Indianapolis, IN

Kathleen and I visited Danielle and Jay at their new home in Indianapolis last weekend. After earning her Masters in Public Health from Boston University in May (post link: Boston, MA: May 18, 2026), Danielle got a job with the Indiana Department of Health’s tuberculosis testing laboratory, and she and Jay now live in the Springdale neighborhood on the city’s northeast side.

Indianapolis is the state’s capital and largest city, with a population of 900,000 and a metropolitan area of more than 2 million people. The city was established in 1821 as a planned community to replace the previous state capital in Corydon, and laid out as a one square-mile grid on the White River. Indianapolis is home to the Indy 500 automobile race, Eli Lilly pharmaceuticals company, multiple museums, arts venues, sports teams and claims to have more monuments and memorials than any other U.S. city outside of Washington, D.C. Map link: Indianapolis, IN

Thursday, Aug 20:  Kathleen’s brother, Tony, dropped us off at MSP Airport’s Terminal 2 for our afternoon flight. While we’ve usually enjoyed flying on Sun Country Airlines, this was our first flight since they were acquired by Allegiant Travel in May, and they definitely didn’t have their act together. Our flight was delayed when the previous plane at our gate was waiting on crew. Our incoming plane, full of passengers, was forced to sit on the tarmac until they finally got permission to dock at the adjacent gate. There was massive confusion in the overcrowded gate area, with few announcements from Sun Country agents and no updates on the monitors. It all worked out in the end, but we were not impressed, and landed 50 minutes late in Indianapolis. Jay picked us up, then we met Danielle and Kathleen's sister Therese, her husband, Doug, and their younger daughter, Charlotte, who were passing through that evening on their way to Indiana University in Bloomington to move Charlotte in for her sophomore year of college. We had a marvelous meal at Daisy Bar in an old industrial building rebranded as the Factory Arts, then went our separate ways. 

Bonus Question: True or False? Giraffes are more likely than other animals to be struck by lightning (answer at end of post).

Friday, Aug 20: I slept until 7:45 AM, then spent a relaxing morning at the house. Kathleen and I borrowed the car and drove into downtown to the Statehouse, built from Indiana limestone and white oak and completed in 1888, under budget at a cost $1.8 million. A highlight is the beautiful stained glass dome in the rotunda, 105 feet above the main floor. 

It was a lovely day, with temperatures in the mid-80s, sunny skies and moderate humidity, and we walked from the capitol to the Canal Walk, a 1.5-mile waterfront promenade through Downtown Indianapolis. Originally part of the planned Indiana Central Canal, begun in 1836 during the canal craze following the 1825 opening of the Erie Canal, the waterway was intended to stretch 296 miles from the Wabash and Erie Canal all the way to the Ohio River. Following the Panic of 1837, a financial crisis that triggered a multi-year depression, the state went bankrupt and only eight miles of the project were ever completed. The section from White River State Park to 11th Street has been preserved as a recreational and cultural destination, with walking paths, rental boats and gondolas for hire. Kathleen and I had lunch along the canal at Fresco Italian Cafe, enjoying the weather and the passing entertainment.

On the north end of the Canal Walk is a memorial to the USS Indianapolis, a heavy cruiser launched in 1931. In July 1945, it delivered the enriched uranium and other key components for the first atomic bomb to Tinian Naval Base in the Mariana Islands. After leaving Tinian, it was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine and sank in less than 12 minutes. Of the 1,195 sailors and marines aboard, about 900 survived the sinking, but hundreds succumbed to exposure, dehydration and shark attacks. The Navy was unaware of the incident for four days, until a passing patrol plane happened upon the wreckage. Only 316 of the crew were rescued, and the Indianapolis remains the largest single-ship loss of life in U.S. Navy history. 

My arthritic right hip was acting up, so we returned to Jay and Danielle’s for a power nap and hang-out time, followed by dinner at home, Danielle’s (second) birthday celebration, ice cream at LiftOff Creamery and Jeopardy on TV.

Saturday, Aug 22: I woke up after 7:00 AM, the last one out of bed for the second straight day. Kathleen and Danielle went to the local farmer’s market, then to the gym, while I read and wrote. In the afternoon, we drove into Downtown Indianapolis again to visit the Kurt Vonnegut Museum & Library, inadvertently stumbling upon heavy traffic following a Colts’ pre-season football game at nearby Lucas Oil Stadium. 

