Posted March 12, 201213 yr Hello forumers... It's been a while since I've been on the forums... I visited Chicago for the first time in my life from February 20th until February 24th. However, I visited Detroit for a couple of nights before heading out to Chicago on the Amtrak Wolverine train Monday night. It was actually a great first couple of nights in Detroit, among the highlights: ate Greek food for the first time in my life, ice skated for the first time in 15 years at Campus Martius Park downtown, and catched the Sharks/Red Wings hockey game at Joe Louis Arena on the Sunday! Downtown Detroit from my room at the Courtyard Marriott hotel inside the Millender Center... Detroit-Windsor Tunnel and looking south at Windsor, Ontario... Renaissance Center Comerica Tower and First National Building... Millender Center and Renaissance Center... Campus Martius Park skating rink, early evening... rented myself some skates and went ice skating for the first time in 15 years! Oh, was it fun, got a lot of attention with me wearing my Red Wings jersey! Guardian Building, Chase Tower, and Penobscot Building... Compuware Building, in Campus Martius Park... Greektown Casino Hotel and businesses on Monroe Street in Greektown... The great nightlife in Greektown on Monroe Street... Plaka Grill, where I ate supper... This is the Gyro/Soulvaki platter with wild rice... Lots of neon lights inside the business... After supper and skating... took a couple more pictures from my hotel room... The tunnel and Windsor.. Ambassador Bridge... Next day, had some delicious breakfast in the hotel and took the People Mover over to Joe Louis Arena... Joe Louis Arena, home of the Detroit Red Wings, seeing the Sharks/Red Wings, and this game is for the Red Wings' 23rd consecutive win in a row at home all-time, which would be a new NHL record... Downtown and West Jefferson... Joe Louis Arena concourse.. Red Wings and Sharks practising... Opening faceoff... Red Wings scored the opening goal to go up 1-0! Third period action with the Red Wings leading 2-1! Red Wings scored an insurance goal to make it 3-1! Only 8 seconds left, Red Wings still lead 3-2! RED WINGS WIN, 23rd consecutive win at home, a new NHL record! A sold out crowd of 20,066 watched NHL history! Parting shot of the arena... Waiting in line to get on the People Mover to take me to Grand Circus Park... yes, the PM was THIS BUSY after the game, usually is after events @ the Joe... Made it to the platform after 20-30 minutes... Rub BBQ, a great urban BBQ place downtown in Grand Circus Park... Inside Rub BBQ... Hope you guys enjoyed the first part of my winter trip to Detroit/Chicago! Coming soon, my four days worth of pictures of the Windy City!
March 12, 201213 yr I especially like the picture from your hotel room. Detroit still has a good amount of density, in spite of how much has been lost. I visited Detroit for the first time in November and was pleasantly surprised by downtown. Driving through the abandoned and desolate neighborhoods outside of downtown, I was both horrified and fascinated. It's a VERY interesting city!
March 12, 201213 yr Nice pics (but 50 hockey pics and none of Amtrak? The horror! ;)). I like Monroe Street in Greektown. It has a nice urban-messy vibe to it. Reminds me of some streets in South Philly or Queens. BTW: I'm looking forward to your Chicago pics. I just want to make sure it's still there before I head west to it later this week! "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
March 12, 201213 yr Great stuff! "You don't just walk into a bar and mix it up by calling a girl fat" - buildingcincinnati speaking about new forumers
March 12, 201213 yr Excellent! Looks like you had a ton of fun. The Greektown photos kind of make me sad though. There's about to be some demolition action over there. Over the years, more of those active buildings have been dropped for "future plans" Laikon in your photo is getting leveled so that valet agents can run more quickly to the soon-to-be-constructed parking garage. Just got back from a weekend trip to Detroit and Ann Arbor. Felt good to be back home. Had some falafel in dearborn, and I was considering going to the bbq place in your pics. How fast did the Wolverine go? I heard they were running trains at 110 mph now.
March 17, 201213 yr I especially like the picture from your hotel room. Detroit still has a good amount of density, in spite of how much has been lost. I visited Detroit for the first time in November and was pleasantly surprised by downtown. Driving through the abandoned and desolate neighborhoods outside of downtown, I was both horrified and fascinated. It's a VERY interesting city! Detroit is a VERY interesting city, despite what a lot of people say and that's what I always tell them. The fact that my explorations of the city of Detroit have now expanded out of downtown actually helped me believe that and I am increasingly more comfortable when I am on main streets, like Woodward Avenue. But there a good amount of neighborhoods I wouldn't want to be in. NorthAndre, you're kidding, they want to tear that building down for that? Sad. The wolverine, couldn't really tell how fast the trains went, though I travelled 280 miles in 5 3/4 hours time, if that helps. NorthAndre, if you're ever in Detroit again, let me know... I honestly did enjoy Detroit from the Greek food to the skating to the hotel room, the hockey game, BBQ, People Mover, everything. I even stayed overnight again on the Friday after getting back from Chicago at the Book-Cadillac, which was also nice. The beds @ the Book-Cadillac are the nicest you will EVER sleep in, trust me. ;)
March 17, 201213 yr Yeah, I think the trains are running back at original speeds. I know they had a mishap recently, just after they started moving 100+ 5-6 hours is usually what it has historically taken....which unfortunately can be done faster by car. But the wolverine line always sells out. I usually get on/off in Ann Arbor, which is always a packed station. Looking back, I can't really think of too many neighborhoods I've avoided in Detroit. I used to ride my bike around the city just wandering during the summer. I usually avoided some places on the far west side, but the East side always seemed like safe territory for me. I think there's a good number of places you can go without out too much concern besides the major streets.
March 19, 201213 yr Yeah, I think the trains are running back at original speeds. I know they had a mishap recently, just after they started moving 100+ 5-6 hours is usually what it has historically taken....which unfortunately can be done faster by car. But the wolverine line always sells out. I usually get on/off in Ann Arbor, which is always a packed station. Looking back, I can't really think of too many neighborhoods I've avoided in Detroit. I used to ride my bike around the city just wandering during the summer. I usually avoided some places on the far west side, but the East side always seemed like safe territory for me. I think there's a good number of places you can go without out too much concern besides the major streets. What I probably should have said was not exploring certain places ALONE. I know a couple of nasty areas include Delray and Brightmoor. But, yeah, I think the East side may have some of the nicer neighborhoods. I may have to talk to you about those. ;)
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