by Part of the reason we didn’t get much done in Detroit proper is because we kept getting distracted and going elsewhere! Here are some of our adventures outside the Detroit metro area.
Frankenmuth
Frankenmuth is about 80 miles northwest of Detroit, and it’s known for its Bavarian-style architecture due to the area’s German roots (such as in the cover photo of the Bavarian Inn).
Frankenmuth is also famous for chicken dinners, which we of course got for Doug. When went to Zehnder’s, but the Bavarian Inn is equally as famous. Neither is the source of the original famous chicken dinners, though they are located in the same spots those restaurants were. The over-the-top meal goes back to 1856. It obviously features a chicken entrée, but it comes with a shocking number of additional dishes, as pictured.
Bronner’s CHRISTmas Wonderland promotes itself as the “World’s Largest Christmas Store,” so naturally it’s an important stop in Frankenmuth. The building is more than seven acres in size, and it goes on and on and on. And on. It was overwhelming, to be honest, with approximately 800 animated figurines and 100,000 lights – and there’s more sensory overload outside. It is a full-on retail assault, which is ironic given their motto, “Enjoy CHRISTmas, It’s HIS Birthday! Enjoy Life, It’s HIS Way!!”
Steve Martin and Martin Short
We drove up to Saginaw (about 100 miles northwest of Detroit) to see Steve Martin and Martin Short’s comedy show The Dukes of Funnytown so Doug could revisit a bit of his long-lost youth. I’ve never been an especially big fan of either, but Doug has memories of listen to Steve Martin comedy albums over and over as a teen.
We had very expensive nosebleed seats to see these two icons of comedy. There was some joint banter, each had solo time, and then a bit of filler by a wonderful bluegrass group, Jeff Babko and The Steep Canyon Rangers. Steve played his banjo, and there were lots of personal bits covering the long careers of both comedians. It was a fun show, though I really only laughed out loud a few times, so the cost-per-laugh was exorbitant.
Sandhill Cranes!
We caught wind that the Sandhill Cranes were migrating through Michigan while we were in town, so we drove to the closest spot we could find – Kensington Metropark in Milford (about 35 northwest of Detroit) – to see if we could find any. Because while people who get to see them a lot are not excited by them, we are way not in that category yet.
We saw groups of two or three here and there before we’d even parked. The cranes are clearly very used to humans and were completely nonplussed by people walking by them on the trails. The upside is that we got to see some cranes quite close, but the downside was a few times they blocked the way! It was definitely worth effort to drive out to see them, plus we got a nice walk in and saw lots of other birds, as well.
The Roethke House
While in Saginaw we arranged a tour of the Theodore Roethke House. It’s no surprise we were the only ones on the tour, because I’m sure you’re asking “who?”
Theodore Roethke (1908-1963) was a poet who won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1954 for his book The Waking. He also twice won the National Book Award for Poetry, in 1959 for Words in the Wind and 1965 for The Far Field. He taught at Doug’s alma matter, Bennington College, but way before Doug’s time.
Roethke grew up in this home, moving here when he was three years old. The home original sat on 25 acres, on which the family had 600-foot-long greenhouses for their family business. Those greenhouses and the plants grown within were inspirations for much of Roethke’s works.
