August, Back to The D

Hello out there! How are you? Glad it's September? If you have read my blog for the last couple of years you know that I always look forward to fall. I love the smells, the cooler temps, the colors and pumpkin everything. What is your favorite fall thing? 

Anyone doing some fall stitching?

I am. I have been looking forward to stitching this since it was released. This is Lizzie Kate's Very Scary Mystery Sampler.

I also finished Margaret Randolph. This girl has been traveling with me for the last year. I am glad that she is finished. I love the greens and blues.

I received this lovely gift yesterday from my friend Kathy(no blog). Isn't it fabulous? Thank you my Friend!

  So back to the D, Detroit of course. I went the beginning of the month to help set up 2 sites.

  

I had a chance to catch up with my friend Jenny at a Tigers game.

When I started traveling I worked with her a lot but her job has changed so it was great that she was in town. I was glad that I could show her a little bit of Detroit.

The first week didn't go that well. The construction wasn't done on the sites so there was some waiting around. I was going to come back the next week to help and it would be more for me to fly home and back than to stay in Detroit so I spent the weekend.

I started my day at the Eastern Market. I love walking around the market. One of my goals was to put together a gift box of Detroit/Michigan treats for one of my friend's birthdays. I found some wonderful things.

On my way back to drop stuff in the car..

The truck that I was driving for the week, nice to drive one of these after taking the factory tour of where they are made!

I saw this sign and was asked if I was there for the tour? Well sure! 

The Preservation Detroit guides were great! They explained the history of early Detroit and the market. We looked at murals..

This is a new one.

They also talked about what is going on in this area, new businesses and restaurants. They told me about other things going on in town, the pierogi festival, Detroit Mass Mob and Preservation Detroit's annual Theater tour. If you are in Detroit and have a chance to take a tour with this group do it!

  

Since the pierogi festival was nearby on Canfield I headed there. Yum!

The festival was held at the Sweetest Heart of Mary Church. What a gorgeous building.

There are no churches of this size where I live. It was wonderful to have a nice morning at the market, a tour and lunch. A perfect way to spend Saturday.

  On Sunday I joined the Detroit Mass Mob at St. Josephat Church on Canfield, just 3 blocks down from Sweetest Heart of Mary.

What is a Mass Mob? In different urban areas where congregations have diminished to a point where the church is unable to afford repairs some organizers have come up with the Mass Mob concept. In Detroit the Mob takes place once a month at a different church. You can check out their Facebook page or check if your city has an organized mob.

It was a beautiful service and church.

Later on Sunday I went to my friend's mother's house for dinner and to do laundry. It was like coming home from college for the weekend.

Tina's Mom made this wonderful pepper stew with dumplings, I forget the Romanian name for this. It was definitely comfort food.

The next week was spent setting up computers and setting up the 2 sites. I really enjoyed both of the centers that I was working at, great people!

  Since I had found out about the theater tour I spoke with Rich about coming to Detroit for the next weekend and since I had miles and we were planing on maybe  going somewhere before his surgery he got on a plane!

   I picked him up Friday afternoon and in a last minute stubhub purchase at 4:40 pm we went to see Kid Rock. It was a great show, when you have the chance to see someone play their hometown do it!

Foreigner opened and they sounded great and did all of their hits. We had good seats.

  Then Saturday morning at 9am we started the theater tour.

First stop was the Michigan Theater...now a parking garage. When they built the theater it was part of an office building and in the 70's the office tenants were going to leave if they were not provided with parking.

This would have been the lobby.

The next stop was..

The Fillmore originally the State Theater.

Most of these venues were movie palaces. 

Now it is a Live Nation concert venue.

The view from the stage.

Next was the Gem. This is a small venue that started out as part of the Women's league. It was moved from it's original spot when Comerica park was built.

When is was moved it was the largest/heaviest building ever moved on tires.

It spent sometime during the 60's and 70's as an adult theater and all of the inside was painted black. Now it is used as a party/wedding event center.

Across the street from the Gem is the Music Hall.

This theater is decorated in a Spanish/ Moorish style and is now a dance and jazz venue.

Makeup!!!!

The box office. They are continuing work on this theater and have recently installed this outside canopy.

Then it was back to the Detroit Opera House for lunch.

After lunch we toured the Detroit Opera house which started life as The Capitol Theater.

This building has some of the best acoustics in the country and hosts operas and a Broadway series. They are always looking for volunteers as ushers.

From the balcony.

We also got to go through the backstage areas. This is costuming. Did you know that many productions rent the costumes for a production and it is this departments job to fit the cast. The costumes come with a 2 to 3" seam allowance to help with alterations.

It was great to see this part of the theater. Also this shop produces some movie costumes. They did Harold and Kumar's Christmas movie and some others that I can't remember.

I really would love to see a show here!

Next and final stop on the tour is The Fox.

Another movie palace that was restored in the late 80's.

Part of the lobby. It is so massive that you can't get one picture that shows it off.

This is the lobby ceiling.

Wow!

Breathtaking! That chandelier is 13' across.

Just an amazing place.

In the backstage areas and stairwell all the acts that have played the theater have signed the walls. Frank Sinatra was the first. Do you see Jay Leno too?

  What an amazing time. The tour was 5 hours. They only do this tour once a year. If you ever have the chance to take this tour it is wonderful. Preservation Detroit did an amazing job. We had perfect weather for the tour too.

We also went back to Eastern Market, 

Rich needed to have a Works sandwich filled with 3 to 5 different types of sausage(kielbasa, andouille, Hungarian, etc.) from Eastern Seafood.

  Then a little down time. I think Rich was tired.

We had dinner with Tina at Hungarian Rhapsody.

Amazing Chicken Paprikash.

Got up Sunday, went to The Detroit Institue of Bagels for a to go order and we headed to the airport.

Good bye Detroit. You always amaze me and give me more reasons to love you.

  Monday Rich had his pre-op appointments and Tuesday the 18th Rich had surgery. It went well, the cancer was contained and did not show up in the margins or lymph nodes. Unfortunately the surgery caused and other issue and Rich had another surgery on the 28th. He is still uncomfortable and in pain and is frustrated with this setback. Thank you for sending good thought and well wishes our way. Hopefully this time next week he will be feeling better.

   We also had another couple of milestones in August. Our house is paid off! Woohoo!

And our Subaru Forester now has 300k miles on it.

  Wow, if you made it through this thank you for traveling with me! I really need to post more but I am still looking for that balance in my life.

If you are in the U.S. have a wonderful Labor Day weekend and for my international friends, do some exploring and have some fun!

Chris