An Absolute Treasure

The weekend before last Angela and I flew to Detroit to witness the Electric Six filming a live concert DVD. My most kind brother and his friend Jarod picked us up at our place at 7:50pm and drove us to LAX. We made the mistake of booking a red eye on Spirit Airlines. Red Eye flights after a full workday are already a lesson in pain and humiliation, but Spirit has managed to take the experience to an entirely new circle of hell. I can't imagine the evil genius who managed to design the seat configuration on their planes, but he should be working in enhanced interrogation. Spirit Airlines hates your freedom. By the time you pay for your bag and your water on board you aren't saving any money, but because the fairs appear to be lower when booking online it attracts plenty of broke families with screaming children. At least I assume they were screaming children, when flying Spirit Airlines it might have just been another broken adult gone round the bend.
Our winged torture device took off late, because Spirit Airlines is really not very good at anything except making your travel experience miserable. We were in the air just after 11pm, and we tried our best to sleep. We landed a touch late and began our journey through the Detroit Wayne County Airport. We took a shuttle bus to the Dollar car rental lot. We drove off the lot with our Chevy Malibu just after 7am.
The drive into the big D was interesting, and exciting. You see a few burned out homes east of the freeway, but some very pretty buildings and landscapes as well. Downtown was a bit of ghost town when we arrived so early on a Saturday morning. I was left wondering if the absence of souls had more to do with the day of the week and the time of day or the 62% decline in population over the last 60 years.
Our trip had been planned in a whirlwind and on the cheap, so there were several points where we took chances. The first was with Spirit Airlines, and those with a memory of preceding paragraphs know how well that worked out. the second was deciding on a rental car verse a cab from the hotel. This turned out to be an excellent decision. The biggest chance of all though was booking the Courtyard Marriott for one night only. Saturday night. Check in was scheduled for 3pm and I rolled into town at 8am after hell flight #666. I parked the car out front and approached the counter with much trepidation. I explained to the girl behind the counter that I knew I was crazy early, but I would appreciate it if they could give me a call when my room was ready. She smiled and said "your room is ready now". Thank you Downtown Courtyard Marriott in Detroit. I loved you. They even managed to honor my request for a high floor.

We rode to the 18th floor and walked into our room with this south east facing room.

That's Canada over there. One of the few places in the USA where you can look south to Canada.

This was the view looking the opposite direction, west into downtown Detroit.

We unpacked a bit and headed down to the restaurant for the most soul satisfying breakfast buffet. Bacon, omlette, bagel, sausage and french toast. Carbapalooza and so damn good. After breakfast we took a soak in the hot tub. The hot tub had very much the same view as our room, though a little lower. The pool area was also completely empty. The Marriott very quickly undid the damage to our well being that Spirit Airlines had caused. After our tub we ventured back to our room for a nice 3 hour sleep. We woke up happy and excited and ready to explore.

Our hotel was connected to the GM building across the street by a tunnel and to the rest of downtown by the People Mover We paid our 75 cents and rode the loop around snapping pictures and getting a feel for the city.

After the People Mover ride we walked through the skywalk into the GM building. This is the view of the Detroit river from said building.

As we exited the GM building we were delighted to find it sprinkling outside.

Check out this little asshole.

Downtown Detroit has a lot of public art.

After our river walk we ventured into downtown to find something to eat. We also found a beach in the middle of a public square

We eventually settled on a hole in the wall pizza place called Slices where we had an amazing calzone.

Then it was back to the hotel for some rest and get ready for the show. While relaxing I noticed that the E-six were posting sound check photos to facebook. I couldn't resist walking over to the venue to see if I could hear them. Alas I could not, but I did recognize their well worn van and trailer.

Here are a few more random pics I snapped while wandering. Eventually showtime rolled around and we made our way to Saint Andrews Hall. I loved the venue. The show was amazing and I left feeling like the Electric Six has some of the friendliest fun loving fans you'll meet. I could go into detail but it will soon be available on DVD.

Sunny Sunday Morning. Sunday Morning was the exact opposite of Saturday morning. The Lions had a home game and there were tailgate parties in parking lots all over downtown. Had we been in the mood to tie one on, this would have been a grand day to do it. Instead we found a nice place in greektown for breakfast and checked out of our hotel. This is where the decision to get a rental car would really pay off. From 12pm to 5pm we drove around exploring detroit.

Here begins my photos of the Heidlberg Project

To contrast with the Heidlberg Project we drove 20 minutes north to Gross Point Park, which reminded me very much of LA's hancock park, if it happened to be set alongside a gorgeous river. We had an ice coffee and walked through a street fair. On the drive back we drove around Bell Isle Park.

Last but not least we drove by Motown. Hours later we were back in LA, riding in Devin's car with Dylan in the front seat. Off to meet our pets and prepare for the coming week of work. We had such a wonderful time. I would gladly visit the motor city again. Thanks to the electric six for the lovely time.