Detroit and Chicago: We Only Visit Cities Near I-94

Pitcher Anibal Sanchez and the Tigers take the field against the Kansas City Royals. The crowd turned ugly in the sixth inning when it was announced that Kansas City is not actually in Kansas.

We watched the Detroit Tigers lightly beat the Kansas City Royals 4-1 last Thursday. We try to go once a year, and this was our best chance. It was a fun game. Prince Fielder hit a home run, and Andy Dirks went 4 for 4.

J and I shipped the kids off to relatives and took a whirlwind overnight trip to Chicago to see the show "Book of Mormon". This was the delayed 20th Anniversary trip we didn't take in the spring. We stayed at the Palmer House Hilton, which was about a block from the theater. For dinner, we ate some yummy food at a nearby restaurant, Vapiano. Then we went over to the theater, saw the show, and walked a little bit before returning to the hotel. We saw lots of interesting city sights, like bus tours, homeless people (there's one for every corner!) and a rat running in the gutter of State St. Such a colorful place! We realized as we were walking during the day that the difference between large and small-medium cities is that large towns have the same stores as the small ones, plus one store per brand of shoes/clothing/luggage/make-up/electronic device.


Inside the Palmer House Hilton in downtown Chicago. I can't remember if this picture was the lobby or our room. I'll have to check.

"Book of Mormon" was really funny. It is a musical comedy that follows two young Mormons starting their mission in Africa. It is unlikely that Mormon missionaries use the kind of language, or engage in so many impromptu song and dance numbers during their missions as these characters did, but that's what the theater is for, isn't it? And I'll give the real Mormons credit - they advertise the church's website on the back of the Playbill, encouraging theater-goers to take a look at the real Book of Mormon.

With the kids still away, J and I had another anniversary dinner at Lena in downtown Ann Arbor. The restaurant is in the space where the iconic Parthenon Greek restaurant was.

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Cedar Point Road Trip

K and M mug for the camera on the midway at Cedar Point.

Yesterday, Laurie joined the four of us as we waded into the sea of humanity that is Cedar Point on a Saturday. The boys had never been there, and neither J nor I had been there in 26 years. I went quite a few times when I was in middle and high school, so I vaguely remembered where a few of the rides were, but so much has changed that many parts were unrecognizable.

Things have certainly gotten bigger, higher, and faster. The highest roller coaster at Cedar Point when I was last there was 125 feet. The highest one now is 310 feet. They now have coasters where the cars hang down from the track instead of riding on them, ones where you ride off to the side of the track, so you’re just “flying” in the air, and some where you go so fast, time reverses and you have the opportunity to order something different for lunch.


This is the Power Tower. You sit in a chair on a car that goes way up, either really fast, or really slow, and then you drop. The tower appears to be about 11,000 feet tall.


This is the Top Speed Dragster. The cars are launched at 120 mph (really), climb one side of the u-shaped track, and then come down the other side. When on this ride, the direction of blood flow in your body briefly reverses, then quickly switches back. (That may not be true, but this thing cannot possibly be good for you.)


M and Laurie are in this car nearing the top of the classic coaster The Blue Streak.


J and K can be seen in their car nearing the top of the first hill on The Gemini.


You know those carnival games they have, the ones that are rigged so you can’t win? M won the same game not once, but twice, collecting two massive stuffed frogs. Fortunately, we were about to leave the park when these were won, because they don’t let these things on the rides.