Quick Trip to Detroit

Somerset  I don’t usually blog a weekend trip to Detroit, but this one is for

Jose who reads the blog all the time and was finally present to witness it firsthand.  We enjoyed the Immersive Van Gogh experience in York so much, that when it finally started coming to the US, we wanted to go.  But the French one we saw in the UK is competing with one from Canada that is similar.  If you’re wondering why Van Gogh is everywhere right now….the copyright finally ran out and his works can be used like this now….so, VAN GOGH!!!!!  Anyway, the Canadian one was coming to Detroit first and we

wanted to compare the two and have others enjoy this great experience too.  So, we planned a trip to take in the show and go as a group, but in trying to find a date, the tickets kept selling out on the website while I was trying to book it!!!  The show was that popular….so I had to pick a random Monday some time in July and picked 3pm to give us time to drive there and back in one day if we wanted or make a time of it if everyone could take off from work.  So, 9 tickets and 3 hotel rooms later, we had our great little two night excursion to Detroit.  But like every travel episode, things went wrong.  First, some plans changed for people and now we had 5 rooms at the same hotel and a

 different person (Jose) using one of the group tickets.  Now, I’m getting used to traveling in the time of COVID, so a hotel on a road called “Convention” in Detroit on a random Sunday and Monday night being only $70 a night didn’t ring any alarm bells for me.  I just figured that Detroit isn’t where anyone is vacationing anyway and there’s still a pandemic happening and no conventions.  It’s a Days Inn by Wyndham and the pics look nice.  I’m more concerned with meet up points and corralling 9 different people to enter an exhibit as a group at 3pm.  We meet at the Somerset Collection shopping center

that has no real restaurants and a soccer final that John “has to watch”.  So, after Oscar gets to hit the Lego store, John and Dave go find a sports bar near there while 5 of us do some more shopping.  We all end up at the 

Yardhouse to watch the rest of the Euro final between England and Italy while having some really good food and lots of beers to choose from.  And it appeared that they were still practicing distancing with plexiglass in between the booths and stuff, so it didn’t feel horribly scary with a 6 year old who still can’t get a vaccine.  After watching England beat themselves really and Italy prevail, we took 3 different cars to the hotel to check in.