Detroit Institute of Art

Saturday
We had a great day in Detroit. Roger and I had stayed the night at a hotel a little south of Detroit, so after breakfast we drove into the city to meet up with Laura at the house where they have been staying. The house is owned by Central Detroit Christian and is in one of the poor black neighborhoods, in the area in which they'd been serving. It certainly reflected the poor state of the Detroit economy and the very high unemployment. I'd say at least 30% of the houses on the street were abandoned and boarded up, and many of the others in a poor state of repair. The sidewalks were all broken and cracked with tall weeds growing through the cracks. Laura took us for a drive around, showing us where the summer camp was held, one or two of the different churches they'd attended, and other places she has told us about over the summer, then she took us to see Eastern Market, a large and very popular farmers market, which has been operating for over a hundred years, and draws up to 40,000 people on a Saturday morning. Then we took her back to the house and left her to hang out with her friends for the afternoon, while we went to the Detroit Institute of Art (DIA) - she had already been during her stay in Detroit. This area of Detroit, near the Detroit river, is in stark contrast to what we had seen in Laura's neighborhood. A lot of money has been poured into the downtown area over recent decades in a huge revitalization program, including the building of two new stadiums, Comerica Park, opened in 2000, home of the Detroit Tigers baseball team, and Ford Field, opened in 2002, covered stadium for the Detroit Lions football team. "A tale of two cities" you might say. We spent a wonderful afternoon at the DIA, which has one of the largest, most significant art collections in the U.S. In 2003, the DIA ranked as the second largest municipally-owned museum in the United States. This too has undergone a major renovation and expansion program, completed in 2007. When we were finished there, we headed down to the riverfront, by the GM Renaissance Center, knicknamed the Ren Cen, where we met up with Laura and her friend Katie, also from Miami University. The four of us went out for a meal in the city's Greek area, then we went back to the house to collect their stuff. Katie lives in Indiana, so we were bringing her back as far as Tri County shopping mall on the Cincinnati loop road, where we were meeting up with her parents. It was about midnight when we got home - a long, but enjoyable day.

One year ago: Picturesque house in the country