The Fountain on the Riverwalk

There is this great fountain that is right across the street from the GM Renaissance Center. It was interesting how the levels of water changed and how different rows were are different levels. It made for a series of very interesting patterns.

As move around the fountain you get a different perspective and patterns.

I assume this is programmed by a computer. It would be neat to see how it's done

Along the Detroit Riverwalk

This was a really nice place to walk. Right by the water. It was a bright sunny day. The seagulls were certainly out. In fact at one point there were more of them then there were people.

The Gm Renaissance Center dominates this part of the walk. I really like the picture of me in front of the complex. Gives a really good perspective on just how big and tall it really is.

More from the Riverwalk

Across the way is Canada

Me pointing to Canada

A Litttle More from Detroit Riverwalk

Being sized up.

A flock of seagulls. But their not singing.

Great mural right by the GM building.

I love this picture. Great perspective of me and the building.

Taking in Hart Plaza

The closest people mover stop to our hotel was Michigan Avenue. It gave a nice tour of downtown Detroit. We got off at Millender Center. Our goal was to get to Hart Plaza which has a series of statues. Denis also wanted to see it because it was designed by Isamu Noguchi one of his favorite architects.

It was a nice space. It has an eclectic series of monuments. It was (as many places in Detroit) most empty. We stopped by the municipal building on the way. We ran into a very talkative guard there who talked about the building and how the shirt ended up on the statue. He said that for different events or charities the shirt gets changed.

Next few posts are pictures from Hart Plaza.

Transcending — Labor's Legacy

This is a great sculpture that takes up a large part of Hart Plaza.

A little more on Transcending:

With its shining arch rising 63 feet above the ground, the Labor Legacy Landmark, "Transcending," draws attention to itself as one of the newest additions to the Detroit skyline. The piece, commissioned by the Michigan Labor Legacy Project and funded solely through donations from union members without the aid of public or corporate money, is designed to celebrate the history and contributions of labor. The only such monument in the United States, the Labor Legacy Landmark is the work of local sculptors David Barr and Sergio De Giusti.

First Views of Detroit

Denis and I took a cab to our hotel, the Westin Book Cadillac. We got the room upgraded to two queen size beds. It was a really nice room. With a nice view out on the street of Detroit. What was a little strange is how empty the streets were of both people and traffic.

From the window of the hotel we could see the people mover which is a monorail, the people mover, that runs around downtown Detroit. A little about the people mover:

The Detroit People Mover (DPM) is a fully automated light rail system that operates on an elevated single track loop in Detroit's central business district. The 2.9 mile system provides connections between the courts and administrative offices of several levels of government, sports arenas, exhibition centers, major hotels, and commercial, banking and retail districts. Service is frequent, unencumbered by vehicle or pedestrian traffic. The integration of eight of the thirteen People Mover stations into pre-existing structures links over nine million square feet that can be traversed unimpeded by outside elements.

It's a really interesting system. And has some great art work in each station.

Here are a few pictures of the first views of Detroit.

The view the hotel

<

They had signs in several languages

Denis taking a picture of me taking a picture of him

Denis on the train

Some of the art.

The Flight to Detroit

I had a 10am flight to Detroit. I figured it being a Thursday the airport wouldn’t be all that crowded. But that turned out not to be the case. It was very busy. The US Air terminal seemed particularly busy.

As I always try to do, I got to the airport early. Better to be sitting there then missing your flight. I took the subway there. I was so used to going to Nats Park I almost got on a Green Line train instead of a Yellow Line. It was a smooth trip there.

But things started getting a little strange once I got there. I was going on US Air even though I booked the flight from American. It’s been years since I’ve been in that part of the airport. My gate was 35X. This is where the strange part began. There wasn’t a gate for 35X. What you did is you went down stairs. You were now on the runway level. There were six different doors down there. Each door served as a gate. You went through the door and got on a bus. The bus then took you to the plane you were on.

That’s the gist of what happened but a little more detail is needed. Essentially you had six gates in one. So there were a lot of people milling around waiting to go down stairs to get their flights. Some of the flights were announced over the PA system but some of them weren’t. My flight to Detroit was not announced over the PA system. A woman said, as loudly as she could, people for the Detroit flight follow me downstairs. But even with her talking loudly you needed to be really close to her to hear her. It occurred to me it would be really easy to miss your flight if you weren’t paying attention to what was going on.

We all went down stairs. We went to our “gate” which was a door to go out of to get on the bus. We had our boarding passes scanned and then we got on to the bus. We waited for a while until everyone who was supposed to be on the plane got on the bus. Off we headed to the plane. I think out plane was like the last one on the tarmac. Got to the plane and the bus doors opened.

The plane was small. Two seats by two seat with 15 rows in all. The overhead compartments were small. Normal carry on luggage did not fit in the bins. You had to leave it on the tarmac to have it valet checked. Only problem it was raining at the time. Not hard but it was still raining. So the luggage got wet. I can only imagine how wet it would have gotten if we had a huge storm.

Everyone got settled and off we went to Detroit. Actually first we had to wait in line and then we were off to Detroit. We probably took off twenty minutes late but we still managed to arrive on time.

As I walked off the plane, Denis was waiting for me at the gate. Our Detroit adventure had just begun.

Rebel Heart — Madonna Concert in Detroit

A clip from the show. Getting this off the camera and all fixed up is taking a little longer to do. There will be a couple more and pictures from the rest of the trip.

Back Home

Made it home without any problem.

Lots to process on a great trip. I'll be posting more in the next couple of days but here's a little taste of just how great Madonna was.

Detroit Institute of Arts

Taking in this wonderful museum. 

The mobile blogger app was unable to post this yesterday so here it is today. Just reinforces how bad the mobile version of the program is. 

About to Head Home

A whirlwind trip to say the least bit so much fun. 

The Madonna concert alone was worth the trip. But the rest of the visit was great too. 

Went to the Detroit Institute of the Arts yesterday during the day. Saw some great art. Then we saw Evil Dead the Musical which was hysterical. There was a splatter zone. If you say in that area it was possible that you'd get doused with blood. 

A Spectacular Comcert

Madonna was fantastic. A few pictures of the concert. More when I get back to DC.