Monday, November 20, 2017
Thursday, November 2, 2017
Michigan & Toronto October 2017
Fox snake
Links to photos:
Bay City Michigan (& Saginaw)
Pinconning Nature Preserve
Huron National Forest
Tobico Marsh Nature Area
Toronto
Michigan
Saturday 10/14. We woke at 3:30 AM. The car came at 4:20. The plane left at Seattle 6, arrived in Detroit at 1 PM, 4 hours later. We rented a car, ate lunch at Bob Evans, then drove to Bay City in heavy rain. We arrived at Comfort Inn at 4. We went to Patti’s apartment. We had dinner with Patti (Steve’s mom) & Gerrie (Steve’s aunt) at Bob’s Big Boy. Rusty & Jordan met Gerrie for the 1st time.
Sunday 10/15. There was a buffet breakfast at the hotel with basic food, some healthful like raisin bran, nonfat yogurt & whole wheat toast. Jordan walked around Downtown Bay City, taking photos, until 10. We liked the downtown area very much. The were many interesting buildings. Most were built between 1880 & 1930. Unfortunately, many buildings had been destroyed. Those spaces became empty parking lots. New development centered on Water Street along the Saginaw River. Several buildings with new condos had recently been built. A few old buildings were converted to condos. The Victorian train station was restored.
Rusty & Jordan drove to Saginaw later that morning. It took about 25 minutes on the freeway. The city was badly deteriorated. There were lots of seedy buildings & empty lots. East Saginaw was depressing. The Victorian train station was a ruin, partly collapsed. Neighborhoods west of the river were shabby, but most of the houses remained. The West Saginaw business district was partially preserved. We had lunch there. The Saginaw County Sheriff Department & the Saginaw County Jail appeared to be on the site of Jordan's grandfather’s childhood home.
They stopped at an antique mall in Freeland, on a roundabout route back to Bay City. From there, they went to Patti’s apartment. Theystayed for 3 hours with Gerrie, Mark (Steve’s brother) & Jordan (Steve’s nephew). Dinner came from Kentucky Fried Chicken. Jordan was very polite. Mark was talkative. Gerrie showed photos from a trip to Mexico City many years before.
Monday 10/16. We toured Bay City in the rental car with Patti & Gerrie. It was crowded in the back seat. We saw the houses Steve lived in as a child & the building where he went to school. We learned about Steve’s family history. Steve told us stories from his childhood. We ate lunch in a new development on the Saginaw River at the former site of Defoe Shipbuilding Company called Uptown Bay City. There were condos, restaurants, shops, office buildings & a hotel. Later that afternoon, Jordan & Rusty walked around downtown. We all had dinner at American Kitchen in an old building downtown.
Links to photos:
Bay City Michigan (& Saginaw)
Pinconning Nature Preserve
Huron National Forest
Tobico Marsh Nature Area
Toronto
Michigan
Saturday 10/14. We woke at 3:30 AM. The car came at 4:20. The plane left at Seattle 6, arrived in Detroit at 1 PM, 4 hours later. We rented a car, ate lunch at Bob Evans, then drove to Bay City in heavy rain. We arrived at Comfort Inn at 4. We went to Patti’s apartment. We had dinner with Patti (Steve’s mom) & Gerrie (Steve’s aunt) at Bob’s Big Boy. Rusty & Jordan met Gerrie for the 1st time.
Sunday 10/15. There was a buffet breakfast at the hotel with basic food, some healthful like raisin bran, nonfat yogurt & whole wheat toast. Jordan walked around Downtown Bay City, taking photos, until 10. We liked the downtown area very much. The were many interesting buildings. Most were built between 1880 & 1930. Unfortunately, many buildings had been destroyed. Those spaces became empty parking lots. New development centered on Water Street along the Saginaw River. Several buildings with new condos had recently been built. A few old buildings were converted to condos. The Victorian train station was restored.
Rusty & Jordan drove to Saginaw later that morning. It took about 25 minutes on the freeway. The city was badly deteriorated. There were lots of seedy buildings & empty lots. East Saginaw was depressing. The Victorian train station was a ruin, partly collapsed. Neighborhoods west of the river were shabby, but most of the houses remained. The West Saginaw business district was partially preserved. We had lunch there. The Saginaw County Sheriff Department & the Saginaw County Jail appeared to be on the site of Jordan's grandfather’s childhood home.