Born and raised in Indianapolis, author Kurt Vonnegut was known for his dark, satirical work over his fifty year career. His parents and grandparents were prominent German-American entrepreneurs, who lost everything during Prohibition and The Great Depression, a possible contributor to his mother’s suicide on the night before Mother’s Day. Vonnegut dropped out of Cornell University in 1943 to enlist in the U.S. Army, and fought in Europe until he was captured at the Battle of the Bulge in 1944. His breakout novel, Slaughterhouse-Five, was based on his personal experience as a prisoner in Germany during the 1945 fire-bombing of Dresden, where he and fellow POWs survived by hiding in an underground meat locker, then were put to work excavating bodies from the rubble. He struggled as a writer for twenty years—even selling cars to pay the bills—until Slaughterhouse-Five became a best-seller in 1969, when Vonnegut was 47. He was hailed as an anti-war hero, a champion against censorship and book banning, and would go on to publish a total of 14 novels, three short-story collections, five plays and five nonfiction works. Kurt Vonnegut died in Manhattan in 2007 at the age of 84. 

Kurt Vonnegut Museum and Library

We strolled back to our car along the Canal Walk, stopping at the Indiana 911 Memorial, then rested at home before walking to the Feast of Lanterns, an annual Springdale neighborhood festival held in Spades Park. The event began in 1898 and moved to Spades Park in 1909. It was halted during World War II before being revived in the early 2000s, with electric lights replacing candles in the paper lanterns strung up throughout the park and on nearby homes. The evening’s weather was perfect and the event was very well attended, with long lines at the food and beverage trucks, a large crowd checking out the dozens of craft tents and another crowd camped out in front of the stage listening to live music. Map link: Spades Park, Indianapolis

Sunday, Aug 23: After breakfast, we returned to Downtown Indianapolis, encountering moderate traffic near the Indianapolis Fringe Festival and Indianapolis Indians minor league baseball game. Our destination was Monument Circle, where the 16th annual Indianapolis India Day was being held. Celebrating the 80th anniversary of India’s independence from Great Britain in 1947, the event took place on another gorgeous day, with the 285-foot limestone memorial to Indiana veterans as a majestic backdrop. We got lunch from one of the Indian food vendors, perused the craft tents, then listened to speeches and watched the dancers on stage—mostly children’s dance troupes cheered on by family and friends. Map link: Monument Circle, Indianapolis

Next we drove a short distance to the Benjamin Harrison Presidential Site, located at the former home of our 23rd President. Grandson of Indiana’s first Territorial Governor and the 9th U.S. President, William Henry Harrison, and great-grandson of Benjamin Harrison V, a former Virginia governor and signer of the Declaration of Independence, he was born in Ohio in 1833, and moved to Indianapolis at age 20 with his new bride, Caroline, to practice law. Harrison served in the Union Army during the Civil War, and ran unsuccessfully for Indiana Governor before being elected to the U.S. Senate and later defeating incumbent President Grover Cleveland in 1888. Highlights of his administration included the addition of six western states to the country, tariffs and other protectionist trade measures, increased government spending (the federal budget hit $1 billion for the first time) and the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890. Caroline died of tuberculosis just weeks before the 1892 election and Harrison lost his reelection bid to Cleveland, becoming the only president to lose to their immediate predecessor, and Cleveland became the first president to be elected to non-consecutive terms. He died in 1901 at the age of 67, in the home that we toured. Map link: Benjamin Harrison Presidential Site

Back in Springdale, we watched Monica, O My Darling, a Hindi dark comedy movie that Danielle and Jay recommended (we liked it too), ate dinner at home, played CATAN, with Seafarers Expansion, watched Taskmaster on television, then read until bedtime. 

Bonus Quote: “Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity”—Hanlon’s razor

Monday, Aug 24: We set an alarm for 7:00 AM in order to say goodbye to Danielle before she biked to work. Jay drove us to the airport, then we did another Sun Country Airlines shuffle as a departing plane was at our gate and we boarded next door. We were only 10-15 minutes late in leaving, and we didn’t really care. Also, the plane wasn’t full, so Kathleen and I had a row to ourselves, raising our spirits. The 85-minutes flight was over quickly, then we Ubered home and unpacked. It was a terrific trip to Indy, that we hope to repeat soon. 

