St. Clair Shores Visit

Saturday to Saturday

Hello!

I do apologize for not writing earlier, but with Mom having no WiFi connection, it does require a trip to the St. Clair Shores Public Library to have computer access but was not convenient for blogging…that is, until this morning, when we discovered that our laundry (Laundry Spot on Harper) has WiFi, which meant we could wash clothes AND use the computer!  What a concept!!

Cloudy Day in Chicago

At any rate, we left Chicago on a very cloudy Saturday morning and arrived at Mom’s at about 4 p.m.  We had forgotten about the hour time change, and we also stopped for lunch somewhere along the Chicago-Detroit I94 corridor.  The weather was really wonderful – warm but not TOO warm, which was good, as Mom had not have brother Tom put in the window air conditioner for our bedroom…more about that later!

We spent a lovely couple of low key days – roots trip for me, a great visit with brother Tom and sister-in-law Marie and their new Pomeranian, Toby.

At Zingerman's

On Tuesday we headed out to Zingerman’s in Ann Arbor.  If anyone isn’t aware of Zingerman’s, it’s a fabulous mail order and on-site deli and grocery.  They have lots of wonderful olive oils and vinegars, as well as incredible cheeses from all over the world.  We had visited a couple of years ago, but arrived now to find a full-scale renovation and expansion going on. 

Zingerman's Pastrami Sandwich

Lunch at Zingerman's

We had lunch there – and I had some of their all-natural Boylan black-cherry diet soda – Wow!  Would LOVE to be able to have that on a regular basis!  Also got a wonderful piece of chocolate cake to go…you can never have enough chocolate cake…

At Yate's Cider Mill

At Yate's Cider Mill

Clinton River at Yate's Cider Mill

One day we visited the Yates Cider Mill, which is out in Rochester Hills.  When I was a MUCH younger kid, we would go there every fall when the Yankees were in the World Series.  I can still remember getting cider and cinnamon donuts and eating them on a blanket on the lawn under the trees listening to the baseball game.  Dad and I had visited there about 35 years ago, and I found it much changed and very depressing – but this visit was quite the opposite!  The park across the street from the mill has been put back, the train tracks have been removed, and there is leafy greenness as well as the Clinton river floating by (although I’ll need to check on the Clinton; may be something else…)

Last night we went to the Tigers-Cleveland Indians baseball game with oldest friend Sandy Grockau and her young man, Dave.  Also got to meet their new (now 2 year old) boxer, Sparky – an absolute cutie with lots of energy!  GREAT game, as the Tigers won 7-1, and we even got to see a Prince Fielder home run!  (Note:  Moving that much mass around the bases must be very tough!)

Today (Thursday) we took Mom’s best friend Joyce out to lunch, and now I’m waiting for a very old friend, Caroline Cochran to arrive for dinner.  According to Caroline, we haven’t seen each other in 43 years, but I believe we talked during the 17 minutes or so that Robert and I spent at my 20^th or 25^th high school reunion…we’ll see!  

Well!  We had a wonderful evening with Caroline!  She is a really lovely, talented and strong woman, and it was great catching up on everything that has happened since we graduated from high school!  As we both decided, we know why we were friends in school, as we still do continue to have a great deal in common!  We are hoping that we can persuade Caroline and her husband Donnie to come to AZ for a visit!  I know it would be great!!

Tomorrow, Tom and Marie are coming over and we’re going to try a new place, the Ardmore Café, for lunch.  If the past few days are any indication, we will then return home and have a nice, long nap; this is obviously the restful part of our trip!

We are off on Saturday, for Knoxville TN.  We have nothing to see there (although friend Hilary says that this is the home of the University of Tennessee – wonder if there will be a college football game that day?) but are using it as a convenient stopping point between St. Clair Shores and Linda Kennedy’s place in Richmond Hill (Savannah), Georgia.  Very much looking forward to seeing Linda, and hopefully she will have time to do a bit of touring with us in town!  (And NO, I REFUSE to stand in line to get in to Paula Deene’s restaurant!  Any restaurant that prefers to make people stand outside for hours and refuses to take reservations is NOT worth our time and effort!)  And speaking of which, we still need to find out how much of New Orleans is left standing!  I would love to make a dinner reservation at Commander’s Palace, but I think we should check with our hotel first – to see if the city is in condition to receive guests.  (We are getting the idea, though, that we may never see New Orleans again, as the last time we were scheduled to go there, Hurricane Katrina came in first…and now Isaac…hmmm…) So, on that note, I will sign off until Knoxville!

Much love and back to blogging!

m

xxx

PS -We somehow failed to take many pictures in Michigan – we missed photo ops with family and old friends, which is VERY upsetting, but we’ll have to make it up next year…

It is now Saturday night, and we are in our hotel room in Knoxville, TN.  We actually chased the back end of the cold front moving through the area for most of the way here, and then about an hour and a half out of Knoxville, there it was – rain and fog in all its glory!  Reached the hotel about 4 p.m., dropped off luggage and decided to see a bit of town and hopefully find a good place to eat.  Well…as our friend Hilary had warned us, Tennessee was playing a football game – at home – at 4 p.m.  When we drove the streets of downtown Knoxville, it was like aliens had come down and taken ALL the people away!  Everything was closed up and deserted – it was amazing!  Very, very surreal!  We finally got closer to the university, and wow, you could see those lights on at the football stadium for MILES away!  We also found a few more people, but every single space in the area had been taken by cars parking for the game! So…Robert found a truly beautiful area of houses – right next to the Tennessee River – where we wandered and eventually came to a very nice shopping area – and the Sequoyah Grille – a GREAT restaurant!  To be honest, there were so few people around, that when we walked in, the two hostesses were just chatting with each other – and we asked – Are you open? To which they replied:  Of course!  So, we were seated in a virtually deserted restaurant and had a really lovely dinner!  (Occasionally a few people came in – almost ALL dressed in that incredible Tennessee ORANGE…whew!)  To start our dinner, our lovely waitress explained that they did very thin slices of tortillas with a cream cheese/black bean combination, and salad greens.  The idea was to take a slice of tortilla, add greens, then the cheese/black beans, and top with Chihulu (sp?) sauce – and it was GREAT!  After lovely salads (although too many cucumbers for my taste…) Robert got North Carolina Trout with cheese grits and broccoli.  I had grilled chicken breast in au jus with sliced cranberries and pearl onions along with sautéed spinach and garlic mashed potatoes.  We were both VERY happy with our choices; excellent food and service! We took all surface streets back to our hotel, winding around the western side of town, arriving back about 7 p.m.  Now settled in for a nice long sleep; up tomorrow and on to Savannah and Linda!

Much love,

m

xxx