family is a Lafayette loyalist, read the story I linked to. We drove around downtown and as I mentioned before there is a lot going with renovations of older buildings (Stott, Westin) and new construction. We did pass by some old favorites like the FOX theater and the Detroit Fillmore. Lauren has our itinerary mapped out and our next stop is The Heidelberg Project, this another Detroit anomaly. There were lots of neighborhoods that were devastated economically and homes were deserted. This neighborhood was no different but, MR. Guyton who started the HP used this neighborhood to show his art in 1986 and has realized international fame, now the art work is not everyone’s cup of tea but it is interesting. The next stop was Belle Island that has a very interesting history, it was built in the1880 and was a cultural center for Detroit. Its 982 acres of gardens, aquariums, casino and museum, it has a great few of the city and across the water to Canada. We finish up at the Aquarium and head towards some neighborhoods with interesting homes, one in particular is a Frank Llyod home called the Turkel House. Our next stop is for dinner at the Peking House in Royal Oak one of my favorite little towns and restaurants with our Michigan Family. On the way home we stop to take a look at well known church called Kirk in The Hills Presbyterian Church.