Bonus Question Answer: True. While fatalities are rare, giraffes are statistically more likely to be struck by lightning. Their height, between 14-19 feet, make them natural lightning rods on the savannahs and plains that they inhabit. On a per-capita basis, studies have shown a 30x higher rate of giraffe strikes versus humans. 

Banana Ball and Cosmic Baseball

We scored tickets to the hottest show in baseball and saw the Savannah Bananas play on Friday night at Target Field in Minneapolis; the first of three sold-out games at the 39,000 seat stadium, which opened in 2010. Fun fact: The ballpark site—the third home of the Minnesota Twins, after Metropolitan Stadium and the Metrodome, was previously a surface lot where I used to park when I worked in Downtown Minneapolis. Map link: Target Field, Minneapolis

Tickets for the game were requested months ago, and demand was so high that we only got lucky in a second-chance lottery and were delighted to get five tickets together, even in the upper deck and third-to-last row. Even better, the team’s owners, Fans First Entertainment, manage all of their own ticketing and merchandising, so you buy tickets directly, without paying annoying fees to a third-party marketplace. Take that, Ticketmaster!

Based in Savannah, Georgia, the Bananas is an exhibition baseball team founded in 2016 as a collegiate summer organization. They began playing exhibition games in 2018 under the Banana Ball format (see below), and switched to an exhibition-only schedule in 2023. This year, the six-team Banana Ball Championship League is scheduled to play 190 games in 75 different stadiums in 45 states; all to sold-out crowds. The teams operate outside of other mainstream leagues and are aimed at entertainment rather than competition—the Bananas are often referred to as the “Harlem Globetrotters of baseball.” Although unlike the Globetrotters, who never lose to the Washington Generals, games are unscripted and competitive. 

Source: Wikipedia

Kathleen, Lars, Lish, Caroline and I met in St. Paul and took the Green Line light rail to Target Field, a pleasant 40-minute trip, and the train stops right outside Gate 6 near the stadium’s left field. We were early, but the place was already buzzing with pre-game entertainment, concessions and merchandise sales. The Bananas’ opponent was the Coconuts of Loco Beach, which is not a real place. Throwing out the first pitch (which counted as a ball or strike to the leadoff hitter) was six-time All Star, three-time Golden Glove winner, 2009 American League MVP, Hall of Famer, Minnesota Twins legend and St. Paul native Joe Mauer. His toss from the mound just missed the strike zone for ball one. Appearing later in a guest at-bat for the Bananas was Twins’ veteran and former All Star Brian Dozier, the first AL second baseman to hit 40 home runs in a single season. He struck out.

Banana Ball is popular because it’s fun to watch, with a focus on high-energy showmanship and zaniness. Players, umpires and crew performed dance routines, acrobatics, comedy, and other theatrics, both on and off the field. The music never stopped, even while the ball is in play, and there was always something to watch besides the game, from Split, the Bananas’ mascot, Coco, his Coconuts counterpart, a pep band, Princess Pottasia, Vinny the Dancing Umpire and the Man-Nanas, an all-male, dad-bod shaped cheerleading squad. One Bananas batter came to the plate on stilts, scoring celebrations involved choreographed dance numbers and backflips were popular, including a centerfielder who caught a fly ball while executing a perfect flip and landing on his feet. 

The Savannah Bananas and entourage take the field
with a lively dance number

The Coconuts are introduced via a Slip ‘N Slide

There are 11 main rules in Banana Ball that are different from traditional baseball:

1. Every inning except the last is worth one point. Win the inning, win a point. There is also a bonus point given to the team with the most trick plays. In the last inning, every run scored counts as a point. 

2. There is a time limit. After two hours, no new inning may begin.

3 & 4. Hitters may not step out of the batter’s box and no player or coach may visit the pitcher’s mound. This keeps the game fast-paced and addresses a common spectator complaint that baseball games are slow and boring. 

5. There is no bunting and players even attempting it are ejected. As the announcer explained, “bunting sucks!”

6. Batters may steal first base. This is usually only done on a wild pitch or passed ball.

7. There are no walks. In its place is the Ball Four Sprint, where batters run as far as they can before all nine players in the field touch the ball. Most hitters that we saw stopped at first base, but a couple made it to second. And it got interesting with runners on base, who may also advance, and several runs were scored on walks without the bases being loaded.   

8. A batter is out if a spectator cleanly catches a foul ball. This happened once in our game, to thunderous applause. On Saturday night, Target Field fans caught ten foul balls, shattering the previous Banana Ball record of six.

