I took a trip to Detroit for my bachelor party last weekend and normally you don't talk about your bachelor party, but there wasn't any lewd behavior on mine just some drinking and watching a lot of sports. I left Thursday night after putting my daughter to sleep and got to the Kentucky welcome center before taking a nap and finishing my trip to Detroit. It was kind of a bummer going through the Smokey mountains on I-40 at night since I couldn't enjoy the views, but since I-40 is still under construction from the damage from Helene driving that part at night would turn out to be very convenient. As much as like to complain about Ohio as a person born in Michigan they were doing nice work with a bunch of their rest areas being closed for remodeling and the ones that were done were very nice.
As it often is, my first stop was the zoo in town and it was a good trip since I met up with my brothers to start the bachelor party, but it's an interesting zoo. I think it's pretty low on my list of visited zoos, but on the plus side a lot of that is because it's huge and feels empty and there is construction going on and the newer buildings and exhibits are very well done so I think it's only a matter of time for the zoo to improve. The Polk Penguin Conservatory is the highlight of that being only behind SeaWorld Orlando in quality of a penguin exhibit and just barely at that. It has plenty of above and below the water viewing including two tunnels to watch the penguins swim over you and has some of the bigger species which look great. The reptile house is very well done as well. I like the round design with three exhibits in the middle circle while the outside wall has a bunch of tanks with smaller exhibits. A great way to display the animals and it was a great way to warm up as it was pretty cold out.
The weather did prevent some of the animals from being out, but did encourage some others to come out more and there was often inside viewing for a lot of the animals who didn't like the weather like the chimpanzees and the gorillas who have some really nice outside habitats they weren't using. The Japanese Macaques were moving around a lot since it was great weather for them and they were a lot of fun to watch. The peacocks were all over the zoo since they have free reign to go wherever they want and they had some great plumage to show off. The polar bears and grizzly bears were out and not moving a lot, but in areas where you could get great views of them to really comprehend just how big and dangerous they are from seeing them in person as opposed to just reading about them. The sea otters and the river otters were out and about in their exhibits and fun to see as well. It was a little early in the year for the zoo to be in full swing as well so a bunch of stuff wasn't fully up and running so I don't want to give a full review of the zoo, but even when I'm rating it low it's up against a lot of the best zoos in the country that I've visited so I wouldn't hold it against it.
After that we went to my Uncle's house and then a sports bar and then the Eagle's club which I should see if there's a local one and become a member, because an Eagle's Club is a great version of a dive bar in most cases. Not the biggest selection of stuff, but the price is great. Would have loved to play some pool, but instead we got in too many games of darts, which thankfully were the electronic version so we didn't have to do the math ourselves and then finished the night with some shuffleboard. Since it was my bachelor party people didn't let me pay for drinks so I put some money toward the jukebox and got a handshake from the bartender's boyfriend for playing “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” which isn't that surprising in Michigan.
We started the next day around ten to head back to downtown Detroit and started at Gilly's Clubhouse downtown where I was feeling the effects from the night before too much to really enjoy their menu, but I enjoyed their pretzel and had a smoky cobra, a mezcal drink, because there's no better way to recover from a hangover than jumping into the deep end. It's tough to judge how walkable downtown Detroit is from this visit since there were a couple of roads closed for the games, but we got parking close to the stadiums and that seems to be the center of the city now and from Gilly's it's a couple of blocks to Comerica Park to watch the Tigers.
Getting in was easy and we had great seats that my brother had gotten from members at the country club he works at so were were eight rows behind the visitor dugout. The only downside to our seats is that we were right in front of some people who were loud and 'expert' analysts about baseball so we had to hear their commentary which was very critical of Riley Greene which was very funny after he hit a home run. The Tigers looked awesome offensively and defensively to pick up the win. Comerica is a nice stadium and we had a great view of the action and a few close calls on trying to get fouls, but more often on catching the balls the visiting team threw into the stands after their warm-ups. The Tigers' broke a losing streak and it was great to see that happen in person. I find it funny the disparity between watching baseball live which is an amazing experience that I will always recommend while barely being able to sit and watch the same game on tv.
The showcase of the trip was tickets to the box suite that my brother acquired from a member to watch the Red Wings vs the Devils. This was a real mixed bag, because the experience of being in a box suite was amazing even though we saw the game where the Red Wings lost and blew any chance they had of making the playoffs after being first in the division before the break for the Olympics. It was interesting to be in the crowd when booing the home team for falling apart and making the playoffs, but I think it was pretty clear from the crowd reactions it wasn't directed fully at the players, but largely at management. Outside of my rooting interests it was a great way to watch a hockey game and of all the sports I think the sounds of a hockey game are the best to take in without commentary over the top of them. Plus there's something fun about getting a Little Caesar's pizza delivered in Little Caesar's Arena which is an amazing looking venue. Once you enter it's stylized like a street front you're walking down with the restaurants and merch stores looking like store fronts. The ceiling is all windows letting light in and it was just a cool venue to be in.
We walked back to where we parked and stopped at Easy Peasy for a drink which was fun to be overlooking the street while we enjoyed our drinks. They have a bar in the basement where the bathrooms are as well called Lowkey which was locked when we were there for a private event, but if you ever visit keep an eye out for that. After that we headed to the next block to visit the Brakeman which was a really nice bar. They have a great layout and have two different bars for beers and mixed drinks and a separate counter for food that way they aren't building up too long of a line at any one place. They have a really good selection of local beers including a few from outside of Michigan that are in the Great Lakes area. Definitely a place I'd recommend checking out. We headed back to my Uncle's and stopped at Kickstand Brewing because it wouldn't be my kind of party if we didn't visit a brewery and I got a nice flight as well as a souvenir glass and a really comfy hoody.
On the way home I got to enjoy the Smokey Mountains more as I-40 was much slower heading East and it's impressive the damage done from Helene several years ago and the scale of the construction to repair the road and prevent the same thing from happening again. Not a bad road trip for spending a couple of days drinking with my brothers and uncle and somehow escaping having a debilitating hangover to prepare for my wedding.
