Month: May 2022

So, I had a good run in Holland, MI this morning, although it was 49 — a bit cooler than I would have liked. Bob checked out the Farmer’s Market, which he thought had a good mix of vendors with the exception of food trucks/ booths where you could order food.

We we’re having a good morning and were driving to a state park to climb a dune and walk to a lighthouse when I got a call from my aunt that my mom had been admitted to the hospital the prior night.

We immediately headed back to the hotel to check out and head towards Janesville. I spoke a bit with my mom , and she was pretty emotional. Bob and I packed and headed to my hometown. Four or so hours later we checked into the Baymont Inn across from my mom’s hospital and then went to visit her.

She was feeling much better. Fingers crossed she’ll be able to be released tomorrow. Either way, we will likely not resume blogging until we get to Redding, CA, for our next house sit on 6/11. Will post before that if things change.

All best to everyone.

Bob and I had a leisurely morning after my run before checking out of The Element Hotel to make our way across the state to Holland, Michigan. We left Detroit impressed with the Riverwalk, the numerous green spaces downtown, and walkability to sports and cultural activities. There is, as in every city, areas that are very rundown, but there appears to be a lot of new construction, and they announced a new building plan for the sports district which includes new retail, hotel, and housing. Fingers crossed it continues its revival without displacing a lot of current residents.

Since we were driving on Friday of Memorial Day Weekend and rain was in the forecast, we were not that excited about the drive, even though it is only just under 3 hours normally. It ended up being okay. We hit patches of traffic and had a decent amount of rain with a couple of heavy downpours, however, we weren’t severely delayed and were able to check in a little before 2 when we arrived.

We had a quick lunch snack in the room and then headed off to do a bit of exploring, with Bob giving me grief about my tendency to lose hotel room keys. It is not untrue, but neither of us could tell you the last time I lost one.

Our Marriott Courtyard (These can range in quality. This one looks new and/or well-maintained.) is right on 8th Street, which is also the main drag in Holland. It is also just a block down from the Visitor’s Center, so we stopped in to pick up information, talk to the helpful staff, and take a photo that you can only take in places called Holland.

We thought the downtown was charming with lots of cute retail and restaurants. We popped into a few during our stroll.

From downtown, we walked about 25 minutes out to a market to pick up dinner. On the way, we passed a metal scrap yard, not usually a good thing, but they had decorated the area near the sidewalk with metal art.

We also walked through a couple of lovely parks along Lake Macatawa.

We’re currently back in the room reading over the brochures we picked up to plan our day tomorrow — after having picked me up a new room key, as I somehow managed to lose the first one on our walkabout. This made Bob’s day.

Today was a little cultural tour for us. Bob had read good things about the Detroit Institute for Art (DIA), so we knew we wanted to get there while we were visiting . Luckily, we checked their website last night, as they require reservations for entry, and we booked a slot for 10 am. It was about a 40 minute walk to get there.

Our initial impression of the museum was not good. A gentleman sitting right inside the door asked Bob for the electronic tickets, scanned them, and then went and sat down. Bob picked up a map for the building, and we tried to make our way forward. We had a number of stops and starts trying to figure out where to go, and it seemed for awhile that we were either being told we couldn’t enter that area or the room/exhibit was marked as closed. I was starting to wonder what we had paid to see, but we persevered (helped when we finally figured out what floor we were on), and we ended up very impressed.

I always enjoy an art museum where the building is as attractive as the art, and this was. The DIA also has an impressive range in their collection— everything from Asian, Southeast Asian, and African art, to American, European, ancient artifacts, old books, and decorative arts. They were also having a special exhibition on Detroit Automotive Style from the 1950s to today. The following are some of the highlights for us, and we would definitely recommend a visit.

One of the highlights of the visit was speaking with a docent about the Diego Rivera murals that adorn all four sides of a large hall (Rivera Court) within the institute. She provided us with some of the background for the painting, including how Rivera’s workers would transfer the sketches onto the wall and apply the wet mix that was needed for Rivera to paint on.

After our 2.5 hours or so at the DIA, we walked directly across the street to the Detroit Public Library. I love libraries, and they can sometimes be architecturally interesting as well. This one seemed promising.

The inside of the library was beyond disappointing. Only the first floor has reopened due to COVID. It is dark, low-ceilinged, and generally uninspiring. Worse, it was not air conditioned and quite warm. I felt sorry for the staff. Bob spoke with one employee who said that the second floor is beautiful, so I guess if we get back to Detroit we may have to return to check that out.

Tomorrow we head to Holland, Michigan for a brief visit before taking the ferry to Wisconsin.

Bob, here! The Diego Rivera Court was very impressive—my favorite at the art institute. It made me think of his work at Rockefeller Center in NYC. For the rest of 2022, we have scheduled (which will change) 10 sits in California, Scotland, Kansas City, Austin (multiple), Denver, Chicago, and England.

Bob and I had a quiet but somewhat productive day in Detroit. I did not sleep very well but managed to complete three blog posts before we headed off for a short walkabout. Bob enjoyed the hotel breakfast, and I hope to do so tomorrow.

For our walkabout, we headed back towards the water to a state park that we had seen yesterday that runs right along the water. We thought we’d decide then whether we would try to walk across a bridge to Belle Isle, which sits in the middle of the Detroit River.

At the end of the state park, we walked into the Aretha Franklin Amphitheater, as the gates were open and there was no signage about not entering. We naively thought that it was part of the park. It was not, Mr. Security Man did his job and walked the riff raff out of the park.

I was feeling low energy with my lack of sleep, so we headed back towards the hotel. On the way, we poked through a couple of markets to see if we wanted to pick anything up for dinner. We did at the second one, which was a decent-sized store but with a series of very small snakelike aisles so that we were always stumbling on new sections of the store and impressed with the selection but also anxious to be out due to its coziness. We’ve been taking advantage of the fact that we have a full kitchen — microwave, stovetop, full fridge, pots and pans, and dishes in our room.

