I’m a big advocate of post-meal walk-abouts, constitutionals, digestive jaunts – whatever you want to call it. I like to walk after eating. Especially after having been in the car for 4 hours. So, after our so-so Batch Brewing lunch, Henry suggested the Detroit River Walk, as if I would ever say no to that. Right away, we saw a carousel, but it was closed. :(

I begged him to please wear the BooSeokSoon hat that I got him for Christmas, which he has worn NOT ONCE, and he was a big baby about it because he’s ashamed of his Kpop heritage, I guess. Finally, he agreed but said the moment I started being mean to him, it was going in the river. LOL ok, sure, Captain M.T.Threat.  I love this hat so much! I specifically got in a color other than black because ALL OF HIS HATS ARE BLACK, so now he uses the “it doesn’t match anything” excuse. Looks pretty complementary against his burnt orange shirt, if you ask me.

In case you care, BooSeokSoon (a/k/a BSS, a/k/a the gag trio) is a sub-unit of the Kpop group Seventeen. They actually started out as a joke but the fans loved the combo so much that they’re a legit sub-unit now with albums and music videos, and we love them in this house.

Boo = Boo Seungkwan

Seok = Lee Seokmin (his Seventeen stage name is Dokyeom / DK)

Soon = Kwon Soonyoung (his Seventeen stage name is Hoshi)

Here’s a compilation of clips from when they got to hang out with THE LEGENDARY G-DRAGON recently, and it made my Carat/VIP heart swell to abnormal, undocumented sizes.

OK now that I got that out of my system, here are more pictures of the RIVER WALK which is right across from Canada! (Windsor, I believe? I think that is what Jessi told us the next at breakfast.)

Some buildings.

Some mural.

For as many times as we have been to Michigan in general, visiting Bill & Jessi, going to concerts, etc., this was the most amount of time we have spent *in* Detroit. I really want to spend more time there sometime and maybe GO ON THIS BOAT??? It looked so cool. I love river stuff.

Henry is so annoying. BUT ALSO DOESN’T THAT HAT MATCH WELL WITH HIS SHIRT??? I am a big color theory expert.

Then we joined that pro-Canada, Fuck Trump rally that I previously posted about from our hotel room last Saturday night. 

I don’t know what this pose is and I look like trash, but I’m leaving it here though because of Canada <3 looming behind me like the big, beautiful sovereign country it is.

After this, we drove about 20 minutes out of the city to check into our hotel, a Hampton Inn near the Detroit airport, specifically in Romulus. The first time we stayed in this area, I made a joke about how maybe the next time, we could stay in Remus, but it bombed, as Biblical jokes usually do.

This particular Hampton was actually a pretty decent hotel, good job, Henry. It was nearly 4PM by this point, and doors opened at 6PM for the Onew concert so I was in a big hurry to get back downtown and find real food before that, since our lunch was more of a snack than anything else. I didn’t want to be Big Hungry after the concert and needed to eat something sustainable. When you’re an old person, you start pre-planning the types of meals you need to have based on the events you’ll be attending later. Love this for me.

I started screaming when we came up on the Fillmore!!

Little did we know that not only was a baseball game JUST letting out, but it was a double-header so it was a chaotic flux of crowds coming and going. Luckily, we pre-paid for a parking spot in a lot right between the baseball stadium and the Fillmore, so we had that going for us. However, it made it miserable trying to find a place to eat because all of the people leaving the game had teh same idea. I am now super-familiar with three or four blocks of downtown Detroit and it’s much nicer than Pittsburgh, BTW – so lively and lots of cool & fancy shops. Pittsburgh could never. Detroit definitely does not live up to the bad rap it gets.

The original place we were going to eat was Detroit Beer Co. but there was a wait of course, so we kept walking in circles, with no back-up plan, me getting hangrier and hangrier. AND it was kind of chilly and I didn’t have a jacket so I was Mrs. Miz about that too. Then I got very mad because some older man walked by us and he was also complaining about the cold, so his wife goes, “Oh, it’s not that cold. Look, THAT guy is wearing shorts!” and gestured bigly toward Henry. Henry of course gloated about this and that did NOTHING to boost my morale.

We were going to go this fast-food looking place called Mister Dips in a super trendy alley. We were actually standing in line to order when my stomach started to preemptively cramp up on me – the thought of eating an Impossible Burger and then going to a (seated!) concert was making me have hives. In the end, I decided to leave and find something else, but I am keeping this place in mind for the next visit because it looked totally my style!

At the very least, I want one of their shakes!

I thought I did a pretty good job not “throwing a fit,” but I was definitely grumpy. We even went back to the parking lot and sat in the car for a bit before deciding to try Eminem’s Mom’s Spaghetti which is right next to the Fillmore. There’s a walk-up window so we were going to do that and just eat in the car like a pair of hungry, de-homed rats, until we realized that the line we thought was for the Onew concert was actually for the walk-up window. (Oh don’t worry, the Onew line was also long, but it was on the OTHER side of the Fillmore.)

We ended up roaming around again and this time, the Detroit Beer Co has no one waiting in the entrance! We got a table almost immediately and I silently thanked the good Onew for sprinkling the town with his Jinki magic dust.

I was so happy and content. I ordered vegan pasta which was light and just the right amount of filling. And I had this seriously delicious IPA from actually some other brewery, not Detroit Beer haha. It was M-43 N.E. from Old Nation Brewing Co. and now I would like to go visit their establishment sometime!

I really liked the vibe of this place. We were seated by a busboy who reminded me of a younger, nerdier version of Henry’s son Robbie. He was really nice and I felt so bad for him when these two SPORTS DUDES came in, sat at the table behind me, and asked him to PUT THE BASKETBALL GAME ON. The remote / cable / TV in general was really giving this kid a tough time and I sat there helplessly watching him. The TV was right behind Henry, who was in the bathroom, so it was just me and this kid locked into an awkward scene together while the SPORTS GUYS sat behind me and talked SUPER LOUDLY about their SPORTS KNOWLEDGE even though we were the only two tables in this corner – there was no one even remotely within ear shot for them to be trying to impress. I hate white men so much, truly I do. I glanced over my shoulder a few times and they looked just as I had imagined – a few years out of college but still hanging on to the glory years, bearded, big outdoor voices for no reason. The one – the loudest – kept  talking about when he was in Turkey.

WHEN I WAS IN TURKEY.

MY TURKISH FRIEND IN TURKEY.

I know, everyone reading this is like, “OK Erin but replace TURKEY with KOREA—” but I would just like to note here that at least I use my indoor voice when I am constantly reminding everyone around me that HEY GUYS REMEMBER HOW I WENT TO KOREA.

Been a while since we were treated to a COLESLAW MASTICATION shot. I wish I had more of these so I could make a “60 Photos of Henry Slawin’ Down” commemorative book for his upcoming 60th birthday. :(

Henry also ordered a beer as an afterthought, and it took our server (who was great if not slightly flustered) an extremely long time to bring it, and I was doing the big foot-tapping song & dance because it was almost 6PM and I wanted to leave and get in line for the concert. She finally brought it over around 5:50 and I was trying to make him chug it.

“This is not chuggable!” he borked, so I tried it and it immediately burnt the tip of my tongue which is probably a good indication that Henry had the right call there. I went back for another sip and I actually liked it so I kept stealing more sips to “help him.”

Overall, a decent place for pre-concert food and drinks! The pasta was very light and flavorful (and it had artichokes, which I love in pasta when it’s done right) and did not lay in my belly like a load of bricks so I was able to comfortably enjoy Onew and his heavenly vocals. (That will of course be another post!)

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