9. If the score is tied after two hours, a Showdown Tiebreaker occurs, where teams play only a pitcher, catcher and one fielder against each hitter. Any home run over the outfield wall immediately wins the game.

10. Each team is allowed one challenge to a call on the field, plus a designated spectator in the stands is allowed an additional challenge.

11. The Golden Batter: Once per game, each team may send any player up to bat in any spot. 

The Man-Nanas cheerleading squad

The world’s tallest batter

In the actual game, an early pitcher’s duel turned into a rout after a defensive collapse by the Coconuts, and the Bananas cruised to a 7-2 win. The game ended on a bizarre double play, where a line drive ricocheted off the Bananas’ pitcher, was caught in the air by the shortstop, who threw to first to catch a Coconut’s runner off base. On Saturday night, the Bananas won again, 3-2, in a game that went two rounds into a Showdown Tiebreaker, after the record 10th fan-caught foul ball ended regulation play. The Coconuts avoided a sweep by taking the Sunday afternoon finale, 4-3. Web link: https://thesavannahbananas.com/

Target Field and the Minneapolis skyline at sunset…

…and at night

Bonus Question: What mammal is in the Guinness Book of World Records for having the most names? (answer at end of post).

Last month, in another exhibition baseball game, four of us (minus Kathleen) saw the Tri-City Chili Peppers from Petersburg, VA, play the Glow Mojis as part of the Cosmic Baseball Takeover Tour at CHS Field, home of the St. Paul Saints minor league affiliate of the Minnesota Twins. Fun fact: Kathleen and I coincidentally drove past the home field of the Chili Peppers last month when returning to Virginia Beach from Petersburg National Battlefield. Post link: Virginia Beach, VA. July 3, 2026

The Chili Peppers and Glow Mojis are currently the only teams in Cosmic Baseball. Games are divided roughly in half—the first in daylight and the second after dark under black lights, with neon uniforms and glow-in-the-dark balls. Additionally, Cosmic play has a few quirky rules of its own: There are home run derbies in the second half, and every dinger counts as a run. Twice in each game there are Three Minutes of Chaos, when the entire stadium is in-play, including foul balls and home runs that are not hit out of the park, and fans become part of the defensive team. And, as in Banana Ball, there are no walks—Cosmic games use a Ball 4 Fungo, where the batter tosses the ball in the air and hits it into play and runs the bases.

Like the Bananas game, the antics and music were non-stop, although our seats were underneath a loudspeaker and it was uncomfortably noisy. Watching baseball under black lights was pretty cool, and I was impressed that hitters and fielders seemed to easily see the glowing  baseball on a dark night. The daylight portion was dull by comparison, although the sideline entertainment was fun to watch, and the scoring didn’t get interesting until after dark, when the Glow Mojis broke open a close game by outperforming in the home run derbies. They won easily, although I don’t remember the score (and couldn’t find it online). Web link: https://chilipeppersbaseball.com/

CHS Field by day…

…and under black lights

An impromptu pickleball game in left field

Bonus Question Answer: The Puma concolor, known as the cougar, puma, catamount, panther, mountain lion and more than 35 other regional names in English alone, is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as having more names than any other animal. 

Road (and Water) Trip: Michigan

Kathleen was competing in a rowing regatta, specifically the USRowing Masters National Championships in Ypsilanti, MI, and I decided to tag along. At my suggestion, we took an alternate route between Central Minnesota and Central Michigan; I’ve always wanted to ride the car ferry across Lake Michigan, and this would also take us through Lansing, another state capital that I haven’t been to, and avoid weekday traffic around Chicago. Win-win-win!

Wednesday, July 15: We left St. Paul at 7:30 AM and encountered thick smoke from Ontario and Minnesota wildfires and plenty of lane closures and other Wisconsin road construction. At 1:00 PM, we arrived in Manitowoc, which means “spirit land” in the Ojibwe and Menominee languages. French fur traders were the first Europeans here and the area was a shipbuilding center from the 1840s through the 1960s, including the production of landing craft, tankers and submarines during World War II. Manitowoc is also locally famous for the September 1962 crash landing of a 20 pound chunk of the Soviet satellite Sputnik IV in the middle of North 8th Street. The town still commemorates the event with its annual Sputnikfest in September. Map link: Manitowoc, WI

