Lake Erie Loop 2023

I'm writing this in July 2024 so I'm definitely behind schedule and will forget some things, but wanted at least to get some of this out here.

Our vacation this year was about the Michigan/OSU football game. I had wanted to see a game at Michigan for a while. It's the largest football stadium in the country so its got that going for it. We saw OSU in Columbus many years ago so this was a chance to see the other part of the rivalry.

Our first day we flew from SFO to Detroit and then drove to Toronto. We stayed at a nice place downtown and the girls were great travelers as usual. They're always so good and it makes vacations such a fun time.

We drove around Detroit and Dearborn a bit. Had some midwestern version of Mexican food, which was highly rated online, but would be average at best in CA. Dearborn did have a nice fancy dessert place that we liked.

The first full day of our vacation was Saturday and we were in Toronto the whole day. We went to a used book store that sold books through a vending machine, which was a nice touch. Of course they also had a clerk with the requisite tattoo quota and aloofness.

We looked at Casa Loma, which is a mansion not far from central Toronto. Pretty nice place overall. If memory serves he lost the house after going bankrupt during the Depression. Those were the days when rich people could go broke. I don't think the financial system allows that anymore.

We drove around the University of Toronto a bit. I didn't see Jordan Peterson anywhere.

Another odd touristy place we saw was a cube house. Basically a few cubes stacked on top of a regular house.

I think we were getting pretty upset with each other around this time. Of course I don't remember what the argument was about and it doesn't matter. We will usually have a bit of a rough time adjusting to being together non-stop and being on vacation.

The next stop was Toronto's version of SF's Mission District. They had a few blocks worth of alleyways that had some cool graffiti on the walls. There were some really good things to see there.

After that we went to Dundas square, which is like NY's Times Square, but smaller. People there were predictably odd and that included some crazy conspiracy theory types. Around there we had a good Mediterranean meal. I love Mediterranean food - it might be my favorite kind of food now. Italian and Japanese are also great.

We walked around the area a good amount and saw the Toronto sign before going back to the hotel to sleep.

Sunday we met up with a long time online friend who lives in Canada. You may remember him from my interview with a Canadian many years ago. We've written back and forth, off and on, for about 18 years but never met each other. Anyway, Peter and his wife met up with us at the Toronto aquarium. It's a pretty good aquarium. I think Monterey Bay is one of the best in the world and has spoiled us some. We also have been to several aquariums over the years and seen some pretty good ones...NY, CT, Monterey, Phoenix, GA, and now Toronto. This one was about middle of the pack. We walked around and talked and got to know each other a bit. Awkward at first to see someone in real life who you have written to for years, but it was natural soon enough. I'm socially awkward no matter what so there's that also.

Even better than the aquarium was the Hockey hall of fame, though. Peter treated us so that was nice. We've now been to the 4 major NA sports' HOFs. NFL, NBA, MLB, and now NHL. They all have good things going for them. I think NBA is the worst, but every place has something good about it. At the NHL HOF it was cool to see the Stanley Cup. I think it's the best of the trophies given by any of the major 4 sports and we got to see it in person and notice the typos and imperfections as well as the old sections from prior years. They also had a wrist shot game you could play to see if you could score on a virtual goalie. The memorabilia never does much for me. Seeing Gretzky's game worn jersey isn't a thrill for me. Same applies to the rock and roll HOF (later in the trip) or country music HOF (last year's trip).

After the Hockey HOF we said goodbye to Peter and his wife and went to a Raptors game. It was somewhat notable because it occurred during the Detroit Pistons' record breaking losing streak. They ended up losing like 29 games straight and this was one of them. Toronto doesn't have the most raucous basketball fans in the world, but they were more into it than Memphis fans (2022 trip also).

The most memorable part of the game came when thousands of people were leaving the arena in streams and one guy and his son were coming in the opposite direction. We went up to one of the ushers by the door and said "I'm here for the Raptors game." To which the usher said "It's over bro." The guy had his phone in his hand and showed the guy the virtual ticket and was like "but I have my ticket right here." I felt bad for the guy, but we were cracking up about that for hours afterwards. I don't know if he didn't register the thousands of people walking in the opposite direction or what. And the usher's 3 word retort was perfect and brutal. Hopefully he can laugh about it now.

After the Raptors game we went to CN Tower, which is the tallest freestanding structure in NA. I think TX has to remedy that and build something taller. That's the whole point of TX - build big things. Along with having a good guy with a gun ready to kill an active shooter...but they fucked up in Uvalde so... I think they are asleep at the wheel down there. If you're not killing bad guys and building taller structures than Canada then what the hell are you doing?