During the afternoon we just napped for a bit and then hit the great fitness center while it rained outside. More rain expected tomorrow.

Bob writing here: I may provide some numbers occasionally as I have better numeric skills than writing skills. Today is the 145th day of the year. Of those 145, we have stayed with family eight nights, in hotels 31 nights (19 different cities), and house sitting 105 nights. But Bob, that adds up to only 144! Yes, the remaining night was on the plane from JFK to Paris. Our latest sit in St. Catherines, Ontario was our 104th career sit which have been in 14 countries. By the end of 2022, we’re currently scheduled to complete our 114th house sit.

We have had some great house sits since May 2021 when we returned to house sitting full-time again. House sits #85-103 — for old friends in Austin, Texas, and new friends in Dripping Springs, Texas, Cape Coral, Florida, Martinsville, Virginia, Boiling Springs, South Carolina, Atlanta, Georgia, Aurora, Illinois, Plymouth, Michigan, Washington, DC, Eymet, France, and Verteuil-sur-Charente, France. So many great experiences and people and pets. And we also got to fit in visits with relatives in Iowa, Wisconsin, Georgia, DC, and New York as well. We are blessed.

Since we just wrapped up a house sit in St. Catherines, Ontario, and were inspired to start blogging again by their travel blog, we wanted to at least do a quick post house sit post on House Sit #124 — six weeks in a lovely home and area caring for an amazing dog, Jack. Jack loves walking, eating, being petted, going for drives, and being near his people. We were very happy being his people for six weeks.

Jack’s real people are Rick and Shona. We had a great transition with them prior to their departure and after their return. They are generous hosts and interesting people who have a similar love for travel. On top of that, Rick is a former Olympian AND attended the school that was the film location for the school scenes in “A Christmas Story.” Mic drop. We certainly hope our paths cross again.

We love every place we have visited in Canada, but the St. Catherines/Niagara region is unique for the abundance of wineries, orchards, and flower farms and greenhouses. We were there to see the trees bloom, and it was quite lovely. The other thing in abundance are locations for walking, hiking, and biking — from waterfront trails to canal paths to local paths in parks to the Bruce Trail, a 550 mile plus long trail through Southern Ontario. It was a lovely interlude.

There is so much more I could say, but since I’m playing catch-up, we’ll just have to return to make more memories, eh.

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After farewelling Rick, Shona, and Jack, we headed off via car for a reverse Underground Railroad journey from Canada to what has become shoot-em-up USA. Note: though obviously our journey was very different, both St. Catherines and Detroit played a role in the Underground Railroad journey (see prior blog and below).

On our way south, we passed a sign for Brantford, Ontario, which calls itself the “Telephone City” and has an Alexander Graham Bell Way. Wait, what? That created a discussion with Bob about what we knew about Mr. Bell and the phone, as we both thought this was an American thing. A quick Google search later that day would show that Mr. Bell was born in Scotland, emigrated to Canada with his family, hatched the idea for the phone in Brantford, and honed it in Boston. So I guess three countries can claim him.

We had a very strange feeling return to the US. Unlike in New York and Niagara, Canada, where there are numerous signs for the bridge crossings. I don’t believe we saw any overt signage that the tunnel we crossed was a border crossing— just the name of the tunnel. We paid $5 US to drive through the subtle tunnel and then had a quick chat with a nice border patrol guy who glanced at our passports and we were in downtown Detroit. It all felt a bit surreptitious.

We are staying in the Elemental Hotel in downtown Detroit on John R Street. I have not yet asked or digitally searched for who John R might be and why just the initial. We quickly checked into our room and headed out for a walkabout on a beautiful, sunny day. Bob had read about their Riverwalk, so we headed in that direction.

We found some interesting buildings downtown.

The riverwalk was very lovely and reminded us that Detroit is more than sports and cars, though we would get back into sports later.

After a lovely stroll along the water, we walked back into town, passing 3 of Detroit’s sports fields/arenas.

We found a Whole Foods store to pick up dinner and came back to the news of the horrible mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas. An 18 year old from the community killed 14 elementary students and 1 teacher. Sadly, America will again let this go unanswered.

Bob and I are returning to blogging about our travels after some time away. We returned to house sitting in May of 2021 following the death of my sister from cancer and the easing of COVID restrictions.

The primary purpose of our blogs is to create a repository of memories, so we can recall our experiences at a future point in time, when our recall won’t be the sharpest!! So, if you’d like to follow along, please do so. We’d love to have you.

But before we start that, I want to just share a bit about my only sibling and Bob’s sister-in-law.

Brenda Kay Quade (1967-2021) was an intense, dedicated lawyer, a generous friend, a lover of family, and a self-described nester. She was a devoted mother to Sammy, her Jack Russell, for 18 years. She had a wicked sense of humor and loved to shock people with that humor or a quick change of hair color. She came to live out loud, and she did. She knew exactly who she was when she arrived and blazed the trail she was meant to take.

I miss her every day. Little things like her texting me a funny meme daily or her funny quips and her strength. She battled cancer courageously for 18 months. She ultimately taught how to both live and how to let go of the world when it’s time.

I have gone through everything from survivor’s guilt to questioning the meaning of everything, but have finally settled on that it would dishonor her to not live my life fully. So Bob and are are living out loud in our own way, not through personality so much (well, with Bob, personality too) but in doing out-of-the-ordinary things that fit us.

I would always say “I love you” to Brenda, and she would respond “I love you more.” Say things you want to say now to those that mean the most. That should be one way we all live out loud.