Our ferry, the 410-foot SS Badger, was launched in 1952 and is the last operating coal-fired passenger vessel in the United States. Originally built for the year-round transport of railroad cars, it is a historic and popular way for people and vehicles to cross the 62 miles of Lake Michigan between Manitowoc and Ludington, MI, from May through October. We joined the line of cars at the pier, then parked and left the keys in the ignition—you're not allowed to drive your own vehicle on and off the ferry. After walking aboard, we settled in at a table in the main lounge, got some lunch at one of the two restaurants, then read, relaxed and watched the spirited Badger Bingo competition in the lounge. The seas were calm and the ride was smooth, with the steady rumble of the engines always in the background. Although the wildfire smoke and high humidity kept things a little stuffy inside, the voyage was pleasant and one that we recommend. The trip took four hours dock to dock, and I clocked our cruising speed at 17 mph, much slower than road travel, and we also lost an hour switching to Eastern Time in Michigan. Upon our arrival in Ludington, we disembarked, waited about 30 minutes for our car, then drove two hours to Portland, MI, where we stopped for the night. 

SS Badger. Source: Wikipedia

Unloading in Ludington, MI. The sun was finally
visible through the wildfire smoke

Thursday, July 16: We were up at 6:15 AM, got ready, ate breakfast, then drove 20 miles east to the Michigan State Capitol in Lansing. Detroit was the first capital city when Michigan became the 26th state in 1837, but was moved to Lansing ten years later. A wooden building was replaced by the current capitol, constructed between 1872-78, with an attractive cast-iron dome and beautiful rotunda. Map link: Lansing, MI

 

We also stopped by the Ransom Eli Olds Transportation Museum, which didn't open for another two hours. R.E. Olds founded both Oldsmobile and the REO Motor Car Company (maker of the REO Speed Wagon), which manufactured cars in Lansing through 1975. Nearby is the World’s Largest Lug Nut, built atop a brick smokestack as a tribute to the city’s automotive history and overlooking the minor league Lansing Lugnuts baseball stadium.

Around midday, Kathleen received word that the rowing regatta was canceled for the day due to poor air quality from wildfire smoke. We continued east to Ann Arbor, ate brunch at the Breakfast Club, then went to the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library on the North Campus of the University of Michigan. Born Leslie Lynch King, Jr. in Omaha, his parents separated when he was just 16 days old. His mother, Dorothy, returned to her hometown of Grand Rapids, MI, with her only child. She later divorced her abusive husband and remarried a Grand Rapids salesman, Gerald Rudolph Ford. Although never fully adopted, the future president took the name of his stepfather, and was called “Jerry.” The only Eagle Scout to ever serve as president, Jerry excelled in football, posting consecutive, undefeated seasons and winning national titles at the University of Michigan in 1932 and 1933. Ford turned down offers to play professional football, opting for law school. He had his heart set on attending Yale, but was initially denied admission. Instead, he took a job as an assistant coach for Yale’s football team, and kept applying until he was accepted into their law program.

Ford joined the Navy following the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, then successfully ran for the U.S. House of Representatives following the war. He served 25 years in the House before being appointed to the vice presidency in 1973, when Spiro Agnew resigned after pleading no contest to felony tax evasion charges and under investigation for bribery. Gerald R. Ford, Jr. became the 38th president the following year when Richard Nixon resigned amidst the Watergate scandal. Ford’s popularity suffered when he granted Nixon a full pardon, suggesting a deal had been made, and he was burdened with raging inflation and the worst economic recession since the Great Depression. He narrowly defeated Ronald Reagan for the Republican nomination, lost his 1976 reelection bid to Jimmy Carter, and remains the only person ever to serve as U.S. president and vice president without being elected to either office. Map link: Ann Arbor, MI

Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library

After the Ford library, we took a driving tour of the University of Michigan’s sprawling campus, picked up some groceries, checked into our motel room in Ypsilanti, napped, read, then went to dinner at Basil Babe, where we enjoyed some excellent Thai food. 

Friday, July 17:  Today’s air quality was improved, but only from “Dangerous” to “Very Unhealthy,” and the rowing regatta was understandably canceled for a second day. We ran an errand at Target, then hung out at the public library until lunchtime. 