They stopped at an antique mall in Freeland, on a roundabout route back to Bay City. From there, they went to Patti’s apartment. Theystayed for 3 hours with Gerrie, Mark (Steve’s brother) & Jordan (Steve’s nephew). Dinner came from Kentucky Fried Chicken. Jordan was very polite. Mark was talkative. Gerrie showed photos from a trip to Mexico City many years before.
Monday 10/16. We toured Bay City in the rental car with Patti & Gerrie. It was crowded in the back seat. We saw the houses Steve lived in as a child & the building where he went to school. We learned about Steve’s family history. Steve told us stories from his childhood. We ate lunch in a new development on the Saginaw River at the former site of Defoe Shipbuilding Company called Uptown Bay City. There were condos, restaurants, shops, office buildings & a hotel. Later that afternoon, Jordan & Rusty walked around downtown. We all had dinner at American Kitchen in an old building downtown.
Tuesday 10/17. After taking Steve to his mother’s apartment, Rusty & Jordan drove up the shore of Saginaw Bay on Lake Huron on highway M-23 to Pinconning Nature Preserve & then on to the Huron National Forest. At Pinconning, they walked on a pleasant trail through a small forest to a wetland on the bank of the Pinconning River. They stopped for Chinese buffet lunch at East Tawas on the shore of Lake Huron.
In the Huron National Forest, they hiked the Corsair Trail for 2.5 hours. The forest was very quiet & stunningly beautiful. The forest was replanted by the Civilian Conservation Corps during the Great Depression of the 1930s, helping it recover from the devastation of the timber industry from 1870 to 1900. Rusty almost stepped on a fox snake, which then lay motionless on the path. After the hike, they drove on the the Lumberman’s Monument, where there were interpretive displays about logging & lumberjacks. They took a different route on the way back to Bay City. They saw farms & small farm towns along highway M-65, inland from Lake Huron.
Steve spent the entire day with Patti & Gerrie. He did that every day we were in Bay City.
Wednesday 10/18. In the morning after eating breakfast, then taking Steve to Patti’s apartment, Rusty & Jordan went to Tobico Marsh Nature Area. It was close to Bay City & very close to Lake Huron, set apart by a narrow strip of higher ground. They walked through a mixed hardwood forest on a peninsula inland from the marsh. They only saw the full marsh, or any water at all, from a viewing tower.
They joined Steve, Patti & Gerrie for lunch at Krysiak House Restaurant, which served Polish & American food. The manager (Michelle) was a childhood friend of Steve. She sat at our table between Steve & Patti for awhile before the waitress took our orders. Then the 5 of us got in the car & drove to Flint. Gerri directed us on a driving tour of the city. We stayed for a short visit to Gerri’s apartment in the suburb of Flushing. We had dinner at DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel, across the street from our the Comfort Inn.
Thursday 10/19. We drove to Toronto. We crossed the border from Port Huron MI into Sarnia Ontario. We stopped for lunch in Hamilton. We arrived at the Comfort Inn Yorkville at 3:30 PM. The scooter Steve rented had been delivered to our room. We napped. Rusty & Steve went to a banya in Mississauga, where they also had dinner.
Toronto
Friday 10/20. We had breakfast in a tiny restaurant, in the parlour a small Victorian rowhouse, near the hotel. Then we walked about a mile down Yonge Street to Dundas Square. We sat at a table under an umbrella, by the fountain in the square. It was sunny Friday through Sunday, then partly cloudy Monday morning, just before we left. We crossed Yonge Street to Eaton Centre, the largest shopping mall in North America.
We walked east through through Cabbagetown to Riverdale Farm. Cabbagetown was charming with very well-preserved Victorian houses. Riverdale Farm was at the far edge of Cabbagetown in Riverdale Park. There were heritage breeds of farm animals: cows, horses, sheep, goats & poultry. Jordan likes goats. We walked a long way to the Distillery District. The expansive Gooderham and Worts Distillery was renovated to contain restaurants & shops in more than 40 industrial buildings. It’s the largest collection of Victorian industrial architecture in North America. Steve was enchanted.
Saturday 10/21. We got food from McDonald’s very near the hotel. We walked to the Village of Yorkville Park where we ate our breakfast. We proceeded to the Royal Ontario Museum. We saw the exhibits of the First Nations & Canadian fossils from the Burgess Shale of 500M years ago, through the dinosaurs to the giant mammals of the Pleistocene.
We had lunch at a vegan restaurant on Bloor Street W. It was packed. The sidewalks were wide & crowded. The shops on Bloor Street seemed to go on without interruption, forever. We walked until they came to Koreatown, then we turned south to walk through a residential neighborhood on Grace Street that led to Little Italy. We walked east on College Street until we reached the University of Toronto. We walked across the campus to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario, then on through Queen’s Park.
