Hot town, summer in the city

The brunch spread

We are here in Detroit --- a strangely bucolic experience, considering we all think of Detroit as an inner-city urban blight. In the neighborhood where Rosie and JR live, it is quite quiet and peaceful and there is a lot of greenery and open space. A certain number of houses have been taken down, leaving many open lots that are grown over in the summer months with much greenery and in some cases, gardens. R & JR have put in a really impressive veggie garden in their back yard. Unlike her parents, Rosie seems to have the proverbial green thumb. They have a bounty of stuff growing out there. We are enjoying a rare gathering of part of our tiny tribe. My brother and his family are here and Sophie flew in, too. Today is the "wedding" bbq in the backyard.

Part of the Garden

So our trip has bogged down for a few days while we do the family thing, but then the road will be calling us back. On Tuesday we head west,  first to Madison (returning for the first time, since we met and married there 42 years ago), on to Minneapolis (called "Minnie" by Sophie, who visits there frequently for business), and then to the Badlands -- one of the raison d'etre of this trip. I just have to vent a bit about the f------- weather back here. Explains a lot about why once we moved to California, we never returned to the midwest or the east. It is HOT. Not to mention it is HUMID. We are big babies and complain about it all the time. Choosing summer to do this trip was perhaps not the wisest decision for us. Bring on the springs, bring on the falls, and even bring on the winters.... but keep those damn summers with the sunshine and the sweat. I would be happy to never have to endure another one here.

     Andrea