Mushroom-like homes, Charlevoix, Lower Peninsula.
Tiger statues at Comerica Baseball Park, Detroit.
If traveling downstate, a visit to Detroit is well worth the effort as the city has been undergoing a dramatic comeback. “Businesses pop up overnight; it’s crazy,” says tour guide Kim Rusinow with Destination Detroit Group Tours and Services. Clusters of fresh produce, homemade pies, cheeses and Italian seasonings fill tables and vendor stalls at bustling Eastern Market. Alongside the multi-towered General Motors Renaissance Center, the Detroit RiverWalk stretches 3.5 miles along the river with benches, public art, parks, and a lighthouse. Shops, cafes, and residential units now occupy what was once an industrial area. The Stadium District has marked downtown’s resurgence. Statues of clawing tigers hover over the entrances to Comerica Park, home of the Detroit Tigers baseball team, just across the street from football’s Detroit Lions’ Ford Field. The area’s yet greatest expansion comes with the $1 billion-plus, 50-block redevelopment project known as The District Detroit, which includes the new Little Caesars Arena, now home to the Detroit Red Wings hockey team and Pistons basketball. Detroit’s institutions andmuseums seemtobebetter than ever. The Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation houses prototype and original early 20th-century cars,
planes, and locomotives. Key exhibits include the refurbished bus in which civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat and former presidents’ cars, including the very ones in which President Kennedy was shot and in which President Reagan was driven to the hospital after his gunshot wound. Other must-see museums include the Detroit Institute of Arts with is wall-sized Diego Rivera industrial murals in a central atrium. The Motown Museum in two adjacent neighborhood homes offers a close-up look at the small studio where Motown greats like the Supremes and Four Tops got their start. While much has been done in Detroit, challenges remain. In the 1950s, the population was close to 2 million, down to about 700,000 now. More than 40 percent of the city’s 140 square miles is vacant land with 80,000 abandoned homes. “There’s no denying we’ve been slammed pretty hard,” says Rusinow. “We have some challenges to overcome, but we are an amazing comeback city.”
FOR MORE INFORMATION www.grandhotel.com • www.uptravel.com • www.sheplersferry.com www.mackinacferry.com • www.visitdetroit.com
MACKINAC ISLAND
COAST TO COAST SPRING MAGAZINE 2018
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