I thought I'd share my thoughts on the cities we might move to come May or June 2015. I've visited Scott in every city he has rotated through (more on that process
here). He started out the summer in Detroit and spent two months there. He rotated through three programs in Detroit that we could potentially move to in 2015.
So Detroit. Every conversation I've had with someone about possibly moving there goes like this:
Them: "So do you know where you are moving after graduation?"
Me: "Not yet. It could be Detroit or...."
Them: **winces** "You do NOT want to move there!"
I would say 50% of the time that person hasn't even been to Detroit. They are basing their opinions off of articles, the news, and rumors. I was one of those people which means I had LOW expectations going to visit Detroit. I'm kinda glad I did. No, it's not New York City or Washington DC (or insert your favorite city here), but it's still a city with lots of things to do. Yes, there are abandoned buildings but you can feel the city renewing itself. So here are few cool things about Detroit.
1. There are cute and safe towns/suburbs right outside of the city. We stayed in a town called Northville while I was visiting. There were so many beautiful Victorian Era houses. I could have died from all the character oozing from that town. They had a yummy pizza place called Pizza Cutter that we ate at twice.
We also found the town we would try to live in if we moved to Detroit. It's called Royal Oak which I think would be fitting (Get it? The Kings would live in Royal Oak). It's a suburb with lots of young people and young families, good restaurants, a farmers market on Saturday and an antique market on Sundays. It's only 20 minutes to Detroit.
2. Arts and Culture. This city has a rich history of blues, jazz, pop, and rap. Not to mention it's the birthplace of the automobile industry. We went to the Detroit Institute of Arts for a Jazz Concert one night. It was so much fun!
The mural inside where the concert took place was pretty fabulous. The music was too. As Scott would say, they were jammin'.
That's not all Detroit has to offer. There is the Ford Museum (we didn't make it there during our visit), there is a HUGE Farmer's Market (we did make it to that and we had some amazing custard pie from one of the vendors), and even Eminem was in town for a concert (sorry to disappoint but we didn't make it to that either).
3. Food. Detroit is melting pot of cultures. We had southern BBQ (it was AAAAH-MAZING), authentic mexican food, and, though I didn't get to go, Scott had some yummy sushi at a place called Noble Fish.
Also, they have this new trend around Detroit of turning old service garages into restaurants. We went to one in Berkley (another cute town). They have American cuisine but with a flare. Also, two words: adult milkshakes.
4. You can visit Canada! We only went to Windsor, Canada (across the Detroit River from Detroit) and I'll be honest, it wasn't very exciting. Being questioned by border patrol (or whatever it's called) was intense!
We also had to buy gas in Canada and we had no idea how much money we were spending or how much gas we were getting! haha! Also, the speed limit was in kilometers, I know that's not really surprising but somehow I was.
That's us in Canada with Detroit in the background.
5. Sports. Detroit Tigers, Lions, and Red Wings (hockey if you were wondering). The Tigers were in town while we were there and we were even planning to go to a game on Scott's birthday (shout-out to the best brother-in-law ever for getting us tickets). Sadly, Scott didn't get off until 9:30pm on his birthday so we missed the game!
To sum it all up, Detroit was a pleasant surprise! I spoke with someone from Detroit and they said it's a fun city to live in but not a fun city to be a tourist. I would agree with that and it's all about expectations. If you ever visit, try to look at the city with an open mind and I guarantee you will be pleasantly surprised!
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