Anyway, the CN Tower was cool. Merritt was definitely freaking out a bit and didn't love going up so high. But she powered through it and I'm proud of her for working on doing the things she doesn't want to do. She's pretty good about that. The guy in the elevator had a really funny voice and we laughed for hours about that as well. I think we're bad people who are going to hell, but at least I'll be with my family so I don't really mind.

Monday we were in Toronto for the first part of the day when we went to the Museum of Illusion. It was a cool place and would be on my list of things to do in Toronto. They had one illusion where you stare at a black dot and the longer you stare the more you lose sight of the gray background that surrounds it. I thought this was a good metaphor. If you pay too much attention to one POV for too long then you lose sight of alternate viewpoints. If you are overly focused on an extreme viewpoint, you lose all sense of nuance.

Another metaphor came when there was a tunnel and you walk on a plank, but the tunnel walls are rotating and it throws you off balance. Zoe, who is known to have a very focused, tunnel vision at times, had no problem with this challenge because she literally didn't see the surrounding tunnel walls as they were moving around her.

I get the sense from being at a lot of museums that they may all get ruined by the uncultured minority of people who have no sense of etiquette. Same goes for National Parks where you have inexperienced tourists who don't know any better than to go off trail, litter, etc.

We drove a couple hours from Toronto to Niagara Falls. I don't remember too well what the NY side of the falls is like, but I think the Canadian side is better. Nice place overall. We learned about the power plants there, etc. It also turned out to be odd timing because that night there was a car that went 90mph into the rainbow bridge border crossing. We had nothing to do with it.

Tuesday we drove from Erie to Pittsburgh. We drove through Amish country, but didn't see much. Talked about that and that was good for the girls to learn.

One of the cooler things on the trip was in Pittsburgh we went to a place called the Museum of Material Failures. It's really just a business where they analyze failing pipes or structures and can predict when infrastructure will need repair/replacement, etc. From what I could tell it's maybe a dozen people who work there, but the owner was an immigrant guy who made his business into a museum as well as an operating business. It's free and he took us around to see different displays of things the company has worked on. He told us about his journey to owner of the company. He talked about the process of determining how things fail and coming up with an engineering solution for the problem. We talked with one of the engineers there about the electron microscope he was using to analyze metal that was failing. It was the kind of tour that I think they should do a lot more in schools instead of learning about the parts of a cell. No one cares about the mitochondria unless they're going to be a biologist. Not even a doctor really needs to know that shit. Give kids the option to tour different kinds of jobs that interest them so they can ask questions and see what real life is. How their education will apply to the real world (or not). Way better use of time. Anyway, it was a great tour and good for the girls.

I've been to Pittsburgh twice before and liked it. I liked it again this time. The city of hills and bridges. We went on a funicular which was fun. We went to Canton Ave, which is the steepest street in the US. We went to see the Immaculate Reception shrine. I sent a picture to my dad. He probably cried.

We went to Randyland which is just this guy's house, but he has a bunch of weird stuff in his yard so it's like a living art display.

We went to the Heinz museum, which is a museum of Pittsburgh (not a museum of ketchup).

Wednesday we made our way from Cleveland to Detroit.

We stopped at Cuyahoga National Park, which is where I was a park ranger for a few months in the winter of 2006/07. It was pretty familiar, but there were some differences as well. Brought back some good memories. Paul, the ranger I worked for, was no longer there. They also stopped renting out snowshoes and skis at the lake I worked at. Global warming is real I guess.

We went into Cleveland and went to the rock and roll HOF. Been there once before, but they change things around often enough that I didn't really recognize anything. Great place to spend a day if you really want to dig into things. Seeing the rooftop Beatles concert was a highlight. They also had some early rock pioneers featured on interactive headphones displays and that was good. Could have spent a long time there. They also have a couple places where you can play instruments solo or with staff.

That night we met up with another set of online friends (Mark and Nikki). These are people we've actually met before (on our renovation roadtrip in 2012). They live in Detroit now (they lived in Asheville, NC in 2012). We went to a Red Wings game and it was a really good one. They had like 3 goals in the first period and the fans were really into it. I love watching hockey, especially live, but I hardly ever do. I'm not invested in any team and don't have anyone to watch it with so that's that.

That night we went back to our friends' house and saw the new house they were working on. They're both architects and bought the lot next door to build a place. They were about 95% done and moved in there, but still had the old house next door with some of their stuff there. So they let us sleep there, which was very nice.

Thursday was Thanksgiving. We went to a Thanksgiving parade in downtown Detroit. Saw the famous Guardian Building - they don't build em like that anymore. Walked along the riverfront. And went to the Lions game. The Lions have a football game every Thanksgiving so it was cool to see that tradition. Lions had a good year and went to the playoffs, but they lost to the Packers at home this time. The crowd was pretty good and so was the stadium. After the game the crowd chanted "the Bears still suck," which was nice. The Packers fans joined in as well, so it's nice to see people coming together over a common enemy. Gives me some hope.