Originally called Woodruff’s Grove, Ypsilanti was renamed in 1829 after Demetrios Ypsilantis, a hero in the Greek War of Independence from the Ottoman Empire, which ended the same year. Called “Ypsi” by locals, the city of 20,000 once produced textiles, automobiles and aircraft in great numbers. During World War II, The Ford Company’s Willow Run plant rapidly converted to aviation manufacturing and at its peak was producing one B-24 Liberator bomber every hour. The 65-acre plant paid men and women equal wages, and claims to be the inspiration for “Rosie the Riveter,” the iconic representation of the millions of American women who took industrial jobs in factories and shipyards during the war. While the identity of the actual Rosie is debated, one of the likely candidates was the Willow Run factory’s Rose Will Monroe, a riveter who was featured in a promotional film about the war effort at home. Ypsi is home to Eastern Michigan University, opened in 1849 as the state’s first teachers college, and the first Domino’s Pizza restaurant started here in 1960 and their world headquarters is in nearby Ann Arbor. One of Ypsilanti’s most visible features is its 1890 water tower, located on the highest point in town, with a marble bust of Demetrios Ypsilantis at the base. Its unique shape is the source of much titillation—known as “the Brick Dick,” it was named the “World’s Most Phallic Building” by Cabinet Magazine in 2003. Map link: Ypsilanti, MI

We ate lunch at the Public House in Monroe, where Michigan’s famous cherries were on the menu, then spent the afternoon at River Raisin National Battlefield Park, about 30 miles to the southeast on Lake Erie. The battlefield was the site of America’s greatest defeat during the War of 1812 and a place that galvanized the country’s commitment to removing natives from their homelands. In January 1813, the British and their American Indian Confederation allies, led by Shawnee Chief Tecumseh, launched a surprise counterattack after being trapped at Frenchtown along the Raisin River. Nearly 400 American soldiers were killed in the fighting, with hundreds more captured. The next morning, many of the wounded captives were murdered by indigenous warriors, who had sided with the British on the promise that their lands would be protected if victorious. The killing of so many U.S. soldiers, especially prisoners, was unacceptable to the American public, and “Remember the Raisin!” became a rallying cry for troops at the Battle of the Thames in Ontario, the final engagement of the war and led by General William Henry Harrison, hero of Tippecanoe in Indiana and later our 9th president. As one historian at the park put it: “When the Americans won it was a great victory, when the Indians won it was a massacre.” The enduring hatred towards natives, calls for revenge and the desire for western expansion culminated in the Indian Removal Act of 1830, signed by President Andrew Jackson and was followed by the systematic, forced relocation of natives from their homes, known as The Trail of Tears. Map link: River Raisin NBP, Monroe, MI

The University of Michigan Rowing Team offered up their indoor, air-conditioned training facility in Ann Arbor for competitors to get some exercise during the regatta postponement, and Kathleen took advantage of it. Afterwards, we ate dinner at Tikalito in Ypsilanti, feasting on delicious Central American food, ordering off of a menu written in Spanish. 

Bonus Question: What word following “push-up” anagrams to a word following “pull-up”? (answer at end of post)

Saturday, July 18: The air quality was good enough today and the regatta was a go, with postponed races from Thursday and Friday tacked on to the end of the weekend schedule. It was still hot and humid, with the wind forecast to build, but the morning heats began on time. We went to the venue, located at Ford Lake Park in Ypsilanti, met two of Kathleen’s teammates and confirmed the schedule. She wasn’t racing until the late afternoon, so Kathleen and I spent the rest of the morning sightseeing in Detroit, 20 miles to the east. On Interstate 94, we drove past the world’s biggest tire, an 80-foot structure originally built as a Ferris wheel for the 1964 World’s Fair in New York City. 

Detroit, population 650,000, is the largest city in Michigan, and means “strait” in French. It lies across the Detroit River from Windsor, Ontario—the waterway was once the busiest in the world and remains an important commercial shipping route, connecting Lake Erie to the south and Lake Huron to the north, via Lake St. Clair. Detroit grew rapidly in the first half of the 20th Century as the American automobile industry boomed, but fell into a long decline, which continues today, as globalization, deindustrialization and suburbanization drove jobs and residents out of the city. Detroit became a poster child for urban decay as its population declined 65% from its 1950 peak and in 2013 became the biggest U.S. city to file for bankruptcy. Map link: Detroit, MI

Our first stop was the Detroit Institute of Arts, in a sparkling neighborhood full of museums, historical buildings and the campus of Wayne State University. Our main interest in going there there was an atrium covered with 27 murals painted by Diego Rivera in 1932 with Detroit industries as the subject. The stunning frescoes were the busiest exhibit that we saw during our short stay at the large and beautiful museum.  

