Saint Louis Daily Photo In Detroit - An Old Aquarium

Detroit has an old aquarium, pretty basic stuff. River and lake fish aren't as pretty as their tropical cousins and the green barrel vault ceiling gives the place a murky feel. Still, the kids liked it. My daughter-in-law Claire, bottom center, maybe not so much.        

Saint Louis Daily Photo In Detroit - Faces and Figures on Heidelberg Street

Don't mean to be repetitive but The Heidelberg Project was a photographer's gold mine. The human images there are, for the most part, found objects, someone's cast-offs. The interest is in their placement and relationship to their surroundings.         

Saint Louis Daily Photo In Detroit - Along The River

Detroit has an attractive riverfront park, leading northeast/upstream from downtown. The Detroit River carries an awful lot of water, draining Lakes Michigan, Huron and Superior towards Lakes Erie and Ontario, the St. Lawrence River and the Atlantic. This is the only area where you can stand in the US and look south into Canada.

That's where we met Demetrius, sitting amid the blooming trees playing his new steel drum. He said it had just arrived from Russia. Not what I would expect and a long way from Jamaica but it sang as sweetly as any Caribbean breeze.     

Saint Louis Daily Photo In Detroit - More From Heidelberg Street

Is a picture really worth a thousand words? Then just some more images. The only place I've ever seen that approaches this is Rhyolite, Nevada.     

 

The Heidelberg Project

You can't believe it until you see it. On a couple of desolate blocks in Detroit, a local resident has developed a huge display of American culture, social criticism and whimsy. It's been evolving over 30 years. The name is from the city street, not the German city (I kept hearing Brahms' Academic Festival Overture in my head as I walked around.) Lots more of this to show and talk about but the family is on the way out for the day. For now, have a look here and here.       

Detroit Loves You

I've stayed in some unusual, interesting places over the years, like a Chinese army tent in Tibet and my great-grandfather's simple farmhouse in rural Ireland. Gotta say, though, that the Detroit Loves You Guest House is right up there.The neighborhood is called Piety Hill, a name derived from a row of magnificent churches on a local street (which, since I just got in, I have yet to locate). It epitomizes the calamitous fall and new resurgence of the Motor City. The neighborhood has homes that are just hanging in, derelict structures and beautiful rehabs. 

This guest house was the first AirBnB listing in Detroit. The dining space is a working foosball table covered by a plank of wood. Plenty of space for my granddaughters to jump and a produce market around the corner irrigating what in St. Louis we know as a food desert.

On the street with my camera in Detroit today.

Synchronized

Just a quickie thrown together at an STL airport hotel with more of the Chinese acrobats. Very early flight this morning for a family trip. We'll be in the Motor City this afternoon to meet our son, daughter-in-law and the other granddaughter. We don't know the place at all.