After the game we went to Nikki and Mark's house for Thanksgiving with their family. Our girls even got to have a sleepover with their two girls, so they were really excited about that.

Friday we went to the Detroit Institute of Art, which is a nice museum with a notable Diego Rivera mural. Then we went to Belle Isle, which was pretty empty, but it's a nice place and I imagine that it's really beautiful and fun in Spring. The girls played on the playground a bit, but it was cold so we didn't stay long.

Next we went to the Motown museum, which provided guided tours of the place where the magic happened. It ends in the basement studio where all sorts of classics were created and recorded. I love Motown as a genre so this was a highlight for me.

Detroit is better than Oakland, but similar in a lot of ways.

At night we went back to Ford Field, this time to see Penn State kill Michigan State. Afterwards we went back to our free home and slept.

Saturday we spent in Ann Arbor. Met up with some of Meryl's friends from her old job with the A's. Got to park in their driveway just a block from campus and talked about Michigan football. They actually had some friends who were OSU fans, but they were relegated to outside. They were actually family members of OSU coaching staff. People took it semi-seriously that they were not Michigan fans and were therefore inferior. Funny. We walked to the game and watched MI win a fairly close game. Michigan fans are kinda dicks overall. I hate Harbaugh and now I don't really like MI fans either. They're like Oregon fans. After they had won, they really rubbed it in and said all kinds of shit about OSU and their coach. The signs hanging from homes after the game were in poor taste - basically a lot of vulgar anti-Ryan Day hate speech. It's kinda funny on the one hand, but it's also in poor taste to win a game and then yell all this stuff. I don't remember specifics unfortunately.

Random notes: Michigan fans are crazy. Bathrooms at Michigan Stadium aren't great. No good cell service there. When OL Zach went down with an injury the place was very quiet and supportive.

After the game we walked around Ann Arbor near the campus. It was cold, but not too bad (it did start to snow). We got dinner and ice cream and went back home.

The next day we went to visit yet another online friend. Kit from DIY Diva, who we also met on our renovation roadtrip from 2012. She has like 20 acres outside of Ann Arbor and basically lives like a hermit. Complained about her new neighbors, etc. Pretty funny. She's definitely a movie character - the old spinstress with a shotgun hanging out on her porch telling the kids to go away while the wild animals live in her house kind of thing. The girls loved hanging out there and I shoveled the driveway while they talked.

After that we went to the Hands On Museum. It was pretty nice and had some stuff about building as well as many other interactive exhibits. We walked around town some more, saw a broken down bus that took hours to move, and ate and had more ice cream. Basically doesn't get better than that.

Monday was our last day of vacation and I started to get sick. It got increasingly miserable as the day went on. It was cold. We went to the Detroit Zoo, which is normally a good zoo, but they had most of the animals closed away because it was cold. We didn't even see the polar bear for some reason. It was actually pretty pathetic how few animals were out, and we wondered how they were even open. Turned out to be a bit of a waste. After that we had a bit of time to kill since the Zoo didn't take long. We went to a local bowling alley and played a game or two.

Went to the airport and the flight was delayed a couple hours. Finally got on the plane and it was having all sorts of issues on the runway. It took a couple hours of us all loaded and ready before they actually started to taxi to get out of there. They went back and forth and said we would deboard the plane, but then changed their mind. Finally it looked like we were about to leave and one woman a row in front of me was talking with the stewardess and said she wanted to get off the plane. She said she didn't think anyone felt safe after all the back and forth. I immediately said to her "I feel safe." Between that and the stewardess saying they don't really stop the plane once it starts to taxi, she shut up.

All told, the time we left Detroit was about the time we were scheduled to arrive in SFO. It was over 5 hours of delays and I was totally miserable. I was sick and feeling stuffy as hell in that airplane with people...not being able to move around or get fresh air. It sucked. We finally got to SFO and then we had to carry our bags up 4 flights of stairs because the elevator was out of order. It was a very long and miserable day and I had work the next day.

It was a great trip, but that last day was awful for me. We had 2 cranky days, 11 museums, 1 hot boxed rental car (smelled like pot as soon as we got it), met 4 friends, got ice cream 7 times, 5 sporting events visited, and ate 3 family size bags of ketchup chips. Canada has some more interesting chip flavors, including ketchup chips, which were actually pretty good.

The girls have now visited 19 states. I was 21 when I finally visited that many states and I had to do it myself. I think we're doing a good job of giving them these experiences. Hopefully they appreciate it. They're great to travel with.