Just Across the River

Hey, hey everyone! Man… has this week been super inconsistent.  Yes.  Super inconsistent and spontaneous at that.

As you might have read, this past weekend was a little nutso with a lot of different events going on, and the week then started with me feeling pretty poopy.  My stomach has been acting up again, and I have had some trouble eating a good portion of “real” meals lately.  Hence, dinner Wednesday night.

As days go by, I have been taking it easy and introducing a little bit at a time to what seems to be a comfort diet of whole grain carbs, peanut butter and fruit.  Fast forward to yesterday, and I am proud to say I sucked it up and went for a little bit of a lotta’ good food.

Accidental Afternoon in Detroit

My husband is notorious for scheduling mix-ups and misreading little details about his day, but – despite the chaos – things always seem to work themselves out.

I had a little laugh to myself (and over facebook) at him yesterday, because I took him to the airport for a work trip to Utah and dropped him off a tad early around 11 a.m.  When he went up to the airline’s check-in counter, they nicely told him it was too early to check him in.  Confused,  Scott looked down at his ticket and realized he flies out Friday (today) not Thursday (yesterday).

Ohhhhh my husband.  Sometimes there just no words to describe my feelings for him.

Finding the silver lining and humor in this situation, I pulled a U-turn and picked him up excited to spend a free day with him.

We left the airport and instead of going straight home, we took a free afternoon as an excuse to pop through downtown Detroit and see if we could see the good things everyone has been telling us to check out.

That we did!

Slows BAR-B-Q

Whenever we are in a new area, Scott immediately gets on a mission to find the most interesting or talked about restaurants around to eat at.  After a quick google search, we found a few options and decided to go with a barbeque place called Slows BAR BQ. Famously known for their slow cooked meat and mac ‘n cheese, the place is also rumored to include a 1-2 hour wait to be seated.

Scott had already heard about it on the Travel Channel, which automatically made it a must-try for the two of us.  Figuring we could always leave if the wait was too long, we tried it anyways and ended up getting right in!

The place was certainly busy, and reminded me a little bit of a barbeque restaurant back home in Orlando called 4 Rivers.  Both Scott and I miss that place, so were hoping to find a new favorite right here in Detroit.

Boy, did we!  I don’t even know where to start!  How about the appetizer?

Before I even had a chance to look over the menu, Scott ordered these split pea and okra fritters.

Oh my yum, were they delicious.  Think of a huge ball of okra fried in a split pea batter, sided with a zesty dipping sauce, and topped with shredded pickles.

 Gone in about two minutes.

Before ordering our meal, we researched reviews online and found exactly what we wanted to order.  Whatever it was, all signs pointed to topping it with this Apple flavored barbeque sauce.

We went with splitting a barbeque meat trio with a side of cole slaw and macaroni ‘n cheese to cover all the bases.

I decided ahead of time to go easy, leave the cole slaw alone, and dig mostly into the chicken and a little bit of mac.

Scott, however, took a second to appreciate everything wonderful he was about to devour!

Of course, I dipped my fork in a little bit of everything to give it a try and I have to admit that it was pretty fantastic.  Everything.  Everyone was right about that apple barbeque sauce and the macaroni was in fact out of this world.

I am very glad we were able to check it out, and decided that we will now make this barbeque joint a stop on the way home from the airport whenever we can.

Just Across the River

After lunch, neither one of us were on any kind of schedule and took advantage of being downtown by exploring.  The only time I have ever been to downtown Detroit was for the Thanksgiving Day Parade a few months ago, and I was happy to see what else it had to offer.

First and foremost, we were surrounded by professional sports! I always knew both the NFL and MLB were housed here, but had no idea the stadiums were right across the street from each other!

Detroit Lions meet Detroit Tigers, Ford Field meet Commercia Park.

Speaking of the Tigers, it is crazy to think that the MLB World Series was hosted here a few months ago!  Driving around both places got us excited to be close to a big sports town and we are both looking forward to the start of next year’s season kick-offs.

A few blocks away, we stumbled upon Roosevelt Park, also known as Michigan Central Station.  The building is huge, and neither of us could figure out what it was used for.  Was it a hotel?  Did it catch on fire?  Well, no and yes.

“The building began operating as Detroit’s main passenger depot in 1913 after the older Michigan Central Station burned on December 26, 1913,” according to Wikipedia.  In 1975 the building was added to the National Register of Historic Places, and there are plans in the future to restore it, slowly.

A few more blocks away from that appeared a view to something else pretty darn cool.  CANADA!

Just across the Detroit River lies the skyline of Windsor, Ontario, Canada.  I have actually crossed the border once since moving here, just for a fun night out to celebrate a friend’s birthday in Windsor, but then came back home early the next morning.

Typing that sentence and processing it just blew my mind.  I literally left the country at night and came back to the United States early the next morning.  THAT is how north and close we are to it!  Craaazy!

When things slow down a little bit, Scott and I want to take a trip over and enjoy a few days across the river.  C’monnnn summer time!

Ready to head back to the suburbs, we found one more cool stop to stare at, the Joe Louis Arena that is home of the Detroit Red Wings!  That is actually a sport we can go to and see a game in person this season, and both Scott and I agreed on making it happen.

I guess the moral to this afternoon is that sometimes things and places are not as scary or bad as they might initially seem.  When moving up to Detroit, just the name of city intimidated the both of us.  As months go by, we are feeling more and more comfortable calling Michigan our new home, and are excited to see more of what is here to explore!

Questions of the Day

• Have you ever moved to a new city with a negative initial thought of it?

• Have you ever taken the time to really explore what a new (and possibly scary) place has to offer?

Like I mentioned above, both Scott and I are anxious to see what the summer holds for us here.  When we are done making our rounds and trips back home to Florida and Arkansas, we are excited to spend some time exploring the Great Lakes and adventures right in our backyards up here.  We have heard the weather in the summertime is absolutely gorgeous, and cannot wait to get out on the lakes and hit the trails that have been currently surrounding us with ice and snow.

Bring on the accidental afternoons of exploring Detroit!