The Detroit River

Last Sunday I drove downtown to catch up on some work at the office. After I parked, I realized that I didn't have the office key. I refused to drive all the way home, and then all the way back. So I decided to take a walk.

I walked south on Griswold Street until I came to Hart Plaza. I saw an Indian (Pakistani?) family speaking Hindi/Urdu/Gujarati or some other language from the Indian subcontinent. It was a large family with elderly people, young adults, and children. I wondered who was a cousin, and who was a grandpa, and who might have been a great-uncle.

Very few people were at Hart Plaza, so I walked all the way to the Detroit River. I was surpised to see that significant progress has been made on the riverfront pedestrian path. I've been hearing about the plans for a three-mile long park along the river, but nothing ever seemed to materialize. I guess they've finally gotten things in gear. I walked east from Hart Plaza all the way to Chene Park. Sometimes I would stop and watch the boats. There were lots of people fishing. I saw a few motor boats zip by, and it seemed like the people in them were in a hurry. I saw two freighters, both traveling east toward Lake St. Clair (Detroit sits at the point on the river that flows east/west; Windsor, Ontario is actually south of us).

I watched the people on the path. Senior citizens out for walk. A woman and three little girls, each on a bicycle. A few couples holding hands. Some people were jogging. When I reached Chene Park, I turned around and walked back to Hart Plaza, then kept going west. I saw a man sitting on a bench smoking a cigarette. He looked pretty unhappy, and I noticed he had a tattoo near his ankle.

I sat on a bench for a while and watched boats go by, and a group of men standing nearby and fishing. A little boy who kept making a lot of noise was with them. I don't remember what he was saying, but I remember wishing that they would make him be quiet. As I was about to leave, I saw a girl that I knew in college. She introduced me to her fiance, and we exchanged contact info.

The rest of my week consisted of meetings, phone calls, and worrying about the amount of work I was getting done. One day last week I called a friend and asked him if he wanted to get a beer. He said "sure," but we just sat at his placed and talked. I was too tired to go get a beer, and I didn't really have any money. I don't think he had any money either.

I will try to take my camera the next time I go to the river. I'd like to post some pictures of the boats.