Motown's Misconceptions

This past weekend, I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to visit Motown, aka Detroit!  Ya, I know you're probably thinking: Detroit, why? WTF for? Did you pack Kevlar? Did you take an armed guard?  These of course were all thoughts that went through my mind, courtesy of the impressions given via media coverage...

The Association of Junior League's International, Inc. held their Fall Leadership Conference in Detroit (they try to hold Conferences in the cities of Leagues celebrating their 100th Anniversary; this year is Detroit's).  I was incredibly lucky and honored to be one of two delegates nominated and chosen to represent The Junior League of Bryan-College Station, Inc. in Detroit, and while I was excited to get to experience an entire conference made up of like-minded women, I wasn't too thrilled about "having" to travel to Detroit because as we all know, the media coverage surrounding the city has been less than favorable.   

But y'all we couldn't have been more surprised!  And, before I get into the surprises, let me start off with a disclaimer: I only got to experience a very small portion of the city and of course there are areas you don't want to go...just as there are areas in Houston, Austin, Dallas, San Antonio and pretty much any other big city...or heck, even small cities and towns have their "no go areas."

The people are nice and gracious (or at least the ones we ran into), you can stop and ask them for directions, or as tourists ask them to take your picture so you don't have to take too many selfies, you can ask strangers their opinions of where to go, what to see, or what to eat/drink at certain restaurants.  Heck, I'd even go so far as to say it wasn't too different from the South with the locals being friendly and welcoming.  

The conference was held at the Detroit Marriott at the Renaissance Center, also GM's World Headquarters - all 73 stories of it.  One evening we ate dinner at the restaurant housed on the 72nd story (although trying to figure out the elevators, we ended up traveling over 200 stories)...talk about some impressive views of both Canada and the US, how many other buildings can boast that?!?!

  

We got in Thursday afternoon and I was determined to go to Windsor, Ontario.  Apparently Canada is just across the river (and actually south of Detroit - true story...you can look at the map if you want to verify it, or you can just take my word for it!).  With little help from the bellhop, who bless his heart couldn't give accurate directions, we made it across the border via the Ambassador Bridge.  Bucket list checked - I have now been to Canada!

Most of Friday and Saturday were filled with workshops at the hotel where our minds were filled to capacity about how to improve our respective Leagues and develop our members' potential - literally mind blowing (and I'll probably need to devote an entire other post to brag about the JL experiences and ladies)!  Saturday night we were able to decompress on a dinner cruise: bucket list checked I've ridden a yacht abroad (we cruised both the Canadian and US sides of the Detroit River).  And what did we see on this cruise? HUGE homes, docks w/HUGE boats, a beautiful skyline...the complete opposite of what the media shows us: the crumbling, graffiti-decorated, vacant buildings...Why aren't the "good" images on the news? Detroit, please hire you a new PR person or firm (or maybe try and get some services donated) to paint an accurate image of your amazing city!

Thankfully we had chosen a later flight so we could get up and see a little more Detroit before heading back to Texas on Sunday!  After a fantastic breakfast at Plaka's Cafe in Greektown we managed to make it to the Detroit Institute of Art (after a little rerouting from Suri - but hey we got to see even more Detroit)!  Y'all I got to see Van Gogh, Monet, Matisse, Leger, Kandinsky, and Picsasso (plus A LOT of other stuff I didn't understand #contemporaryartisweird), or at least some of their more famous paintings!!!  Thanks to my French Teacher in High School I was familiar with many of these artists and before visiting Detroit I had only seen these paintings in textbooks - and now I was only inches from them (it literally took every ounce of my being NOT to touch them!).

 

So while Detroit was never really on my radar of things to do or places to go I will say you're really doing yourself a disservice if you turn down an opportunity to go and shame on you!  Just like New York and New Orleans craved tourism post 9/11 and Katrina, respectively, Detroit craves your visit now and would be glad to have you!