Blog catch-up ~ Michigan

When I was in the US earlier this month I spent a long weekend in Michigan.  I had a great time hanging out with both family and friends. 

My mom is always awesome about babysitting my nephews so the kids (well...her kids since none of us are anywhere near kid age any longer) can hang out together.  Amy, Karie, Alan (bro), Jeff, and I had a nice dinner together.  I'm always so thankful that we all get along and have fun together.  I was able to get a recent picture of us Hogg kids...

On Saturday I was lucky enough to have some friends take me to some of their favorite spots in downtown Detroit.  Now, I'm sure that your first reaction is why on earth would you want to hang out in Detroit?  Well...let me tell you...it was bustling with activity.  There was a winter festival going on and there were tons of people wandering around.  It certainly has some room to grow but if you live in the area I strongly encourage you to head downtown Detroit to do a bit of exploring.

I spent most of the afternoon in Detroit with my friend Tina.  She is an artist and took me to some great places to take pictures.  Oh...we started the afternoon at the Woodbridge Pub (http://www.woodbridgepub.com/) on Trumbull.  If you want some great food it is worth stopping there. 

We started our photography expedition at the now abandoned Michigan Central Station. 

This is an amazing building and it is such a shame that it has been left to ruin.  I would love to get inside of it and wander around to imagine what it was like when it was an active station.

Just across the street from the MCS are these abandoned houses...

They are part of a project that the nonprofit group Imagination Station are working on.  The amazing thing to me is that these houses literally face the old MCS.  Can you imagine waking up every morning and seeing that building out your front window?  And just imagine all of the people they saw come and go...arriving in Detroit from all over the place...so cool.

From there we headed to the main part of the city and met up with two other friends.  We wandered around a bit...although it was quite windy and pretty cold...but I got to see how much has changed and how the city is really working hard to revitalize itself.  We also got to see the sun starting to set over the Detroit River...

A few other shots from around Detroit...

I had a great time seeing the city but the thing I enjoyed the most was just hanging out with Tina, Cris, and Cherie...

I had a lot of fun with everybody I was able to spend time with while in Michigan.   My trips there always go by so fast and I never seem to have enough time...but...I am always thankful for the time I do get.

And...I got to traipse around in the snow...wear a winter coat, scarf, hat, mittens, thick socks...and I even got to see a bit of snow falling on Saturday night!