Sunday 10/22. We took the subway downtown. We went to Nathan Phillips Square. A crowded half-marathon was just coming to an end at the square & it was hard to find a way in. We saw the distinctive Toronto City Hall. The square was not very attractive & crowded with people. We walked through the Financial District, which seemed to have many more skyscrapers than Seattle. We went inside Union Station, which was grand & lovely. We walked on to the waterfront, where there were many residential skyscrapers. Seattle has no residential buildings that tall. We had dim sum for lunch at a Chinese restaurant in a condo building on a pier in Lake Ontario. We walked along the waterfront. There were many people, boats & various attractive parks.
We walked up Spadina Avenue to Graffiti Alley in the Fashion District. That was quite a sight. There was a huge amount of artistic graffiti, more than I had ever seen in one place. People were in the alley taking photos, or on photo shoots. Artists were making graffiti. It was a lively scene, which continued out onto W Queen Street. Rusty took a streetcar, then the subway back to the hotel. Jordan & Steve went through Chinatown on Spadina Avenue & continued from there through the University of Toronto campus to the Comfort Inn. We had dinner at a Korean restaurant near the hotel. Then we walked to the Gay Village, only a few blocks away. It was small. We enjoyed a gift shop that sold very humorous greeting cards. Steve bought 2 of them.
We walked east through through Cabbagetown to Riverdale Farm. Cabbagetown was charming with very well-preserved Victorian houses. Riverdale Farm was at the far edge of Cabbagetown in Riverdale Park. There were heritage breeds of farm animals: cows, horses, sheep, goats & poultry. Jordan likes goats. We walked a long way to the Distillery District. The expansive Gooderham and Worts Distillery was renovated to contain restaurants & shops in more than 40 industrial buildings. It’s the largest collection of Victorian industrial architecture in North America. Steve was enchanted.
Saturday 10/21. We got food from McDonald’s very near the hotel. We walked to the Village of Yorkville Park where we ate our breakfast. We proceeded to the Royal Ontario Museum. We saw the exhibits of the First Nations & Canadian fossils from the Burgess Shale of 500M years ago, through the dinosaurs to the giant mammals of the Pleistocene.
We had lunch at a vegan restaurant on Bloor Street W. It was packed. The sidewalks were wide & crowded. The shops on Bloor Street seemed to go on without interruption, forever. We walked until they came to Koreatown, then we turned south to walk through a residential neighborhood on Grace Street that led to Little Italy. We walked east on College Street until we reached the University of Toronto. We walked across the campus to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario, then on through Queen’s Park.
Sunday 10/22. We took the subway downtown. We went to Nathan Phillips Square. A crowded half-marathon was just coming to an end at the square & it was hard to find a way in. We saw the distinctive Toronto City Hall. The square was not very attractive & crowded with people. We walked through the Financial District, which seemed to have many more skyscrapers than Seattle. We went inside Union Station, which was grand & lovely. We walked on to the waterfront, where there were many residential skyscrapers. Seattle has no residential buildings that tall. We had dim sum for lunch at a Chinese restaurant in a condo building on a pier in Lake Ontario. We walked along the waterfront. There were many people, boats & various attractive parks.
We walked up Spadina Avenue to Graffiti Alley in the Fashion District. That was quite a sight. There was a huge amount of artistic graffiti, more than I had ever seen in one place. People were in the alley taking photos, or on photo shoots. Artists were making graffiti. It was a lively scene, which continued out onto W Queen Street. Rusty took a streetcar, then the subway back to the hotel. Jordan & Steve went through Chinatown on Spadina Avenue & continued from there through the University of Toronto campus to the Comfort Inn. We had dinner at a Korean restaurant near the hotel. Then we walked to the Gay Village, only a few blocks away. It was small. We enjoyed a gift shop that sold very humorous greeting cards. Steve bought 2 of them.
Monday 10/23. Jordan took the subway to High Park at 9 AM. It was beautiful. He walked from there to Bloor West Village. The houses there were appealing, but the business district was not very interesting. It lacked the charm of the older areas near the center of Toronto. He took the subway from there back to the Comfort Inn at 11:45. We left shortly after that for the airport. We took the subway, then transferred to the Union Pearson Express train that took us to Pearson Airport. Rusty’s flight to St Louis left at 4. Steve & Jordan left at 5 for Salt Lake City. They arrived in SLC at 7:40 & left at 8:40, arrivng in Seattle at 10 PM. Rusty returned on Sunday 10/29.
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