Well, we never were really in Detroit…
Tina’s sister Tanya and her beau throw a summer party every year… this year on a wim they invited us… on a win we accepted… so off to Detroit City… There was a bonus… our daughter Steph, living in Maryland was coming as well.
We took the red-eye in … landing about 8:30 on Friday (a bit late)… The daughter had arrived a few minutes earlier…
The flight was not exactly fun… (I seem to bitch about airline travel a lot... but it’s a target rich environment) North West Airlines… (or Delta, or Delta West or whatever they are calling themselves) were trying a new boarding system… or lack of boarding system... they first call the first class, high mileage frequent flyers and anyone who will pay for the privilege, then call everyone else... Its chaos... (apparently they really think if you don’t have a system it will work better, according to one insider they call it the chaos system.) Of course like all airlines they are charging for checked luggage so everyone is lugging on enough bags to Load Byron proud… No one was checking to see if you only had one bag and a personal item… so they ran out of luggage space with half the passengers still in the jet way. So the gate crew are called to gate check luggage… people object, people are angry... the flight attendants seem a bit frustrated… one tells us this happens every night. We surrender our carry-ons to the gate attendants (of course we have to pull cameras and such out, and the bags suffer) They have the pillows in large plastic trash bags tossed on the floor of the jet way... Tina gets the last pillow... We push back a half an hour late. We arrive half an hour late.
We met Steph at baggage claim. Kelly and the kids went home with Tanya, Steph rode with us. We met up at Tanya’s house for breakfast.
After breakfast Tina, Steph and I went to the Henry Ford museum… I had high expectations... I was blown away... Its not just a museum… it’s a destination…
It is the typical large building with stuff museum, along with the obligatory IMAX theater, multiple gift shops, and a cafe with the original Oscar Meyer weinermobile, stuffed with stuff... Really good stuff… next door is the Greenfield village... It’s a historic village on steroids... in between is a research library... they also offer factory tours of Ford’s Rouge River plant... We enjoyed it.
Back to Tanya’s for family time… as it got dark the fireflies came out… it was magical...
T and I went back to the motel, took a swim in the pool and went to bed…
Up late… Well, late in Michigan, in California it would have been normal. Back to Tanya’s for the party… It was fun… lots of people, lots of food, lots of alcohol. Tanya and Berry are not drinkers, but they have a tiki hut and a margarita machine… a Jimmy Buffet “Margaritaville” margarita machine...
As it got dark and the guests left, the fireflies came out again…
It was late when we said our goodbyes and headed to the motel… we were up early and off to the airport... and the slog... first the car rental company could check the car in and wasn’t able to print a receipt... They actually said “trust us”. The airport was a zoo... long lines, grumpy people (one follows the other) The guy ahead of us in the security line tried to smuggle a flask of booze and maple syrup through the line... He got caught
Now being aware of North West’s chaos boarding system we stand near the checking counter and are the first of the cattle to board, and as a result stay united with our carry-ons this time. Home a little before noon... The house stinks of cat... we have too many cats...
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