Next we visited the Detroit Masonic Temple, the largest in the world since 1939, when the Chicago Temple was demolished. Built in the 1920s, the 16-story, neo-Gothic complex houses three theaters, three ballrooms, a drill hall, multiple banquet and dining halls, offices, lodge rooms, a swimming pool, gymnasium, handball court, bowling alley and pool hall. 

We crossed town to see Michigan Central Station, the city’s former main passenger rail depot. Built in a hurry after the previous station burned down, it was dedicated and opened in 1914 before being fully finished, was the world’s tallest railroad station when completed  and remained in service until 1988. After closing, the building fell into serious disrepair, and became an embarrassing example of Detroit’s downfall until it was purchased in 2018 by the Ford Family and converted into an event center. When we visited, a large Indian wedding was taking place in the main hall, reminding us of our amazing trip to India last year for Danielle and Jay’s nuptials. (post link: DragonflyBoating: India Wedding, Jan 8, 2025)

We drove into the heart of Detroit, stopping at one of three monuments to boxing legend Joe Louis; this one a 24-foot, 5,000 pound bronze fist and forearm sculpture on a downtown boulevard. The grandchild of slaves, Joseph Louis Barrow was born in Alabama in 1914. His family was part of the Great Migration, moving to Detroit after being terrorized by the Ku Klux Klan when Joe was 12. Around the time of his boxing debut at the age of 17, he shortened his name to Joe Louis, lost only three of 69 professional fights and was the world heavyweight champion from 1937-49, the longest reign of any professional boxer.

We finished our whirlwind Detroit sightseeing with a quick visit to Belle Isle, a 982-acre state park in the middle of the Detroit River. Originally called Hog Island by 18th-century settlers who used it for raising free-range livestock, it is the second-most visited state park in the country, after Niagara Falls. The island hosts an aquarium, museum, conservatory, nature center, swimming beach, golf course, yacht club, Coast Guard station, fountains, monuments and other attractions. Map link: Belle Isle, Detroit, MI

The afternoon was hot and humid, with strong winds, as predicted. I dropped off Kathleen at the race venue as gusts exceeded 30 mph, with whitecaps and rollers on the lake. Races were halted, then canceled when conditions did not improve; another frustrating day of rotten luck, and Kathleen had yet to row after three days. We compensated somewhat with a big meal of our favorite comfort food at Red Rock BBQ in downtown Ypsilanti. 

Whitecaps and blowing tent flaps

Sunday, July 19: The weather was not only acceptable, it was near perfect—light north winds, temperatures in the 80s, lower humidity and no wildfire smoke. Racing was scheduled from 8:00 AM to 8:00 PM, and I felt sorry for the staff, volunteers and referees who had to be there all day and then tear down the event in the evening. Kathleen and Donna Peszek raced their first heat in the Women’s G Open Double at 10:10 AM, qualifying for the final at 4:30 PM. Kathleen and I went into town for lunch, sitting at the bar at the busy Bellflower Restaurant. In their open final, Kathleen and Donna finished sixth, and then took the silver medal at 6:45 PM in the Lightweight G Double category. Yay!

Two drones provided amazing race footage

After pulling their boat, named Coop de ville, from the water, the medalists immediately derigged and loaded it on the team trailer, along with riggers, oars and other gear. As more boats arrived and team members got to work, I got to watch not only the loading show, but the United Kingdom’s RAF Red Arrows, who were performing in an airshow at the nearby Willow Run Airport. And for even more fun, a MacGregor 26 (like Dragonfly) motored down the lake at the end of the day. We left Ypsilanti at 8:00 PM and drove east for two hours, stopping for the night in the small Michigan farming town of Watervliet, which means “flowing water” in Dutch. 

Monday, July 20: We were out the door and in the car at 7:05 AM for the long drive home. Luckily, Chicago traffic was only bad at the interchanges, and we made good time. After stopping for lunch in the Wisconsin Dells, we were home by 2:30 PM, with another heat advisory—90F air temperature, 99F heat index and hazy skies from the continued wildfires in the Boundary Waters.

Bonus Question Answer: Push-up “bra” and pull-up “bar.”