When I'm not refinishing/restoring/reselling vintage furniture or writing for Honeymoon Vintage or spending time with my kids, I'm working a corporate job. If you work in an office, you know that sometimes you start to go a little crazy being inside and staring at your cubicle walls. Or at least if you crave sunshine and freedom, you do. So, when that happens, a little escape is wonderful! I work for a health insurance company in downtown Detroit, so there are actually a lot of mini-adventures you can go on if you venture outside the building.
If you live in the Detroit area (including all the suburbs, which covers a LOT LOT LOT of area), you know that the city of Detroit is going through a revitilazation period right now. It's completely different than it was just a few years ago, and you can see the changes happening downtown every day. In the past few decades, you wouldn't see a lot of people just walking around downtown except during lunch, when all the employees left their buildings. And then in the evening, at the end of the workday, everyone would get in their cars and drive back to their homes in the suburbs because people didn't just hang around downtown. Well, not everyone, obviously there were always some people that lived in the city, but the downtown wasn't like other big cities where real estate was hot and everyone walks around and small businesses are thriving. Well, in the past few years, money has been, and is being, pumped into the city and small businesses and restaurants are cropping up everywhere, and a lightrail system is being put in on the main road that runs from the suburbs straight into downtown. If you live here, this is really awesome to see. Seriously.
Anyway, all that to say that Detroit is pretty exciting to explore right now because it is changing every day and there's a lot to see, so getting out is an adventure. I was going to say that Detroit is pretty hip right now, but then it sounded like an old person talking in my head, which was me talking in my head, so I just couldn't finish the sentence with the word "hip". But, I just wrote that....omg...I AM old! Crap. Moving on...
Last week, I had one of those busy days where I worked thru lunch (well, I stuffed some food in my mouth, but worked while chewing), and I could see it was an absolutely BEAUTIFUL day outside, so I just couldn't let myself not go outside. My husband's cousin, Michael, works for the same company as I do, and he loves walking around downtown, so we decided to take a break from our desks and take a walk thru downtown. Here's our mini-adventure:
So, we walked from Greektown to Campus Martius, which is a park right in the center of downtown. I'll have to write just about Campus Martius in a future post because there's a LOT to write about. From there, we just picked a direction and started walking. After staring at some gorgeous architecture (which Detroit is FULL of), we ended up strolling into this place:
The Dessert Oasis is a pretty hip, er, cool, little coffee shop with a real hipster vibe. Here are some pictures I obnoxiously snapped like a real tourist, ha!
Michael treated me to an iced mint tea, yum! Thanks Michael!
Here is a pretty sweet coffee making set up! Totally takes me back to chemistry class, just need a Bunsen burner!
Trendy industrial vibes
Hey hipsters....
Every coffee shop needs a live music area, right? I also think every coffee shop needs a Phoebe singing Smelly Cat. Who agrees with me?
Vintage-y American flag.
Bye-bye Dessert Oasis! So, we start heading in the direction of our work building because our stroll can't be too long. On the way back, we run into this:
This is entrance to a VERY cool little alley that I had heard about and wanted to find. This is The Belt, "The BELT is a culturally redefined alley in the heart of downtown Detroit. Named for its physical orientation in a former downtown garment district, The BELT is located between Broadway and Library Street and links Gratiot and Grand River." (this info is from TheBelt.org)
Ooooohhhh, nice! I would LOVE to see this at night with those lights all lit up!
This is on the wall across from the bench. Isn't this cool? I wonder who it's supposed to be? Whoever it is, it's awesome.
This is the parking garage right behind the green bench. Apparently, this whole parking garage is all painted with sweet murals. Nice!
Continuing down the alley....more art
Sigh....love finding cool little spots in Detroit like this. If you're from here, you get it.
The Skip is an open-air cocktail lounge right in the middle of The Belt. Oh man! I so wish it wasn't the middle of the work day. Or at least it would be nice if we could be European and have a beer during the workday and not have it be as big a deal. I'll have to put this into a work suggestion box :)
Now we're getting to the end of the alley.
And one last look at some art on the way out....
Time to go back....can't be gone too long. But adding this little stroll into my workday was a really nice lunch replacement. Ahhhhhhh......I felt way better! Crawling out of cubicle-land and seeing the sky needs to be on my Outlook calendar more often!
Thanks for strolling with me! I'll make sure to do some more lunchtime exploring soon and tell you all about it. Until next time.....