Oh the benefits of retirement! For the past week we’ve had two of my siblings visit and instead of me heading off to work while they go exploring I’ve been able to enjoy the beautiful weather and fun sights right along with them. Each day we did something different, and if I weren’t headed out again today I’d try to show you all of it. But, given limited time, and your limited patience, I’ll just share with you the day we spent in Detroit. As you’ll see, it was a long and varied day.
Our first stop was Belle Isle, a park on an island in the middle of the Detroit River. There’s a giant fountain on the eastern edge of the island and it’s very beautiful, but when I looked at my images once we were home I was fascinated by this shot – the spikes of water shooting up into the blue sky.
The shot doesn’t show the whole fountain, but you can see that anywhere.
There’s a beautiful glass arboretum on the island. We stopped to visit, but it was only open Thursday through Sunday. We were there on a Tuesday.
Still, it was beautiful and the grounds around it are gorgeous.
Then we drove over to the far east end of the island and wandered through a beautiful grassy meadow…
…where we found a functioning lighthouse. Another historic building, just beautiful in the sun, standing majestic under the shifting clouds.
After spending several hours on the island we went back to the city and parked along the waterfront. It’s been developed into a beautiful walkway, part of which travels behind General Motors’ headquarters.
From the Riverwalk we watched ships travel the river between Great Lakes.
Across the river is Windsor, Canada. We waved, and her flag waved back.
Up in town, Joe Lewis’ fist waited to great us.
It was a beautiful day, the day after hundreds of thousands of people had been at Hart Plaza, right where we were standing, enjoying the fireworks. Already the plaza had been cleaned up.
Then we took the People Mover, an elevated train, over to Greektown for dinner.
Along the way we saw a lot of the city, and watched progress being made on another new building.
We had a great dinner at Greektown and then headed back to the river and the car.
Detroit is on the move…we enjoyed our visit, but we had to move on too. My Fitbit recorded 19,000+ steps. Our feet were tired, our bellies were full, time to head for home. Another great day of retirement was in the book.
I’m looking forward to the next adventure!
June 30, 2017 at 6:37 am
You have a great eye for images. Thanks for the sunny skies and fluffy clouds!
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June 30, 2017 at 7:56 am
Thank you! We had such pretty sky.
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June 30, 2017 at 7:30 am
Wonderful photos! Thanks for taking us along!
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June 30, 2017 at 7:56 am
You are welcome!
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June 30, 2017 at 8:31 am
That is what I noticed right away also–that beautiful sky. The Joe Lewis symbol is pretty darn cool! That gets a lot of photos, I am guessing?
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June 30, 2017 at 9:17 am
Yes, there’s always a group of people around that fist!
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June 30, 2017 at 8:50 am
Great pictures and I am so happy you got to go exploring too! Your photo of the arboretum is awesome! Love all those clouds!
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June 30, 2017 at 9:17 am
The clouds were amazing!
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June 30, 2017 at 9:08 am
Wow what a change since I was last in Detroit!
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June 30, 2017 at 9:18 am
Belle Isle is beautiful. It always was, but now it’s in better shape. It’s now a state park.
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June 30, 2017 at 9:44 am
Whew! I’m exhausted now, but it was a beautiful day – the first I’ve seen of Detroit in over 40 years.
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July 1, 2017 at 7:47 pm
Sure was a beautiful day!
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June 30, 2017 at 9:44 am
What a gorgeous day you had for your adventure! I’ve never been to Detroit or Belle Isle, but I can see I must.
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July 1, 2017 at 7:48 pm
If you’re ever this way let me know and maybe we can give you a tour.
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July 3, 2017 at 1:23 pm
I’d love that!! Thank you and have a wonderful Fourth!
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June 30, 2017 at 12:25 pm
Kudos to you, you made Detroit look GOOD!!!! 😉
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June 30, 2017 at 3:41 pm
Thanks for sharing your outing with us!
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July 1, 2017 at 7:50 pm
You are welcome!
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June 30, 2017 at 4:57 pm
Captivating images. Fun to see a part of the world I haven’t visited.
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July 1, 2017 at 3:19 pm
Thanks for the Detroit tour, Dawn. I especially enjoyed Belle Isle, since I’ve been hearing about it for years from my husband, who grew up in Detroit.
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July 1, 2017 at 7:49 pm
Lots of it does look good but of course there’s much
more that needs to be done.
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July 1, 2017 at 7:50 pm
Thank you. It’s always fun to see new places.
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July 9, 2017 at 10:40 am
This most certainly does not depict what we hear on the news about Detroit. Your pictures are beautiful and they make me want to visit, most definitely the island for we love quiet and solitude. We looked up Greektown on the internet.
Thanks for being a friend
Sweet William The Scot
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July 9, 2017 at 12:37 pm
Thanks for stopping by Lee…Katie and I hope things are gong OK for you and Sweet William.
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July 10, 2017 at 8:59 pm
Those are some pawsome pawtographs.
Sherman & Gemini
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July 11, 2017 at 7:42 am
Thank you Sherman & Gemini! Hope things are good down there in the Keyes! Now that I’m home (just last night) I hope to get some photos of my vacation up on the blog. But first I have to do laundry. And grocery shopping. And other mundane things.
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July 11, 2017 at 6:39 pm
Looks like you had a great adventure with your family. I can’t wait to be retired.
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July 11, 2017 at 9:47 pm
Yes we did have a great time. Lots more adventures than just the Detroit trip…and then I flew south with them when they went home. So another 10 days down there. The next post will show you a little of what I did while I was off on vacation. Working on that now.
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