Week 18 - Detroit, MI (Motor City)/Windsor, ON (Automotive Capital of Canada)

Hello Family and Friends,

We are still in Canada, but visiting Detroit. We are staying in Windsor, Ontario, Canada along the Detroit River.

Everything in Canada is in French and English. This is an apple juice we bought at a restaurant while eating a Canadian delicacy; poutine.

Poutine is loaded fries in the most extreme and best way.

From our hotel room in Windsor we can see Detroit.

That is an unedited picture of Detroit from our hotel room.

There is a beautiful water front path with plenty of green space for Bruce and a playground for Atlas.

View of the riverside walking path from out hotel room. Canadian hotels have really been a spot for some beautiful water views.

To get to Detroit we did have to cross the border back into the good old USA.

Technically I was not allowed to take this picture. That is probably why the border guard was snippy with me.

I would say that crossing the border is a big deal. I mean we had all the appropriate paperwork (passports), are American citizens and were there for a very innocuous and legit reason (vacation) and I still felt like I was doing something wrong (excluding my illegal photo op ;-)). They ask you a lot of seemingly random questions like is your car a rental and what do you do for work. You feel like if you answer the question wrong or refuse to answer the question, you will be in handcuffs at the side of your car (maybe I'm being a little dramatic, but it was a little nerve racking). We crossed over three times during our stay so we had interaction with both the American and Canadian border guards. One guard on the Canadian side even asked if we had anything other than our clothes inside our car and we started to list off water bottles and baby strollers. The same guard asked us if we had any guns at home after we answered no to not transporting any guns with us. Not sure what my at home weapon has to do with my current situation, but what do I know. The American border guard actually opened our trunk and checked the contents of our suitcases. All that to say that crossing back and forth over the northern border was a pain. Therefore, they are doing a good job.

This one I took before I got to the guard stand so I think it was legal.

Once we got to Detroit, we took the people mover and visited the GM tower. The people mover is an above ground train that goes in a circle through the center of the city.

The official Chevy Camaro pace car for the 53rd Indianapolis 500.

Brett and I in front of the symbol of Detroit.

If I'm honest guys, Detroit was kind of a dud of a city. Its feels like a city that used to be something, but isn't anymore. The buildings are really big and really empty. The streets are wide and expansive, but no one is on them. There are a few things that could be contributing to this based on the time we were visiting.

We visited on a weekend and the center of detroit is definitely a business area. Businesses are closed on Sunday and there is no residential housing in the middle of the city. The other thing is that the entire time we were visiting, there was a movement festival happening. How do I describe it? Let's just say that the gate attendant told us that everyone is on something and not wearing a lot of clothing. We could hear EDM music from inside our hotel room, across the water, all weekend from noon until midnight. One Canadian told us that she loves Detroit, but the music festival changes the vibe and isn't a good representation of the city. I was cool with the movement festival ,because at least in that location there were people doing something mildly interesting (even if the music's bass did make we want to cover my ears).

It was also memorial day weekend. One of the border guards told us that Detroitians (I may have just made that up) all leave the city for the weekend and go to the lakes up north. In that case, I will give Detroit some grace and just chalk it up to us coming at the wrong time. We did miss one of the most iconic attractions of Detroit, the Ford Museum. We did drive by the campus, and it is expansive. Failure to block enough time caused us to miss that one.

However, after striking out in Detroit, we decided to find something fun to do in Windsor. From Niagara to Windsor we saw a lot (dozens!) of signs for wineries. Brett and I aren't really wine people. We usually rate wine based on how much it tastes like feet. But our little travel companion, Sarah, wanted to try some wines. She is convinced that she likes a sweet red wine. So we explored two different wineries and it was a great decision. The first winery we went to was called Muscadere Vineyards. It only had four flight options and none were really sweet. But it did have some live chickens and goats which Atlas really got a kick out of. They was also served brick oven pizza, but we had just eaten in greektown over in Detroit, so we had no room for more food.

The small wine vineyard in Essex, Ontario, Canada

Atlas saying hello to the chickens

Atlas getting as close as he dared to the goat

The second vineyard we visited was actually located on a beach and it was beautiful.

The vineyards at Spruceshores Estate Winery in Amherstburg, Ontario, Canada

Sarah found her some sweet wines (and what do you know, not one was red). We let her know that whatever sweet red wine she thinks she knows is probably Moscato. This is not wine, it is red juice with some alcohol (I will die on this hill).

Us enjoying some wine flights with a picnic basket that contained a very delicious formage cheddar cheese

Brett and I trying to be cute at the beachfront winery. Brett says to me after the picture "Oh yea I'm suppose to close my eyes". What is wrong with him? Who kisses with their eyes open?

Can't stay mad for too long at this little boy even if he does throw sand into your food and wine (true story).

We really enjoyed our time abroad (in Canada). We have one more border crossing back into the states (and then hopefully not for a while) as our next stop is Chicago!