Philip and I spent Labor Day weekend in Detroit, where Philip was born and spent many summers visiting his grandparents. His good friend Mike, whose grandma is close friends with Philip’s grandma, grew up there and is living at home again to help revitalize the family business. Philip’s friend Ben also just moved there to finish up his schooling for psychology, so we went to visit the two of them and to meet Mike’s girlfriend, Jill. Jill is an amazing, friendly, fun girl with whom I instantly connected.
After arriving on Friday night, the four of us went out to an Irish pub and enjoyed dinner and a live Irish folk band. Philip was in his element as we ate; the baseball game was playing on the big screen, and every other person in the place had a Tigers cap on.
On Saturday we went to a University of Michigan football game in the gorgeous, partly cloudy, 70-something-degree weather, no humidity. The game was a blast – I’ve never seen so much school spirit in my life. The announcer came over the loudspeaker to let the giant assembly know that we were the biggest crowd gathered to watch football anywhere in the country that day.
The most incredible moment of the day came when the student section in the stands initiated The Wave. Never has The Wave been carried out with such enthusiasm and precision. I don’t think there was a single person in the stadium who didn’t participate. First a standard Wave was executed; then a slow-motion one, followed by a super-fast one. To top it all off, a double Wave rose in both directions, colliding in the middle and continuing on to collide once more at its origin. It was basically awesome. After the game, Mike’s parents took us out to a delicious Italian meal.
On Sunday we went to church, then picked up some Jimmy John’s subs (yum) to take to the park for a picnic, followed by my first-ever game of disc golf. Ben is pretty much a pro, and the rest of us did our best to not throw our discs straight into trees. It was another beautiful day; we played all 18 holes. We finished out the evening talking and eating by a backyard bonfire at the house of one of Mike’s friends.
Labor Day morning found us out to a tasty breakfast. Then we went on a sort of a treasure hunt for the gravesite of Philip’s grandpa, who passed away a year ago, a mere 12 days before our wedding. After some searching, we located his headstone, and Philip and I spent some quiet moments reflecting on what a compassionate man Grandpa Don was.
From there, all of us headed out to Belle Isle to explore a once-thriving weekend destination that could now use some substantial rehabilitation. Philip’s grandpa had taken him there many weekends; the elaborate Scott Fountain there is still jaw-dropping – like something straight out of downtown London.
Our stay ended with Mike’s parents preparing a tasty barbeque for us out in the backyard – what hospitality. We were treated like family, our bellies stuffed beyond capacity as we headed to the airport, not quite ready to head back home.