A Tour of Detroit

If I was giving a tour of Detroit I would begin with security. I would charter a bullet proof bus and a couple of large security guards. The people I would be taking on the trip are not used to being in a city like Detroit and I would want them to feel safe.

I have never lived in Detroit so I used tripadvisor.com to help me come up with some of the places on my list. Based on their recommendation I decided to make the Detroit Institute of Arts our first stop. The institute holds over 60,000 works of art from all over the world. We would try to make the visit during a Family Sunday event. Every Sunday the museum features some kind of entertainment like singing, dancing, puppets, or some other art activity for families. I think that the kids in the group would really enjoy it.

It's about time for lunch now so we'll stop at Todoroff's for some coney dogs. They have been in business since 1914 and they are supposed to have the best coney dogs in Michigan.

After lunch we'll stop by Fox Theater for a tour and maybe a concert. The theater was built in the late 1920's and is now on the National Register of Historic Places.

Next we would take a drive through the Boston Edison neighborhood. This area has a rich history and most of the homes were built between 1905 and 1925. Some of the first residents of the neighborhood were amazing people like Henry Ford, James Couzens, and Walter Briggs. It was a lovely neighborhood with quiet streets that offered residents a little bit of nature in the middle of the city. Driving through the neighborhood today you see homes that still look nice on the outside and you might think that it was a nice area. However, many of the homes are run down on the inside and the crime rate in the area is extrememly high. This lowers the value of these once great homes to as low as $9000.

We'll end our day in Greektown. Any area like this is a nice way to learn about the people that built it. The architecture of the church is amazing, it's obvious that religion was important to the early Greek settlers. We'll have dinner at the Pegasus Taverna and then go across the street to the Astoria Pastry Shop for dessert. After a long day we'll head north to one of the safer suburbs to stay in a hotel for the night.