Michigan Central

A story describing the process of remaking the Ticket Lobby clock.

Some of the pieces of the Ticket Lobby clock that were left to work with during the restoration process...

The restored Ticket Lobby clock...

...where The Shop is now located.

A before picture of one of the hallways...

...and what it looks like now.

The lamps hanging overhead in the previous hallway...

The Historic Reading Room...

A look at a parking area behing the Michigan Central building...

...as well as another building across the street.

The Ambassador Bridge can be seen in the distance.

Drew and Jayden waiting for Rodney to finish taking pictures...

Canfield Street - Detroit

The Vernors mural outside of the Bagley-Trumbull Market.

A sign for Tiger Stadium parking.

A picture taken as we approach the city.

One Energy Plaza Detroit, the DTE Energy headquarters, located in Detroit.

The Traffic Jam & Snug Restaurant, located on Canfield Street, was apparently once a popular restaurant, but was destroyed by fire a few years ago.

The inside of the Canfield Shinola Store.

This was the clock that I admired...

...and there was even a little version to go along with it.

This "Love from Detroit" sign was pretty cool.

There was also a Shinola Monopoly game for sale.

A look at the Third Man Records shop...

...including the yellow glass window entrance area.

A book nook area...

A look at the Third Man Pressing manufacturing facility.

A cool couch inside of the Third Man Records building.

A wax pressing machine that makes a Third Man Records truck.

Looking up at the Third Man Records building.

We made our way down the West Columbia Street, which is closed to vehicular traffic on this block, to explore the shops and make our way to Woodward Avenue. Most of the shops weren't open yet, so we breezed through this section and found ourselves on Woodward in no time. We checked out the Union Assembly restaurant, which also houses the Mom's Spaghetti walk-up window. Mom's Spaghetti is of course a famous reference to the Eminem song "Lose Yourself", from the soundtrack to his movie 8 Mile, in which he says "There's vomit on his sweater already, mom's spaghetti." The kids weren't interested in eating at this point, so we didn't sample the spaghetti, but it was fun to see the location anyway.

We began our walk down Woodward, passing The Fillmore Detroit, a popular concert hall. We stopped in to a party store to grab some local pop, Faygo, to quench our thirst. We continued down Woodward, heading in to a rather large H&M store so that Jay could look for some more comfortable shorts for the rest of our day.

We made a few quick stops as we headed south towards downtown, including a quick stop at the Lululemon store, as well as a shop called Born in Detroit, a neat little local clothing store. We then headed into the Nike store before stopping in to the One Campus Martius building, and then found ourselves at Campus Martius Park. Campus Martius Park is a great gathering space downtown, filled with seasonal activities. Today there were food trucks and shops set up, and we did some more window shopping.

We decided it was time to head back north along Woodward to make our way back to the car. It was getting pretty warm by this point, so we didn't make as many stops as we did on the way south. We did stop at the Shinola Hotel, and I will say that from what we were able to see I was a little disappointed. I am not sure why, but I expected more from this boutique hotel. Our only other store visit was back on West Columbia Street, where the Made in Detroit shop was open this time, whereas it was closed during our first pass through the street.

We made it back to the car and headed for home, stopping in Grand Blanc for some Taco Bell as we were all pretty starved by this point.

Although we didn't get the tour of Michigan Central that I wanted, it was a great way to spend time with two of my amazing children, Drew and Jayden. I couldn't ask for a better day!